statism watch

BBC News
July 17, 2008

No decision has been taken to create a huge database containing details of all phone calls, e-mails and internet use, security minister Lord West says.

The Information Commissioner has warned that such a database could be a “step too far for the British way of life”.

Asked in the House of Lords about that warning, Lord West said: “It is very early days as to where we go on this.”

But the switch from traditional phones meant the “entirely new” communication methods had to be assessed, he said.

There have been reports that the giant database is planned for the government’s proposed Communications Data Bill.

That led Information Commissioner Richard Thomas to call in his annual report this week for a full public debate first.

Mr Thomas acknowledged that “targeted and duly authorised” interception of communications by terrorists and other suspects could be “invaluable”.

But he warned that people must still “stand up” for their “fundamental liberties” and freedoms.

“Lines have to be drawn somewhere, and there should be a full democratic debate about where exactly the lines should be drawn,” Mr Thomas said in his report.

“Do we really want the police, security services and other organs of the state to have access to more and more aspects of our private lives,” his report added.

Speculation that the government was considering collecting the information – including numbers dialled, websites visited and location of mobile phones being used – has increased because it has talked about “modifying procedures for acquiring communications data” in the Communications Data Bill.

Full Story | See Also: Bush approves surveillance bill | Mobile Phone Users Secretly Tracked for Behaviorist Study | Criticism for ‘UK database’ plan | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Opposition to proposed Swedish surveillance law mounts | Sweden sets sights on new ‘catch and release’ wiretap law | Secretive Canadian spy agency to get $62-million HQ | Canada working with FBI on ’server in the sky’ | FBI wants instant access to British, Canadian identity data | Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier — Congress Reacts | Listening in on the enemy: Canada’s master eavesdroppers

Emily Mathieu, Toronto Star
July 17, 2008

Tourism industry, security experts divided on proposal for high-tech driver’s licences

Ontario residents concerned about a new security card being created to meet tighter restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border should add their voices to a debate on the issue, the province’s privacy commissioner says.

“The measure that we are seeking is that it must be as secure and as efficient as the passport,” said Ann Cavoukian.

“If you have problems with this or any aspect of this, let your officials know what you are thinking.”

(more…)

Megan Ogilvie, Toronto Star
July 17, 2008

The world’s first “test-tube” baby was born 30 years ago this month. At the time, in vitro fertilizatio was hailed as a medical breakthrough, lending hope to thousands of couples desperate to have children. It also stirred up controversy, with some decrying the fusion of science and nature.

But since 1978, millions of babies have safely entered the world after being conceived outside the body.
To mark the anniversary, the journal Nature asked a group of international scientists what advances in reproductive medicine might be coming in the next three decades. The extraordinary responses, published yesterday in a special report, point to a new frontier in human reproduction.

The bold future of reproductive medicine

EGGS AND SPERM
will be created in the lab, making it possible for any person – regardless of age – to have children. The lab-made sperm and eggs would likely be derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, which then could be combined to make human embryos. IPS cells act like powerful embryonic stem cells, but are made from adult tissue, such as skin cells.Davor Solter, a developmental biologist at the Institute of Medical Biology in Singapore, told Nature this technique would allow both newborn babies and grandmothers to have children. “It could easily happen in the next 30 years.”

CORRECTING MISTAKES
To guard people from disease, scientists may insert protective or corrective genetic material into embryos, according to Alan Trounson, an IVF pioneer and director of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco. These “genetic cassettes” could cure diseases at the embryonic stage or could be switched on to correct an abnormality later in life.

DESIGNER BABIES
Doctors will be able to screen every embryo for possible diseases or perceived defects. Some experts have speculated genetic screens may lead to “designer babies,” with parents choosing specific traits for their children. But Susannah Baruch, director of reproductive genetics at the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University, told Nature it will likely be too confusing and complicated to sift through the thousands of genes in an embryo to put together the ideal baby. “None of us is a perfect specimen and none of our embryos will be either.”

ARTIFICIAL WOMBS
may be used to develop fetuses outside the body, a process called ectogenesis. The technology, which is currently being researched, could be used for premature births to ensure a baby, perhaps one born too soon to survive, continues to develop within a womblike environment. According to Scott Gelfand, director of the Ethics Center at Oklahoma State University, “at the moment, babies can only survive from around 22 weeks, but in future fetuses this could be extended to those that are 12 weeks.”

TRIED AND TRUE
Despite these predictions, experts admit most people will continue to rely on nature to conceive. According to Baruch, IVF will likely remain invasive, unpleasant and expensive. “The old-fashioned way,” on the other hand, “is cheaper and more fun and that won’t change in 30 years.”

Full Story | See Also: Scientists: Humans and machines will merge in future | Don’t blame right-wing thugs for eugenics — Socialists made it fashionable | Newborn Blood-Storage Law Stirs Fears of DNA Warehouse | Mobile phone inventor dreams of human embeds

Daniel Girard, Toronto Star
July 17, 2008

Initiatives admittedly ‘controversial’ but necessary to ease congestion in GTA, transit forum says

Already feeling the sting of soaring gas prices, GTA residents face the prospect of digging deeper for everything from road tolls and a regional sales tax, to parking at the mall or their suburban office lot.

