I've a piece out in some of today's papers that grew out of some discussions I had with researchers at Queen's University a few weeks ago.
… a group of researchers are … taking a broader look at the entire surveillance apparatus used by bureaucracies around the world. The Queen's researchers are grouped around a new initiative called the Surveillance Project, set up in part by a $2.5-million federal government grant.
“The goal of surveillance is to limit or restrict life choices, life opportunities — for good or ill,” said David Lyon, a sociology professor at Queen's and the director of the project …
And yet, despite the cautionary tale that [Maher] Arar represents, surveys done by Queen's sociologist Elia Zureik suggest most Canadians seem content to trade away the potential dangers of a surveillance society in favour of the perception of increased security.
“People do not place a high priority on privacy in Canada,” Mr. Zureik said during a recent workshop in Kingston with some of the scholars involved in the Surveillance Project. “And fewer still know how and what technologies are used to intrude on their privacy or to protect their privacy.”
Read the rest of the story …