“The computers are down!” To this day, I can still hear the panicked cry go up from staff in the early years of computers in banks.

A bank full of people and suddenly contact was lost with the bank’s servers. The newer employees would go into shock. The computers are down, so the world has ended!

Then, we old-timers would step in. We’d direct the “youngers” to the paper reports that were sent with the previous night’s balances. We’d give a quick refresher on what to do, and after a while, the computers would be back on the job.

Four years ago, Rogers experienced a major outage that took down Interac. The world has come a long way since the early computer years, but for millions of Rogers customers life ground to a halt…particularly if they had no backup plan.

For Rogers customers, who had no cash on hand, there was little ability to purchase food and other necessities. Retail stores couldn’t accept digital payments. Have you seen how many people shop only with their debit cards?

Should something bring down our communications infrastructure, what’s the backup plan? Thankfully, there is a backup plan that banks and government have put in place in an effort to avoid such an event, but nothing is foolproof.

I really want to stand on the sidelines and cheer as our government prepares a plan, but first, there’s always the belly of the Trojan Horse to peek in before we accept the gift. We’ve heard a lot about Bill C-8, the “Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act”. This is the backup plan hidden in the Horse’s belly.

We all want to ensure that Canada is prepared to survive should a real problem develop, but Bill C-8 gives the government some fearsome powers. Is the tradeoff worth it, or should we be ‘standing on guard’ as the Trojan Horse is wheeled into the city?

Do you remember during COVID when our Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) spied on 33 million Canadians? Everywhere people went, the eye of the government was peering over their shoulder…watching them. That type of surveillance and more is what C-8 has built into it.

So, let’s weigh up the gains and losses. The gains will be that there are protections spelled out for our infrastructure in case of an emergency. That’s important!

But, according to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association the losses are huge.

• Government would have the power to compromise encryption standards, which threatens the online security of us all.
• Government would be able to secretly order telecommunication companies to create a backdoor in encryption programs, which would increase the risk to national security and privacy.
• Government would have the power to secretly seize sensitive, private information…without a warrant and without public or parliamentary oversight.
• Government would be able to collect and share private data between both domestic and foreign agencies without a warrant.
• The government would be able to force internet providers to cut off your phone or internet service.

Of course, we could trust that our government would never abuse its power, but we learned lessons during COVID, didn’t we? (PDF)

What plan have you put in place to ensure that you are personally able to function should our infrastructure be compromised? What plan have you made to protect yourself and your family from government surveillance should Bill C-8 pass?

As Ronald Regan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction . . . .” Where will freedom be in Canada at the end of your watch?

Join CHP and protect the rights and freedoms of current and future Canadians.