statism watch

Flashback: Drug-sniffing dog plan for BC SkyTrain unconstitutional: legal critics | Random use of police sniffer dogs breaches Charter: top court

CBC News
April 9, 2009

The school board in Flin Flon, Man., is considering a policy that would require high school students to be tested for drugs and alcohol.

In a first for the province, school board chair Trish Sattelberger said the board is gathering public input on a draft for a drug-testing policy. She said portable testing devices are being used in the workplace and suggested the threat of testing could serve as a deterrent for students.

“We want to try and find a way where we can figure out who is doing this … and possibly get them the help that they need when they’re young,” she said.

Sattelberger said there are no serious problems with students being high or drunk in class, but students have been found under the influence of alcohol or drugs at other school functions.

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Flashback: French government accused of ‘Big Brother’ tactics over internet piracy

CBC News
April 9, 2009

France has become the latest country to reject legislation that would have targeted people who illegally download music or films.

French legislators on Thursday unexpectedly rejected a bill that would have allowed internet service providers to cut the internet connections of illegal downloaders after “three strikes,” or three offences. The legislation also would have created the world’s first government agency to track and punish those who steal content online.

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Flashback: China names 8 alleged Olympic terrorists | Doubt Arises in Account of pre-Olympic ‘Uighur’ Attack in China | Journalists beaten for reporting on separatist attacks in China | Pentagon Front Groups Release Laughable Olympics “Terror” Video | Bombs explode, Washington-based Intelcenter releases yet another terror video, China cracks down on transport security

Associated Press
April 9, 2009

Court approves penalty on Uighurs after two Tibetans given death sentence for riots last year

China executed two men from a Muslim minority group today for killing 17 police officers in an attack in the country’s far west that the government portrayed as an attempt to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.

The executions in the Xinjiang region come a day after two Tibetans were sentenced to death for arson during riots in Lhasa last spring.

Last year’s violence in Xinjiang and Tibet drew attention to anti-government sentiment among local ethnic groups, and the harsh sentences are part of a determined move by Beijing to quash separatist movements and unrest.

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So… we don’t know what the ’students’ were going to do, only that it was big and bad. So remain vigilant, citizens – report any suspicious activity. We’ll be seeing you again next peak travel season.

Flashback: Police arrest 12 in anti-terror raids in Britain | FBI Informant in British terror trial given immunity, proceedings raise question of what MI5 knew about 2005 London bombings | Terror accused refuses to discuss links to Pakistan secret service, family threatened | London terror plotter was ‘hardened’ in ISI camp | Terror informant names plotters | Former British Ambassador Says Liquid Bomb Terror Alert Is “Propaganda” | British ‘Terror Suspects’ Were in Contact With MI5 | Eight held in British anti-terror raids

Vikram Dodd, Martin Wainwright, The Guardian

April 9, 2009

Sources say attack would have taken place by end of Easter weekend, Gordon Brown describes suspected plot as ‘very big’, police guard addresses raided by counterterrorism officers

Counterterrorism officials believe an alleged al-Qaida terror plot against the UK, designed to cause mass casualties, was due to be carried out within days, the Guardian has learned.

A total of 12 people were arrested across northern England on Wednesday as police carried out a string of raids to thwart an alleged terrorist cell with overseas links.

Peter Fahy, the chief constable of Greater Manchester police, today confirmed that 11 of those arrested were Pakistani nationals.

A secret briefing note accidentally shown to the media yesterday outside Downing Street by the UK’s former top counter-terrorist officer Bob Quick, said 10 of those targeted in the operation were on student visas.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation – in which arrests were rushed forward after Quick’s mistake, which today cost him his job – say the execution of an “al-Qaida driven” plot was “imminent”.

UK officials say they believe the attack would have been attempted by Easter Monday at the latest.

According to counterterrorism sources, it is unclear where and what the terrorists were targeting.

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If your garbage is on your property by even one inch, the police should feel perfectly free to search it.. if and only if they’ve got a warrant. What’s to stop any institution from engaging in data mining by pawing through your bin otherwise? Think of the principle involved – the court is speaking of an implicit surrender of your garbage. But the surrender given is not for any and all uses – your expectation is that it will go, securely and anonymously, to the dump. By the same reasoning the court has employed, it would be permissible for an insurance company to check your garbage, or your outbound sewage for that matter, for evidence of health issues, certain pharmaceuticals in your urine say, if they had a ‘reasonable expectation’ (whatever that means) that they were being deceived.You’ve given up your garbage, right? It’s nothing a raccoon wouldn’t be doing, right? Just ignore the fact that raccoons don’t know the first thing about data-mining. There’s a good reason certain forms of evidence are inadmissable. But with the explosion in entrapment cases, privacy is just one of those pre-9/11 frills we don’t need as the culture slides towards fascism.

Flashback: London Police Encourage Citizens To Inform on Neighbour’s Garbage | Supreme Court set to consider privacy rights | Top court to decide whether trash is private

CBC News

April 9, 2009

The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal from a convicted ecstasy trafficker who argued police violated his privacy rights by searching through his trash.

In a 7-0 ruling issued Thursday, the court said Russell Stephen Patrick had abandoned his privacy rights when he put the garbage bags out for collection on the edge of his property behind his house.

“The bags were unprotected and within easy reach of anyone walking by in the public alleyway, including street people, bottle pickers, urban foragers, nosey neighbours and mischievous children, not to mention dogs and assorted wildlife, as well as the garbage collectors and the police,” wrote the court.

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