statism watch

Does the RCMP really need to helm – or worse, nationalize – Internet ’security’? Isn’t it a patchwork of private holdings? I’m pretty sure Bell has the resources to take care of their network without centralizing it under the RCMP’s care. Coming as it does in the wake of Britain’s (and Sweden’s, and America’s) announcements of full electronic surveillance of it’s citizens, this revelation is worrisome indeed. Be careful near those telescreens, citizen. The website for the RCMP’s technical security lab is located here.

Peter Nowak, CBC News
October 7, 2008

A national cyber-security strategy that will seek to protect key infrastructure as well as Canadians’ identities is on the way , an RCMP executive says.

Details of the strategy — a partnership between the public and private sectors — will emerge over the next few months, said David Black, manager of the RCMP’s cyber infrastructure protection section. The plan is being put together by Public Safety Canada with input from telecommunications and technology companies such as Bell Canada Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

“There’s a lot of discussion about what Canada needs to do about cyber security,” he told an audience of cyber-security professionals at a conference in Toronto. “You should be hearing elements of that strategy emerging post-election.”

Some details may emerge at a high-level security conference being hosted by the Conference Board of Canada in Gatineau, Que., in early November. A number of officials from Defence Canada, as well as Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, are scheduled to speak at the event.

The plan is likely to address a number of the issues the RCMP considers priorities, including identity theft, the evolution of cyber crime for profit, the protection of critical cyber infrastructure and the convergence of technological and physical security.

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Yes, that is actually their headline.

Kelly McParland, National Post
October 07, 2008

This editorial board traditionally has argued that, in the post-9/11 age, law-enforcement and security services should enjoy broad powers to investigate and apprehend terrorists. But even we are appalled by a British proposal, revealed over the weekend, to monitor the telephone, cell-phone, text message, e-mail and Web surfing activity of every citizen in the UK in the name of homeland security. The damage such a scheme would do to the personal privacy and liberty of law-abiding Britons far outweighs the benefits that might — theoretically — accrue to those charged with safeguarding the country.

What the British internal spy agency, MI5, and others are proposing is nothing short of a surveillance society, in which nearly all electronic activity by every person is monitored 24/7/365. All the communications activity of every citizen would be recorded in giant government computers that would churn over the information, searching for patterns that suggest an individual or group might be plotting a bombing, assassination or hijacking.

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The takeover of the financial system continues. The Federal Reserve has just become a direct lending institution to American business in addition to spreading the poison of the derivatives bubble into money markets. And that money they’ll be lending? It will now be based on these worthless assets.

Jeannine Aversa, The Associated Press
October 7, 2008 at 9:56 AM EDT

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday a radical plan to buy massive amounts of short-term debt in a dramatic effort to break through a credit clog that is imperilling the economy.

The Federal Reserve, invoking Depression-era power under “unusual and exigent circumstances,” will buy “commercial paper,” a short-term financing mechanism that many companies rely on to finance their day-to-day operations, such as purchasing supplies or making payrolls.

The $99.4-billion (U.S.) daily market for this crucial financing, which relies on investors rather than banks, has virtually dried up. Most investors have become too jittery to buy paper for longer than overnight or a couple days.

That has made it increasingly difficult and expensive for companies to raise money to fund their operations. Commercial paper is a way of borrowing money for short periods, typically ranging from overnight to less than a week.

The unstable situation has left many companies vulnerable. The notion under the plan is for the government to provide a “backstop” that would give companies a new place to get cash, the Fed said. The action makes the Fed a source of credit for non-financial businesses, in addition to commercial banks and investment firms.

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Dale Anne Freed, Toronto Star
October 7, 2008

‘I’m a good boy,’ autistic man, 43, tells officers after they Taser him in bedroom, family alleges

A 43-year-old physically and mentally disabled North York man and his family are suing several police officers, including members of the Emergency Task Force, and the Toronto Police Services Board for more than $9 million in damages after he was hit with a Taser in his bedroom.

According to the lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, George Lochner was in his second-floor bedroom when emergency task force officers came looking for his brother Silvano, who was wanted for allegedly threatening to assault his neighbour with a sledgehammer.

None of the family’s accusations has been proven in court. In a statement of defence, the police and the board deny all of the family’s allegations.

Police Tasered Lochner twice and beat him on his face and all over his body, his brother Silvano, 50, said last night at the family home in a quiet, middle-class neighbourhood.

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Jack Lakey, Toronto Star
October 7, 2008

Up to 75,000 homes waiting for receptacles will be issued pink tags to be used on bags

A lot of people expecting one of Toronto’s new grey garbage bins in the next few weeks aren’t likely to get theirs until the new year.

The city had hoped to complete the east-to-west rollout of grey bins by Nov. 1, when the new fee system for garbage collection kicks in, but as many as 75,000 households – mainly in Etobicoke – may have to wait as long as three months before their bin arrives, says Geoff Rathbone, director of solid waste management.

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Reuters
October 7, 2008

JAVA, Georgia — Russia will pull its troops back on Wednesday from the southern edge of a buffer zone inside Georgia surrounding the territory of South Ossetia, a senior Russian military officer said.

Russia has until Friday to withdraw all its troops from the ‘security zones’ it has set up inside core Georgian territory — adjacent to South Ossetia and a second breakaway region, Abkhazia — under a ceasefire deal brokered by EU president France following the Russia-Georgia war in August.

“Tomorrow in the first half of the day the pullout will occur of all six Russian peacekeeping checkpoints from the south of the security zone,” Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeepers in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone, told journalists in the South Ossetian town of Java.

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Martin Mittelstaedt, The Globe and Mail
October 7, 2008

Exposure of expectant mothers to phthalates, a common ingredient in many plastics, has been linked to smaller penis size and incomplete descent of testicles in their baby boys, according to a new research paper that found the chemical also appears to make the overall genital tracts of boys slightly more feminine.

The findings are sure to add more controversy to phthalates, a chemical that is added to polyvinyl chloride plastic to make it less brittle, and to many types of personal care products including fragrances, hair sprays and nail polish.

The research was conducted on children from three different areas of the United States, and found a strong statistical correlation between expectant mothers who had above-average levels of the chemical in their urine while pregnant and the feminizing effect on their sons.

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