Steven Myatt: Leegal Exspirt

This is a long one. Grab a cup of coffee.

When the federal budget was introduced last week, there was a section that wasn't highlighted but which is rather significant. It turns out that the Liberal government plans on sharing tax information with police in more than 30 countries, ostensibly to track tax evaders and individuals funding o of terrorism among other crimes. From a privacy point of view I certainly have problems with this particular section and I imagine that there will be challenges in court. Conservatives are also critical of the section, though there are some on the fringes who might be taking their criticism just a wee bit too far:

Steven Alexander Kojak Starsky Ponch Baretta Gregory Myatt, who has been rather quite on the class action lawsuit front lately, gets a few things wrong, which isn't exactly a surprise. First the information isn't being sold. Second whether he (or I) like this section of the budget it isn't illegal. In fact it's hard to take some of these reactionaries' outrage seriously when they were fine with equally invasive legislation that violated privacy by stating that, "if you aren't breaking the law, you shouldn't be concerned" and further claimed they had no problem with the then Conservative government engaging in Internet surveillance (the then minority government backed down when the opposition forced the issue). Finally, it is clear that once again he has no concept of the meaning of the word "treason."

Really, the only think he manages to get correct is that he managed to string words together to make a coherent, if completely inaccurate, sentence.

However it was enough to rile the pitchfork and torches crowd, some of whom suggested potential solutions in themselves would be criminal and in posting them might also be problematic.

Perhaps the best way to frame this is as a fishing trip?

Myatt first picks the bait:

Having cast his line Myatt got the nibble he was looking for. His next post continued to let out more of the line:

Certain now that his fish has been hooked, he pulls back quickly on the rod to set the hook:

As the readers can see, some of the fish on the line began fighting back, so Myatt let out more line out to play with them, causing them to tire themselves a bit:

And it appears to have worked, taking the remaining fight out as he reels 'em in:

On Monday, to ensure the fish was still on the line, Myatt posted this:

He needn't have been concerned:

So today was the big day that Myatt had gotten his followers all hot and bothered for:

And it actually appears that he went to the RCMP headquarters.... where he waited:

And waited:

And waited.

But finally, Myatt provided an update.... of sorts:

I have to hand it to Myatt. He really has become quiet adept at manipulating his more simple-minded followers:

We'll see if he continued to play with his fish or if he will actually reel them in.