Member-only story
Big Brother Database
From the year 2000
Last spring it became known that the Canadian government had compiled a rather extensive database about each of us 30 million Canadians. With one click of the mouse, a civil servant could find out a lot about any Canadian’s taxes, health, criminal record, etc. While these databases have been around for quite some time, this is the first time all data was gathered in one spot.
Seizing an opportunity to look good, the opposition parties denounced this one big database as being “Big Brother.” The government party did not even fight this issue too long; they succumbed and informed us the database would be dismantled. The opposition patted themselves on their backs with this political victory. But was it a victory?
For some unknown reason, the civil service had a need to compile several databases into one. So they did, and probably without the government party’s knowledge or approval. They certainly did it without the approval of Parliament and public scrutiny.
If it was created underground before, it can be created underground again. If no one was punished for creating this database the first time, what is there to stop any one from building another one? I suspect that the Big Brother database was not dismantled: it is still thriving underground — known only to a handful of civil servants!
