statism watch

Be sure to read these harrowing reports of 20 detainees as well.

Related: Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest — for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Tim, BlogTO
June 29, 2010

The G20 detention centre at 629 Eastern Avenue was opened to media today. Staff Sergeant J McGuire did the honours walking a few dozen reporters through the now vacated maze of a building. We were told that the facilities had been cleaned up a bit since the last prisoners were released but half eaten cheese sandwiches, toilet paper and paper cups littered the floors and holding cells and the stench of urine was almost ubiquitous throughout.

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Related: The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest — for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

John Cruickshank, Toronto Star
June 28, 2010

The G20 security strategy has been spectacularly successful at cocooning the world’s leading politicians and staggeringly ineffective at protecting the property and peace of mind of Torontonians. And the one, inevitably, led to the other.

By bringing in thousands of heavily armed strangers and throwing up barricades everywhere to regular traffic, frightening off good and decent citizens, Canadian authorities created a ghost town in the heart of our city.

Perfect for the political leaders. Protesters were kept blocks away from where the deliberations were going on.

And most protesters conducted themselves faultlessly as the global good and great met behind rings of gulag-like fencing and battalions of police beating Plexiglas shields with batons in a primitive show of might.

It was, however, less than perfect for the city, its businesses and its inhabitants. The only force that can prevent vandalism and mayhem in a city is the presence of its population. Surely that was the lesson every urban planner learned from looking south to the hollowed-out urban war zones of the United States in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

No police force, no matter how large, how well armed, how empowered to limit the civil rights of citizens, can stop vandalism in the empty shell of a city. Canadian authorities have proved that two days and nights running.

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A disarmed people are vulnerable, and at risk of enslavement to the expansion of authoritarian governments both domestic and foreign. Dictatorships thoughout history have employed gun control to devastating effect. This is the fundamental reason for the 2nd Amendment to the American constitution. This is a principle urban Canadians, who have been trained in a couple of short generations to quake in fear at the thought of a gun, have lost sight of. Kids in the US used to take their guns to school and stick them in their lockers. It was no big deal, the culture was accustomed to handling firearms responsibly. This, then, is the point that some ‘tea party’ types exercising their right to open carry at demonstrations are making. It is not a threat to shoot Barack Obama, as some moronic media commenters have inferred, voices quavering at the thought of the evil guns.

The stakes are very high when it comes to whether the citizens of any country are permitted their right to a means of self-defence, which is why there is so much obfuscation and spin around the issue. Which is why legitimate gun owners are demonized and police forces are directed to engage in tactics like knock and talk, seizures for minor violations of arbitrary registration laws, and bribery (cameras for guns) programs to encourage disarmament. This ruling by the US Supreme Court is a victory for liberty, but it is not an absolute victory, given that the absolute right of any citizen to act in their defence is now subject by this decision to any limitation local governments may dream up. It could be argued that this is a Pyhrric victory – it simultaneously affirms the intention of the constitutional framers on the one hand, while simultaneously restricting the right they held to be such an important check on the power of central governments with the other.

Related: UK doctors agree to waive privacy of mentally ill gun owners | Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | Liberals aim to put a bullet in bill to scrap gun registry | Bilderberg Wants Americans Disarmed And Dependent On Government | Anti-gun registry bill hits snag as committee votes not to proceed | Police groups join forces in support of long gun registry | Gun activists rally in U.S. capital | George Jonas: Mr. Bumble’s gun registry | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Parliament votes ‘in principle’ to scrap gun registry, bill moves to second reading | Tories move closer to killing gun registry | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | Handgun bans and the world of make-believe | No vote scheduled on Tory bill to kill gun registry | Americans stick to their guns as firearms sales surge | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | Harper urges supporters to fight long gun registry | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton promises urban gun control | Ont. premier calls for Canada-wide ban on handguns | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | A historic gun club’s final days | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | My gun, my right. We’ll see | Municipalities Join Miller in Calling for Final Citizen Disarmament | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Miller wants shooting ranges shut down | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

Bloomberg News
June 28, 2010

A divided U.S. Supreme Court said the constitutional right to bear arms binds states and cities, as well as the federal government, in a decision that raises questions about gun laws around the country.

The ruling, while not creating an unlimited right for individuals to carry weapons, restricts the power of cities and states to regulate firearms. A 5-4 majority said Chicago went too far by banning handguns even for self-defense in the home. The Chicago ordinance is now unenforceable, its mayor said, though the law stays in effect pending lower court proceedings.

