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Columns and Comments, January 31, 2012--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secrets
I know the world is full of deep, dark secrets. I became aware of this when I first became able to read all of the words in the Boy’s Own Papers and Chums . These publications were primers in British imperialism. The heroes were always handsome and intelligent young male Britons who washed behind their ears and changed their underwear every day whether they needed to or not. They always encountered villains with secrets. With true Sherlockian skill, they always penetrated to the evil core of every secret. In so doing, they were able to save the citizens of the Empire, wherever they might be, from every intended form of destruction and degradation. I was proud of them.
Decades later, I understand that real secrets are everywhere. Some of them are horrific. Many are in the sealed records of government, hidden from public view to prevent them from altering the accepted accounts of history and the true measure of the noble titans who were involved in them. Lies devised and published to protect public figures from careful scrutiny can endure for a very long time. I know of some which have been a part of a false record for almost a century. We would be wiser and better able to cope with the problems of the present if we knew what really happened in the past.
Not only does secrecy cloak the activities of international espionage, it hides the dangerous disease of corporate immorality. The fears generated by international terrorism have intensified the growth of the secret world.
Part of the strange scenario we see is the passage of privacy laws designed to protect individuals and the growth on the Internet of social networks which construct what I call “group minds” and encourage individuals to surrender their privacy to the group. Piracy has always been an Internet malady. It is growing worse now.
Some of the concerns for privacy go far beyond the ridiculous. This week I had occasion to send original documents to an insurance company with which I have done business for many years. Their claim form had a number of E-mail addresses, but I could find no post office address. I sent a request for it by E-mail. I also telephoned an 800 number, where, after a thorough grilling I was given the address I needed. The next day, I received a reply by E-mail. My request for a post office address was refused because I had not given my birth date and other details of my contract. This is nonsense in exponential quantities. The company has my contract on record. It is idiotic for a financial institution which does business with the public to keep its public address secret.
As a researcher in Saskatchewan , I have sometimes had reason to curse privacy legislation. Why should it be possible to access homestead records, but not the vital statistics records of the homesteaders.? Why should school records be secret, when newspapers account of school activities are not? Thus far, obituaries and tombstones are public records. I wonder if a time will come when there is a legal requirement to chisel off the dates on all tombstones.
The people who make and enforce privacy laws should disown the harmful lies of the past. They should also stop hiding harmless truths.
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Copyright 2012
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A WARNING:
Copies of this letter were sent to the
To Whom It May Concern
THE HARASSMENT CONTINUES. I AM AGAIN BEING THREATENED WITH LEGAL ACTION.
In 2009, I received a communication from
This was done without my prior knowledge and consent, but I made no issue of it.
In the autumn of 2010, I received a letter from the same company requesting an update of the information listed in the previous year. I provide a correction for one telephone number and signed and returned the form. Subsequently, I discovered that I had subscribed for a second year of listing. I received a bill for $1,500 Canadian from:
Industry and Commerce
By
E-46002
and a request that payments be made to that address.
I replied, stating that my company had been listed without my knowledge, and that advertising in any form in
I am now being threatened with legal action. This company’s letterhead bears a Canadian flag together with the title INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE, Register of Business Information. There is a web address in very small print on the company’s request for an update form. It is www.canadian-industry-commerce.com
When I attempt to access this site through Norton Safe Search, I find that it has been removed as an unsafe site. The reason seems obvious.
I have now received another bill for another year of service, $3,00Cdn in total, despite my final communication with the company which made it plain that I wanted nothing to do with European City Guide then or at any time in the future.
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Please read TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. This is an additional warning to writers , self-publishers and the Canadian publishing trade . This is an excerpt from a letter received from European city Guide S.L., addressed to my business name:
“We have asked on numerous occasions that you fulfill your payment obligations, as stipulated on the order with EUROPEAN CITY GUIDE. S. L.
Nevertheless you have failed to comply with several payment deadlines and we are now obliged to proceed with legal action as we can no longer accept your negligence in meeting your obligations.
Given that you have also failed to comply with our last payment deadline, for economic reasons we have decided to assign your case to an international debt collection agency”
An initial demand for $1,500 Cdn has since been increased to 3,027 Cdn.
THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY THIS COMPANY ARE OF NO USE TO ME AND I HAVE NEVER KNOWINGLY ENTERED INTO A CONTRACT WITH EUROPEAN CITY GUIDE S. L. OR AGREED TO USE OR PAY FOR THEIR SERVICES. .
.
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