And, while clearly “very controversial,” the consensus at a forum on regional transit infrastructure yesterday was that politicians and the public must at least be ready to ponder such initiatives in an effort to ease congestion.

“These are the kinds of things that are on the menu that we are going to have to seriously talk about,” said Paul Bedford, former chief planner for the City of Toronto and current board member of Metrolinx, the regional transit planning body.

While stressing that he was not talking on behalf of Metrolinx, Bedford nonetheless told 150 people at The National Club on Bay St. he was “setting the table” for public discussion this fall, after the agency releases its plan for regional transit projects – and how to pay for them.

In April, Metrolinx detailed a series of scenarios for reducing car use, in the latest stage of developing a regional transportation plan. The most ambitious vision would cost $90 billion over 25 years.

Queen’s Park already has pledged $11.5 billion to be spent on 50 or so regional projects to expand subway, streetcar, light rail and bus services by 2020.

…

Toronto Mayor David Miller, who commissioned that panel, has said he thinks the toll concept merits “very serious consideration.”

And two of his city council colleagues echoed those sentiments at yesterday’s forum, organized by Global Public Affairs.

Full Story | See Also: Ontario places vast boreal area under protection, 22% of province off limits to development | Get set – the future starts now | Today’s suburbs, tomorrow’s slums? | Oil, oil everywhere? Well, just maybe | Road tolls, a bitter pill that works | World has enough oil reserves, says BP boss | Is it time for toll roads?

CBC News
July 17, 2008

RCMP head, premier offered support to officers after immigrant’s death, according to e-mails among force’s top brass

Documents obtained by CBC News cast doubt on the RCMP’s sincerity in vows to get to the bottom of the Taser-related death of Robert Dziekanski, according to a civil rights group and the lawyer for Dziekanski’s family.

The case that ignited international debate and led to a number of probes into the use of stun guns by police forces, including an inquiry called by the B.C. government, an internal investigation by the RCMP and an investigation by the RCMP public complaints commissioner.

Dziekanski died after being zapped with a stun gun at the Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007, by RCMP officers who were called to help deal with the Polish immigrant, who apparently became agitated from spending 10 hours at the airport. From that day, RCMP e-mail exchanges obtained by access to information requests suggest the force moved quickly to create a strategy.

The strategy involved all answers being vetted in Ottawa, including ones described by RCMP Commissioner William Elliott as “tough or dirty questions” from the media.

But the e-mail exchange between the RCMP in British Columbia and the force’s headquarters in Ottawa have prompted questions from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Walter Kosteckyj, a lawyer representing Dziekanski’s mother. They say the e-mails call into question the RCMP’s public vows for transparency and accountability in the case.

A day after the release of an eyewitness video of the events leading up to Dziekanski’s death, the RCMP commissioner called the four officers involved in the incident and expressed his support, according to the partially redacted e-mails.

“I have just now placed calls to all four members. I spoke to three of the four,” Elliott wrote in an e-mail dated Nov. 15 to Gary Bass, the RCMP deputy commissioner for the Pacific region.

“I know this is tough on you and all our folks in E Division. Please be assured of my ongoing support,” Elliott wrote.

Commissioner’s calls a ‘big hit’

Bass responds the next day, writing that the commissioner’s calls “were a big hit” at the Richmond detachment where the four officers work.

In another e-mail from Bass, dated Nov. 24, he describes bumping into B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell at the airport, saying the premier also expressed support for the officers and the continued use of Tasers. Campbell said Wednesday that he offered support out of compassion for the officers, not as a signal he was siding with them.

The e-mails also suggest that a number of senior RCMP officers were worried about being crucified in the media but felt the four officers at the airport had acted properly.

…

Robert Holmes, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said Elliott’s personal calls to the four RCMP officers were inappropriate.

“I don’t know how many other people in this country who were under investigation for the use of force that they applied in whatever the circumstance might be, get a phone call from the head of the RCMP giving them a pat on the back,” Holmes said Wednesday.

The RCMP did not respond to questions from CBC News on Wednesday about the e-mails.

Full Story | See Also: Taser use could put police under fire | Inquiry says ‘insidious’ TASERs being used as tool of convenience, should be reclassified, restricted under criminal code | Man dies in custody after Taser incident involving Ontario police | Ban Tasers if RCMP doesn’t curb use by year’s end: Commons committee | One-third of people shot by Taser need medical attention: probe | RCMP firing Tasers multiple times at subjects, probe reveals | U.S. jury shocks Taser, investors, with rare loss in court | Tasering violated suspect’s rights, judge rules | RCMP willing to change Taser policy, inquiry told | Tasers pose risk to heart, MDs testify | ‘Peel and Stick’ Tasers Electrify Riot Control | Canadian police have been brainwashed, Taser inquiry told | Mounties censor Taser report | Taser group’s chair to defend stun guns at public inquiry | Chicago study calls Taser’s safety claims into question | Officer injured in Taser demonstration