The ruling said states and cities can ban possession by convicted felons and mentally ill people and enforce laws against bringing guns into schools or government buildings.

Chicago is the only major city with a blanket handgun ban, after a 2008 Supreme Court decision struck down a similar ban in Washington, D.C., a federal enclave. Jurisdictions with narrower weapons restrictions, including New York City, may now face new legal challenges.

The right to bear arms “is fully binding on the states and thus limits (but by no means eliminates) their ability to devise solutions to social problems that suit local needs and values,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court.

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“Police detain puppies” was briefly in the running for this headline, and really, it’s not as though it was much less worse. From civil rights observers to passerby to peaceful protesters to the, well, puppies, everyone was held for hours without reason. Earlier on the scene, the police actually charged a group, batons swinging, that had been singing Oh Canada at them. The police have broken their social contract with this city, engaged in blatant intimidation tactics and (literally) trampled our natural rights throughout the duration of the G20. New lines have been drawn in the urban psychology of the city, but perhaps that’s the point. Police Chief Bill Blair should be fired immediately.

Related: National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest — for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Drew Halfnight, The National Post
June 27, 2010

Riot police detained hundreds of people for several hours in the rain at the intersection of Queen Street and Spadina Avenue on Sunday before arresting a few and releasing the rest.

The detained group included protesters, several journalists, many pedestrians who just happened to be passing by and at least a couple of puppies.

The group was made to stand in the rain for well over three hours without food, water, access to bathrooms, rainwear or shelter.

Police did not issue a warning before corralling the group in a thin strip just north of the intersection and afterward refused to explain why they were being detained.

“Mass arrests are illegal,” Natalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said last night. “They are contrary to the presumption of innocence. They are arbitrary arrest. They should not be doing that. They know they should not be doing that.”

After a time, police began selecting particular members of the crowd for arrest. At around 8 p.m., the soaked and shivering detainees began volunteering to be arrested so they could get out of the rain.

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This must be another one of those carefully targeted snatch and grab arrests we’ve been hearing so much about – designed to remove the dangerous criminals that walk amongst us. Dangerous criminals like Guardian reporters, deaf kitchen workers, CTV producers, random people walking their dogs, people who didn’t even know what the G20 was, and yes, the occasional organizer promoting ‘diversity of tactics’ (code for moral evasion when it comes to property damage)? But does that justify dragnet arrests, disappearances and abductions, the beatings and catch-and-release tactics employed by police states worldwide? We all know that the answer to this is an emphatic no, when the real casualties are the principles that hold a civil society together – the freedom of assembly and expression among them.

Related: Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Invitation-only NGO access seperates media from activists at G20 summit | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Iceland Unanimously Approves ‘Wikileaks Bill’ To Establish Free Speech Press Haven | Pentagon hunts WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in bid to gag website | Michigan Considers Law to License Journalists for ‘Moral Character’ | Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites | Media can’t shield sources all the time, court rules | Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The G20 Summit | Secret Document Calls Wikileaks ‘Threat’ to U.S. Army | North Korean worker executed for passing on news | The Toronto 18 Publication Ban: Silence affects the core of justice | Obama Information Czar Outlined Plan For Government To Infiltrate ‘Conspiracy Groups’ | Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech | Canadian Supreme Court expands freedoms for media | Border guards are now Olympic thought police — Amy Goodman detained | Cuban blogger claims she was roughed up by state agents | Globe appeal to protect adscam sources before court | Obama: We Need To Bailout Newspapers To Stop New Media Taking Over | Canadian media watched closely in Afghanistan | It’s a great day for freedom of speech: ‘Hate Speech’ laws found to violate Charter Rights | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers “Political Extremists” | Should linking be illegal? | Top court to hear ‘Adscam’ media gag order challenge | Top court reserves decision in reporter confidentiality case | Don’t let media shield ‘criminals’, hearing told | Supreme Court to rule on ‘tidal-wave’ of press freedom cases | Fredericton police arrest well-known N.B. blogger on legislature grounds | Barclays bank gags Guardian newspaper over tax avoidance leaks | Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Publication ban law too broad, top Ontario court rules | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | UK MPs seek to censor the media | Italian Judge: Blogs are Illegal | RCMP lays no charges in Maher Arar ‘terrorist’ leaks, declares case closed | Human rights body to consider Internet speech regulation | Blogger arrests hit record high | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Shannon Kari, The National Post
June 27, 2010

