Why are cameras off-limits at the port?

scotto

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Feb 15, 2004
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The Beach Strip
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Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator.

Bruce Mercer
The Hamilton Spectator
Brantford
(Mar 1, 2008)
Re: 'A Last Look at Eastport' (Feb. 26)

It's comforting to know the Hamilton Port Authority, acting under mandated regulations from Transport Canada, is jolly on the spot.

How dare someone take a photograph anywhere near the water. Are the ships laden with ammunition? Or do those waterfowl carry infectious disease? The paranoia of the George W. Bush administration is running rampant north of the border.

Someone once said, "it's not what you get told that's alarming, it's what you do not get told that is of concern." That certainly applies in this situation because no one is telling the citizens -- the taxpayers -- just why you are not being allowed to visibly witness port activity, much less record activity using any sort of camera. What happens if I'm stuck in the traffic lineup at the lift bridge, and I get out of my car to take a photograph of the giant lake freighter exiting the canal? Will I get a visit at my residence? Will my camera be confiscated?

Do these officials realize anyone can track the location and future destination of a ship in the Great Lakes, using a well-known hobbyist's website? Do these officials realize anyone with a computer can go online and link themselves to such things as Google Earth -- and sitting right at their chair -- zoom into any location in the world? So if it's not the lake freighters we are now banned from viewing and photographing, what could be so secretive?

Forum Photo- A new fence (paid for by taxpayers money) stops "trespassers" from entering the gull nesting area.
 
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