Bill C-51 is a lowering of standards for what can be considered terrorism in Canada. It extends the power to our domestic security agency to arrest people who "may" commit terrorism rather than "will"--what that means is a open question. It also establishes more powers to quell "terrorist propaganda", including the cited website takedown powers.
I think of two things when it comes to this question: the notion that you should regard relationships as "lines and not dots", and how to get meetings with people too busy to see you.
Now you might say, I'm a student, what could I do? But there's a lot you can offer, from your story and perspective to the skills you have. Even just writing from the perspective of somebody offering value rather than just trying to take it makes it easier for you to get meetings with the mentors too busy to see you--the kind of mentors you should aim for.
Starting a relationship is always easier than maintaining it. You want to make sure you could grow with the person you're reaching out to, and that ideally, the conversations you have with them will be mutually beneficial. After a while, you'll be learning from them and they'll be learning from you as well--if you plan for that relationship rather than sitting back and trying to grab a "mentoring" session you'll start seeing your thinking about mentor dots evolve into long-lasting line relationships.
My last note on this is that it's also a lot easier to learn from people if you're working for them.
To sum up
1) provide value to everybody you talk with
2) think long-term
3) work for people you REALLY want to learn from
I believe one of the key metrics for startup success is how efficient a company is at getting together a great team. There's such a balance between the time you need to spend here and the results you get, but if you maximize the results and score an awesome team, that'll make all of the difference in the world.
My name's Roger, and I'm a constituent of your riding. I've had the pleasure of meeting Margaret, and I want to thank you both and your team for the great work you do for the riding.
I'm writing because with each passing day, revelations are getting worse and worse about the surveillance capabilities of security agencies. Just today the Guardian revealed that the GCHQ, our British allies, collect webcam recordings en masse, including sexually explicit material shared between two consenting individuals.
We know the Harper administration is stuck as being part and parcel of Five Eyes, and that the CESC has conducted spying for the NSA, using Canada's good name for nefarious purposes.
I write this in the hope that you are aware of this issue, and to inquire as to what you and your party are doing with this regards, and what active efforts you will be making in the future to shed awareness about this creeping invasion on our privacy. As Canadians, we should be protected under Section 8 of the Charter with regards to reasonable expectation of privacy, but I do not want this to constantly shift because security agencies continually push us down the slippery slope Senator Church so eloquently warned Americans about during the Church Committee:
"If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.
I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."
Let me know how I can contribute to any efforts with this regards. I hope you are well, and eagerly await any response you have on this topic.
I think every citizen in the Five Eyes network (AUS/NZ/CAN/UK/US) should send letters to their elected official highlighting how concerned we are on the issue of privacy. I'm based in Canada, and I'm already drafting an email to my MP. I just don't think people can sit back at all now.
The Canadian startup scene to me is something where you get an interesting flavor for every city. I'm based in Montreal, and you definitely get a social enterprise and creative view that might be different compared to other ecosystems. The startup scene can only benefit from more money and resources flowing into areas where different perspectives and innovations can thrive.
"Russ Tice, a former intelligence analyst who in 2005 blew the whistle on what he alleged was massive unconstitutional domestic spying across multiple agencies, claimed Wednesday that the NSA had ordered wiretaps on phones connected to then-Senate candidate Barack Obama in 2004.
Speaking on "The Boiling Frogs Show," Tice claimed the intelligence community had ordered surveillance on a wide range of groups and individuals, including high-ranking military officials, lawmakers and diplomats."
"In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago."-Pentagon Papers Whistle-Blower Daniel Ellsberg
The New York Times, which has stood up countless times for freedom of speech and constitutional principles (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan regarding free reporting of civil rights violations without fear of libel, and New York Times Co. v. United States regarding the free dissemination of the classified Pentagon Papers) has once again, delivered a masterclass in defense of Edward Snowden.
I know some of you may have doubts as to the ties between the media and the government, but the historical record does indicate that the New York Times has had a flagship role in challenging government abuse on many levels. I don't see why it would not have a similar role in this debate.
I had recently thought about this very topic, and having spent just a bit more time than Krugman on it, and knowing a bit more about bitcoin, I find it somewhat interesting that we arrived at drastically different opinions about the morality of it. I have a rather more positive (haha, pun intended) take on it given what has happened with the conventional monetary system, one that Krugman and any mainstream economist would probably agree with: the system is (largely) broken, and we must look for solutions. If Bitcoin is the technologist's experimental solution, it is worth embracing because it delivers on change. Krugman's solutions will focus more on government force as a constraining framework, instead of extensions of innovation---but I believe at the core of it all, the "libertarians" he decries are also the same people he would agree with on the utter folly of our current banking/finance dominated economy.
You know, I was just reading a WSJ special on how returning PTSD-afflicted veterans were lobotomized...
Reading back on what happened to Turing and countless other homosexuals gives me those same chills.
What a simple pleasure it is to live in the era we do now. No, not everything is perfect, but so much has improved, and it's up to all of us to improve things even further, and to keep the momentum going.
I think you need to open yourself to exploring the option of starting your own company. Start by looking for a good co-founder on the side: once you find the right person to work with, the idea will be secondary, and this is something you can do job or no job. It'll let you start cracking at what I think is one of the hardest, if not hardest tasks in a startup setting: deciding whether to go it alone, or deciding what team one wants to work with.