Police officers tackled and detain National Post photographer Brett Gundlock while he was photographing protesters demonstrating against the G8/G20 summits

National Post photographers Brett Gundlock and Colin O’Connor were among the hundreds of people arrested at the G20 Summit. They were taken into custody at about 6 p.m. on Saturday while attempting to photograph clashes between police and demonstrators. Both men were charged with obstruct peace officer and unlawful assembly. Neither photographer was accused of any violent act. Instead, they were “amongst violent people,” and allegedly failed to comply with a police order to disperse, a Crown attorney alleged in court on Sunday. The two men spent about 24 hours in custody before the Crown consented to their release on bail. The photographers spoke about their experience in custody to National Post reporter Shannon Kari.

O’Connor: We were handcuffed. They emptied my wallet. I still don’t know what happened to some of our camera equipment. About six of us were put in a paddy wagon for at least 90 minutes. There was a lot of waiting. Then we were transferred to a large paddy wagon, more like a bus, with compartments and room for at least 40 people.

Gundlock: I have one of my cameras. One was dropped on the ground. Everyone in jail says they are innocent. But there were a lot of people who said they were picked up randomly. One guy, a computer engineer, said he was smoking a cigarette, taking a look at the security fence, when he was arrested by police. “How cool are you now,” the police told the man after they took him into custody.

O’Connor: We weren’t just handcuffed. They also put cuffs on our legs, around the ankles. Once we got to Eastern Avenue (the site of the temporary detention centre) we were put into makeshift cages. They were about six metres by four metres in size. For a while, they kept moving us from cage to cage, as we were being processed and the charges were explained to everyone. We were strip searched. It is all kind of blurry. Once we got to speak on the phone to a lawyer, we had some idea of what was happening and knew that we might get out on bail the next day. We did not get any water for 12 hours.

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Dragnet arrests are an unconstitutional, immoral, heavy-handed application of state power, wholly destructive of the right to assembly. Got intelligence on a criminal? Get a warrant. You don’t arrest masses of people for fraternizing or whatever the supposed justification was here. Precrime arrests have no place in the country.

Update (2010/06/28): The GSU has come back in the media and called the raid an attack on freedom of speech. Their press release states:  “The student movement has a long and honourable tradition of supporting legitimate, constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms, including the right to free assembly, free speech and peaceful protest. The GSU appeals to all members of the Canadian public to help us protect those rights… As a matter of course, the GSU has billeted individuals in the past for many events, as have other student unions and universities. The University of Toronto was aware of our plans to remain open… The GSU categorically denies any involvement in any undemocratic activity and we call on university officials, the public and the media to support our collective freedoms and to release our innocent executive members with appropriate apologies”

Related: Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Brett Popplewell, Vanessa Lu, Toronto Star
June 27, 2010

70 arrested in police raid at U of T grad student building

University of Toronto administrators are hauling in leaders of their Graduate Student Union Monday to explain why a union-run campus building was used to house out-of- town protesters over the weekend.

Police raided the GSU building around 10 a.m. Sunday and arrested about 70 people, many of them in possession of black clothing and “weapons of opportunity,” such as rocks, bricks and sharpened stakes.

It was the same style of clothing and weaponry used by the Black Bloc during the violent rampage that ripped through the downtown core Saturday.

Most of the university’s campus had been ordered closed by administration during the summit, but the GSU, which represents about 14,000 graduate students, turned its gym into a makeshift hostel for out-of-town student protesters. The café and adjoining pub were also to be closed, but those sleeping inside the two-storey redbrick GSU were given access to food and water by the union.

“People were being billeted in our gymnasium,” explained GSU spokesperson Anton Neschadim. “It was for a very limited number of people, less than 60 or 70 people.”

A GSU executive – Daniel Vandervoort – was to have been on the premises at all times.

What actually transpired inside the GSU this weekend remains somewhat unclear, even to union leaders, who have not been able to contact Vandervoort and believe him to be among those detained.

