Breaking - Poll: Massive 73% majority of Canadians are opposed to Peter MacKay’s Online Spying Bill C-13

73% of Canadians oppose Bill C-13, with just 15% approving. Huge opposition among all regions, age groups, genders, and income levels. Even Conservatives oppose Bill C-13 by 62% to 24%.

“This poll reflects how Canadians have come together from right across the political spectrum to oppose Peter MacKay’s reckless and irresponsible spying bill,” said Steve Anderson, Executive Director of OpenMedia.ca which has been running a sustained national campaign against the proposed legislation. “Just a few weeks ago I told the Conservative MPs on the parliamentary committee responsible for C-13 that Canadians do not support this bill -- I even read them direct citizen comments. Sadly, at the time they chose to ignore Canadians and push ahead with this unpopular spying legislation. Tonight’s results reveal just how far out of touch this Conservative government is from its own supporters, who oppose this extreme legislation by more than 2.5 to 1.”

Anderson continued: “This government has a terrible track record on privacy and I hope this poll encourages Peter MacKay and the Harper government to pull back on their insulting and reckless online spying legislation. Privacy is a fundamental human right and a core Canadian value. We will continue to rally Canadians of all background and political stripes until these dangerous spying proposals are off the table for once and for all. The government has mismanaged our data security and it’s past time we begin to address the privacy deficit they’ve put this country in.”

Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff had this to say: “It is instructive that among the agencies trusted the least with their data are CSEC, which is in charge of collecting it, and the telecommunications companies, who are the ones who are legally permitted to supply it."

The full poll is available on Forum Research’s website (detailed breakdowns on page 10). Highlights include:

• 73% of all Canadians oppose the bill, 15% approve.
• Opposition spans every age group and is strongest among 18-34 year olds (78%) and 55-64 year olds (74%).
• 77% of males oppose C-13, along with 68% of females.
• Just 22% of mothers support the bill with 64% opposing - a remarkable figure considering Minister MacKay’s repeated attempts to frame the bill as about cyberbullying.
• Residents of every province strongly oppose C-13, with opposition strongest in B.C. (76%), Atlantic Canada (76%), and Ontario (75%). 73% of residents of the Conservative heartland of Alberta oppose the legislation.
• Opposition is consistent across income levels, particularly among those earning $40-60k (78%) and $80-100k (78%).
• 62% of Conservative voters oppose the bill, along with 73% of Liberals, 80% of NDP voters, 78% of Green supporters, and 78% of Bloc Quebecois voters.

Over 39,000 Canadians are speaking out against C-13 at http://OurPrivacy.ca

About OpenMedia.ca

OpenMedia.ca is an award-winning community-based organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open Internet. We work toward informed and participatory digital policy by engaging hundreds of thousands of people in protecting our online rights.

Through campaigns such as StopTheMeter.ca and StopSpying.ca, OpenMedia.ca has engaged over half-a-million Canadians, and has influenced public policy and federal law.

Contact

David Christopher
Communications Manager, OpenMedia.ca
1-778-232-1858
[email protected]

About OpenMedia.ca’s privacy campaign

OpenMedia.ca led the successful StopSpying.ca campaign that forced the government to back down on its plans to introduce a costly, invasive, and warrantless online spying law (Bill C-30). Nearly 150,000 Canadians took part in the campaign. To learn more, see this infographic.

On October 10, 2013 OpenMedia.ca collaborated with over 40 major organizations and over a dozen academic experts to form the Protect Our Privacy Coalition, which is the largest pro-privacy coalition in Canadian history. The Coalition is calling for effective legal measures to protect the privacy of every resident of Canada against intrusion by government entities.

OpenMedia.ca and the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) recently announced they will work together to put a stop to illegal government surveillance against law-abiding Canadians. OpenMedia.ca has launched a national campaign encouraging Canadians to support a BCCLA legal action which aims to stop illegal spying by challenging the constitutionality of the government’s warrantless collection of data on Canadians’ everyday Internet use.

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More Information

• Supreme Court’s historic decision on warrantless disclosures is huge win for Canadian privacy, places big question mark over constitutionality of govt’s Bill C-13. Source: OpenMedia.ca
• Bill C-13 would let authorities obtain private information without a warrant. Source: Michael Geist
• Supposed “cyberbullying” legislation will erode the privacy of Canadians. Source: OpenMedia.ca
• Canada's Lawful Access Bill Appears to Have Contained a Provision to Enable PRISM-Style Surveillance Source: Michael Geist
• Lawful Access back on the agenda this Fall? - Michael Geist.
• Data breach protocols deficient in 9 federal departments, watchdog finds. - [Source: CBC News]
• Internet Law expert Michael Geist on why Canadians should be concerned about government spying.
• In this article, The Globe and Mail describes the revelations about Canadian government spying as “disturbing and unacceptable”
• This document, obtained by The Globe through Access to Information, shows how Minister MacKay authorized a top secret program to data-mine global ‘metadata’ in 2011.