RCMP Watch

Editor’s Viewpoint, Bay St. George, N.F. (The Georgian) - Well-known children’s author and cartoonist Dr. Seuss has pleased generations with his snappy rhymes and clever witticisms.

One of his most famous and oft repeated phrases is, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Maybe if Dr. Suess were still around today, he might feel inclined to reconsider.
Last Wednesday Jennifer Stoddart, Canada’s privacy commissioner, released a report that revealed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been unnecessarily storing sensitive information about Canadians in secret databases.

Ms. Stoddart said people could find themselves a subject of a file in these criminal intelligence databases as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or speaking to the wrong person.

She also said more than half of the files examined in the audit were unwarranted and many of them should not have been there.

The consequences of being a subject of the database could be severe, noted the commissioner, as it may impede somebody trying to visit another country or getting a security clearance for a job.

While the RCMP immediately accepted the report’s recommendations - which include re-examining the database’s files - Chief Supt. Dan Killam was quoted by the national media as saying only a single digit percentage of these files actually broke Canadian privacy laws.

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The day after the privacy commissioner’s report was released, the US government announced its intentions to shoot down a damaged spy plane expected to fall to earth early next month.

The official reason for the shoot-down was a concern that part of the satellite’s thruster tanks wouldn’t burn up after re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.

This tank reportedly contains toxic fuel, which could be harmful if it landed in a populated area. As small as that risk might be, the government said it was enough of a risk to blow up the tanks before they could do any harm.

Fair enough. However, US officials also mentioned to an international media outlet they did not want the satellite to fall into enemy hands. Why? Because the satellite was transporting a high-tech imaging sensor.

Another official denied this technological concern, as re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere would likely destroy the sensor.

Perhaps it’s only a side-note, but it is believed the US has never before attempted to shoot down such a spacecraft with a land-based missile.

Regardless, it just makes one realize there really are eyes in the sky; that somebody might be watching more than the enemy.

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While the Canadian and American security incidents last week are unrelated, there is a similar lesson to be learnt from both. Perhaps people should be more cautious in what they say and do, as those who matter might mind, after all.