"We've always been at war with Eurasia..."

Politics on this continent got a little more terrifying this week.

First, the Canadian stuff. As jenjoou brought to my attention this morning, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler wants to give the police power to read your email, text messages, and websites without a warrant:

"The new measures would allow law enforcement agents to intercept personal e-mails, text messages and possibly even password-secure Web sites used for purchasing and financial transactions.

A law professor and privacy expert involved in consultations over the bill said a draft version of the legislation circulated this year did not require court authority for police to intercept communications or demand information from Internet servers."

You can send an email to Cotler.I@parl.gc.ca, but letters and postcards count for more. Postage to parliament is free inside Canada -- no stamp required:

The Honourable Irwin Cotler
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

The same address will get you Paul Martin, if you replace Cotler's name with "The Right Honourable Paul Martin". They should both be written to.

Meanwhile, non-Americans should be advised that -- as my roommate just posted on his LJ -- the American federal government argued in front of a court 10 days ago that people trying to enter the United States have no human rights. That is, they can "legally be seized, detained without charges, deprived of access to a lawyer or the courts, and even denied basic necessities like food."

The verdict in the case hasn't come down, yet, so no one's sure yet if that's really how the law works. But given the stories I've heard from friends and on the media, American customs is already acting like it is.

If the court rules in favour of the government, I think I'll be cancelling any future travel plans to the US :(