By Lisa Vaas
Monday November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day.
Expect masks.
The Anonymous-affiliated are planning worldwide protests against government surveillance, as the following video declares:
As always, Anonymous supporters are likely to don masks with the image of their patron saint.
But for the first time, the smiling black and white masks that shield the identity of those protesters will be illegal in Canada (if the protest stops being peaceful).
It’s not only the Anonymous-affiliated whose masks will be banned. Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday approved a bill that bans people from hiding their faces at all during riots.
The bill, Bill C-309, was championed by Alberta Conservative Blake Richards, who said it was a response to last year’s Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver, during which often-masked vandals smashed and lit fire to the city after their team lost to the Boston Bruins.
Violators will be facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted of covering their face during a riot or other “unlawful assembly.”
The bill, which doesn’t apply to protesters at peaceful demonstrations, passed 153-126.