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Related: CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Iceland Unanimously Approves ‘Wikileaks Bill’ To Establish Free Speech Press Haven | Pentagon hunts WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in bid to gag website | Michigan Considers Law to License Journalists for ‘Moral Character’ | Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites | Media can’t shield sources all the time, court rules | Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The G20 Summit | Secret Document Calls Wikileaks ‘Threat’ to U.S. Army | North Korean worker executed for passing on news | The Toronto 18 Publication Ban: Silence affects the core of justice | Obama Information Czar Outlined Plan For Government To Infiltrate ‘Conspiracy Groups’ | Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech | Canadian Supreme Court expands freedoms for media | Border guards are now Olympic thought police — Amy Goodman detained | Cuban blogger claims she was roughed up by state agents | Globe appeal to protect adscam sources before court | Obama: We Need To Bailout Newspapers To Stop New Media Taking Over | Canadian media watched closely in Afghanistan | It’s a great day for freedom of speech: ‘Hate Speech’ laws found to violate Charter Rights | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers “Political Extremists” | Should linking be illegal? | Top court to hear ‘Adscam’ media gag order challenge | Top court reserves decision in reporter confidentiality case | Don’t let media shield ‘criminals’, hearing told | Supreme Court to rule on ‘tidal-wave’ of press freedom cases | Fredericton police arrest well-known N.B. blogger on legislature grounds | Barclays bank gags Guardian newspaper over tax avoidance leaks | Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Publication ban law too broad, top Ontario court rules | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | UK MPs seek to censor the media | Italian Judge: Blogs are Illegal | RCMP lays no charges in Maher Arar ‘terrorist’ leaks, declares case closed | Human rights body to consider Internet speech regulation | Blogger arrests hit record high | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Olivia Ward, The Toronto Star
June 26, 2010

Ottawa’s plan aimed at quelling critics, NGOs suggest

Toronto has become used to G20 barriers, but prominent charities say that Ottawa has blocked them from reaching the international media with messages that criticize global governments.

“This is different from other summits that have opened up more and more,” says John Ruthrauff of Washington-based InterAction, a coalition of 150 relief and development groups, which cancelled its delegation out of frustration with lack of media access. “It’s taken a step backward.”

At most summits, Ruthrauff says, NGOs can mix and mingle easily with mainstream media, airing their critiques of the meeting’s progress. But in Toronto, they have been split into two camps, with the mainstream international media headquarters across the street from the non-traditional media and NGOs.

Both groups are exiled to the Exhibition grounds, far away from the action of the heavily guarded G20 summit downtown. But NGOs and alternative media can only enter the international media building in the Direct Energy Centre by invitation.

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Related: G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | UK: Big fall in police use of stop-and search powers after outcry | Toronto TAVIS special police corps demanding ID on city streets | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | UK Big Brother police to get ‘war-time’ power to demand ID in the street | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Noor Javed, John Goddard, The Toronto Star
June 25, 2010

Lawyers say law’s creation is reminiscent of a ‘police state’

The first protestor arrested under the “secret law” that gives police the right to apprehend anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify himself has announced he’s launching a Charter challenge to the law.

“I take my civil rights seriously,” Dave Vasey, 31, said at a news conference at Allan Gardens Friday night. “I’ll be filing a lawsuit to challenge constitutionality of this dangerous police state law.” He said he planned to do so Monday.

Vasey was arrested Thursday afternoon while exploring the G20 perimeter with his friend and was questioned by an officer at York St. and Bremner Blvd.

When he refused to identify himself, he was held under the Public Works Protection Act, taken to the Eastern Ave. detention centre, a former movie studio serving temporarily as a prisoner holding pen, and charged with refusing to comply with a peace officer under the act. He is to appear July 28 to face the charge.

“I believed at all times I was acting legally,” Vasey said, adding he was unaware of the new law passed without publicity by provincial cabinet June 2.

Anyone convicted under the regulation could face up to two months in jail or a fine of $500.

“Our argument is that this regulation contravenes the charter of rights,” his lawyer, Howard Morton, said earlier in the day. “The charter under section guarantees people freedom of assembly, the freedom of communication, and this clearly violates that.”

