Stephen Harper - Illustration by Donkey Hotey

Is the Harper government playing with fire? Subsequent to its recent behaviour, the question begs to be asked. True, the Conservative government is taking advantage of an obvious vacuum in the Chamber of the opposition. However, it must be careful to not purposely do anything that would breathe life back into the comatose opposition.

Evidently, the Conservative government has mastered the art of drawing the strongest of lines when it comes to matters close to its heart. This is especially true regarding judicial issues. The debates about the long-gun registry is one example.

The rhetoric is sometimes dumbfounding and provokes such ire among the opposition that it can only succeed in crystallizing resistance towards the government. It’s a risk that the Conservatives are obviously willing to take, since it seems, for the most part, to end in a desirable result for them.

A recent illustration of the danger the government faces when its rhetoric goes a bit far is found in the debates initiated by the online surveillance bill. As such, it unveils the government’s strategy, best represented by the often used saying: “you are either with us or against us”.

In fact the very name of the bill encapsulates the strategy. Officially entitled: “An Act to enact the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act and to amend the Criminal Code and other Acts,” the government gave it a shorter, more evocative name: “Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act.” At first glance it seems difficult to object to a bill which focuses on the most heinous of crimes.

However, the bill goes farther than its title suggests. It regroups all crimes committed using modern technology, namely, but not limited to, fraud or any activity with the goal of destabilizing internet systems. The bill is not without its merits, but the debate on the fundamentals must be allowed to be carried out without any fear that those citizens who express doubts about those merits be accused of siding with the pedophiles.

Unfortunately the government has decided to play a game of political division from the start. Its outrageous declarations aren’t helping to raise the bar of the debate.

Yet – must we repeat it? – this approach is full of risks for the government. Concerning this particular subject, the government will see members of its own troops, members that it has been grooming over the years, raise their voice against it. This is ironic since the debate will be happening at the close of the long gun registry debate.

The government’s main argument, which allowed for solid support during the last elections, was based on the fact that the registry constituted a major intrusion into honest people’s private lives.

The government must readjust its aim when discussing the ramifications of electronic communications. If not, it might run the risk of alienating a number of its most loyal partisans.

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Translation Monique Kroeger