From Motherboard:
According to Citizen Lab researcher Christopher Parsons, these same powers that target journalists can be used against non-journalists under C-13. And the only reason we know about the aforementioned cases is that the press has a platform to speak out.
“This is an area where transparency and accountability are essential,” Parsons said in an interview. “We’ve given piles and piles of new powers to law enforcement and security agencies alike. What’s happened to this journalist shows we desperately need to know how the government uses its powers to ensure they’re not abused in any way.”
…
“I expect that the use of these particular powers will become more common as the police get more used to using it and more savvy in using them,” Parsons said.
These were powers that were ultimately sold to the public (and passed into law) as needed to ‘child pornography’. And now they’re being used to snoop on journalists to figure out who their sources are, without being mandated to report on the regularity at which the powers are used to the efficacy of such uses. For some reason, this process doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in me.
Excited Pixels 