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Related: Experts Draft Document Critical Of ACTA: Signatures Wanted | Pro-copyright bill group busted as recording industry astroturf campaign | Tories unveil tougher copyright bill, requires ISPs to keep user info | Copyright Act changes to be revealed today | India Gearing Up To Fight ACTA; Seeking Other, Like-Minded, Countries | Google attorney slams ACTA copyright treaty | Red Alert: New Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks | Official ACTA Draft Released, Only Very Slightly Less Awful Than Expected | The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots | Big Content’s dystopian wish-list for the US gov’t: spyware, censorship, physical searches and SWAT teams | Thousands condemn secrecy of New Zealand round of internet copyright talks | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | Entire Text of ACTA Treaty Leaks to Online Rights Website | Revealed: ACTA to cover seven categories of intellectual property | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | EU Parliament votes down ACTA global copyright resolution by overwhelming margin | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU — Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | MPAA Says Critics of Secret Copyright Treaty Hate Hollywood | ACTA Threatens Made-in-Canada Copyright Policy | More ACTA Details Leak: It’s An Entertainment Industry Wishlist | Six Days Left: Canadian Net Users Caught As Copyright Consultation Nears Conclusion | MP Charlie Angus on copyright: industry lobby pulling for ‘dead business model’ | Ottawa denies altering public’s ECopyright Consultation submissions | Security guards stop MPs, students from distributing fair use flyers at Toronto copyright townhall | Can The Public Be Heard On Copyright Issues? | Copyright Consultation Launches: Time For Canadians To Speak Out | Third stab at copyright law ‘reform’ to kick off with consultations | Time to slay Canadian file-sharing myths | Canadian copyright lobbyists leaned on “independent” researchers to change report on file-sharing | Think tank plagiarizes, pulls report on Canadian piracy | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Digital rights groups sue for access to secret ACTA treaty | Critics waging a cyber offensive to fight copyright changes | Canadian Industry Minister lies about Canadian DMCA on national radio, then hangs up | The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print | Government ready to drop copyright bomb | Transparency needed on ACTA | Revamped copyright law targets electronic devices | New Attempt to Align Canada’s Copyright Act with USA Coming Soon | Canadian DMCA To Be Introduced Tomorrow Morning?

La Quadrature du Net
June 25, 2010

A document leaked from the Presidency of the EU reveals that Member States are pushing for new criminal sanctions into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a few days ahead of the next negotiation round. The proposal stated in this document reveals how illegitimate and dangerous the whole ACTA process is, while exposing the scary position of the EU calling for more repression of non-for-profit usages… and their incitation.

The ninth round of negotiations1 of ACTA will begin in a few days in Luzern, Switzerland. A new leaked text, dated April 7th, proves that Member States, through the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, are negotiating the toughest parts of ACTA. The fact that the Presidency is negotiating along with the Commission 2 by itself shows that ACTA goes way beyond the scope of a regular trade agreement. Criminal sanctions (jail sentences!) being negotiated and not debated by elected representatives in democratic arenas, is more than shocking. Such a blatant denial of democracy justifies by itself a rejection of the whole ACTA process, whatever the agreed text might be.

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Related: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers | US Senator: China Can Shut Down The Internet, Why Can’t We? | Internet ‘kill switch’ proposed for US President | U.S. seeks international organization in battle against cyber terror | Homeland Security’s Cyber Bill Would Codify Executive Emergency Powers | Lieberman Bill Gives Feds ‘Emergency’ Powers to Secure Civilian Nets | Cyber Command: We Don’t Wanna Defend the Internet (We Just Might Have To) | Pentagon: Let us monitor your network or else | US appoints first cyber warfare general | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | Cybersecurity event seeks to spur international talks | Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare | Canadian researchers reveal another botnet in China, call for state cybersecurity | U.S. cybersecurity bill introduced in Senate | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Should Obama Control the Internet? | Cybersecurity law would give feds unprecedented net control | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Mike Masnick, Techdirt.com
June 25, 2010

Earlier this year, we noted that government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton had been making the rounds ringing up the moral panic over “cyberterrorism,” without any significant evidence of it actually existing in any real form. The key to all of this was the hiring of former director of national intelligence Michael McConnell as a VP, whose main job seems to be scaring the press into repeating Booz Allen fear mongering talking points and attributing them to him without even bothering to mention that he’s employed by a company that is making a ton of money from this fear mongering. And, boy, has Booz Allen raked in the money. Since the fear mongering began, the firm has secured at least hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts.

Of course, that’s good for the firm, but what about its investors? Well, now that it’s scared the government and the public into handing over all this cash, it looks like its investors want to cash out. The company has now announced plans for an IPO so they can walk off with the cash, built off of scaring the public over a supposed threat for which they have little actual evidence. What a deal!

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