Public spaces and privacy don’t mix
I find it hypocritical of your newspaper to rail against surveillance cameras to be installed at City Hall that may partially cover the Human Rights monument on Elgin St. in your Dec. 7 editorial by Corinne Smith.
Your position is that the cameras would constitute an invasion of privacy for people protesting or gathering at the monument.
In the same edition of your newspaper, on page two, you published a picture of several people exercising their democratic right with the same expectation of privacy you maintain the surveillance camera would infringe upon.
Are you not infringing on their privacy by publishing their picture?
Personally I find the argument that a camera monitoring a public building and adjacent property with public access would infringe upon someone’s privacy is ridiculous.
The point is, if you are doing something in a public place, there is no expectation of privacy. This has been made perfectly clear in the Criminal Code and upheld by the courts.
My position is: If you are gathering in a public place and have nothing to hide, then who cares who is watching? It makes no difference if it was a surveillance camera, a plain clothed agent of the state or a Centretown News photographer watching and reporting who was in attendance.
Ron Bos,
Lewis Street