By Bruce Pardy | The Epoch Times
Forget the members of Parliament who may have colluded with foreign governments. The real menace, the RCMP seem to think, are House of Commons pages. MPs suspected of foreign election interference should not be identified, the Mounties have insisted, but House of Commons staff must be fingerprinted. Serious threats to the country are hidden away, while innocent people are subjected to state surveillance. If you want to see how the managerial state (dys)functions, Canada is the place to be.
Summary
The RCMP might be reluctant to identify members of Parliament suspected of foreign election interference, but it is eager to fingerprint House of Commons staff.
This focus on staff fingerprinting, along with the push for digital ID and other biometric data collection, reflects a broader trend of government intrusion into citizens’ privacy under the guise of practicality and convenience.
The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) reported that at least 11 sitting MPs may have benefited from foreign election interference, but the RCMP commissioner advised against releasing their identities, keeping Canadians uninformed. Meanwhile, the RCMP has been advocating for the fingerprinting of federal civil servants, a policy that has been adopted by various government bodies, including the House of Commons and the Senate.
This approach, Professor Pardy argues, reflects the modern managerial state’s mandate to control the population while shielding the powerful.
Read the full text of this commentary at the publisher’s website here.