statism watch

Now we all have to read the damn thing to see what’s in it. It’s a little disturbing that this comes so hot on the heels of the US rollout of aspects of its new Einstein wiretapping and ‘cybersecurity’ program and the CSIS announcement that they’ll be undertaking outreach and liason programs with the private sector, exactly what this plan proposes. The reason Einstein is relevant here is that it too details ways in which the United States government will federalize and standardize the network infrastructure of what they regard as private sector concerns vital to the security of the state. (Note: The first skim through the index looks like it’s giving Public Safety Canada a FEMA-inspired protocol, in which the state is run by the government cabinet committee through the ‘GOC’ (Government Operations Centre) and its regional Public Safety offices in an emergency, but watch this space for more details. The question becomes – what defines an emergency, this document has just announced that the ruling government’s cabinet can seize power in an emergency, this journal initially reads it. Get involved! Read it yourself and comment below.)

Related: Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | Ask military to help with H1N1: Ottawa councillor | Public Safety Canada’s emergency plan not implemented: Auditor General | Canada’s military peers into future, sees drone patrols, draft, insurgency | Maximum Alert: U.S. Troops Now Occupying America | More troops on the streets: U.S. terror alert expands to transit and stadiums | Ground broken on $3.4 billion Homeland Security complex | Military helicopters over downtown Montreal for exercise | US Military To Work With FEMA During Swine Flu Pandemic | British Army to Police Medicine Hat During Urban Warfare Drills | Urban warfare drills coming to Medicine Hat | Military readies reservists for threats to ‘domestic front’ | Military may patrol bar zone in Barrie |British Secret Service, Army Alert on Bank Riots | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | Canadian military getting 1,300 new heavily armoured trucks for ‘domestic use’ | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | Troops in the Streets: Army Brigades Standing By to Assist in Disasters, Help Quell Dissent | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies | Harper pledges to boost military presence in cities |Ontario Police Chiefs travel to Israel to study police tactics

The Canadian Press
March 15, 2010

OTTAWA — The government has released an “all-hazards” national emergency response plan four months after it was chastised for not having one approved by cabinet.

The plan outlines the responsibilities departments and agencies have in national or provincial emergencies, as well as international ones that could affect Canada.

“It outlines the processes and mechanisms needed for an integrated response to an emergency,” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Monday.

“It’s also designed to co-ordinate emergency response efforts by federal, provincial and territorial governments, as well as the private sector and NGOs.

“Most of all, it will help to ensure that the government’s response to an emergency is seamless and timely and that key decisions can be made quickly when disaster strikes.”

Largely logistical in nature, the plan touches on virtually every conceivable natural or man-made disaster, from toxic spills and plane or train crashes to earthquakes, deadly storms and pandemics.

It also addresses government roles in tackling “cyber incidents” and terrorism – all in the name of protecting lives, property, national security and the economy.

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This journal has criticized Mr. Freeze in the past for characterizing the ability of Canada’s SIGINT establishment to conduct espionage on Canadian citizens abroad – first granted publicly in September 2009 – as the closing of a ‘loophole’. Now he’s back on the online intelligence beat, writing soothingly that CSIS is ‘reaching out’ to Canadian business in order to keep us safe from the newly devastating threat of cyberterror. To characterize botnets and hackers as a massive new threat to the security of the West is patently false. The net has gotten along very nicely, thank you, by organically adapting to new issues as they arise. Colin Freeze is simply following the talking points coming out of the mouths of Pentagon contractors (Like Michael McConnell) that are seeking to establish control of global information flow via federalization and nationalization of the Internet. A single article may not give one enough information to see which way the wind is blowing on an international level when such a massive project is underway. And indeed this particular CSIS program, establishing links between CSIS and strategically important corporations, is just one small indicator of the overall trend – but it follows on the American initiative to roll business networks into an NSA program through the agency of the CSE on this side of the border. StatismWatch has already done much of the research needed to collate this info – all you need to do to get up to speed is read through it. Please? Jesse Brown’s latest Search Engine podcast over at TVO, “The Enemy of The Internet” is also recommended.

Flashback: 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’ | 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

Colin Freeze, The Globe and Mail
March 8, 2010

As economic espionage and hacking become growing threats to the West, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is stepping up efforts to persuade businesses to safeguard secrets deemed vital to national interests.

CSIS’s corporate-outreach program, which started in the 1990s, largely fell by the wayside during the years after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, when fighting terrorism absorbed nearly all the spy service’s energies.

But emerging threats – including shadowy-but-powerful hacker networks based in China – are sparking a renewed federal interest in forging partnerships between the corporate and intelligence worlds.

“CSIS has and continues to speak with various corporations in Canada on potential security threats, which may have an impact on national security interests,” CSIS spokeswoman Isabelle Scott said in an e-mailed response to questions from The Globe and Mail. “CSIS alerts firms to common covert methods used by those who may target them.”

She did not elaborate on which hostile entities may be targeting Canada, and added that any information shared during briefing sessions with corporations is confidential.

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Flashback: The Federal Reserve as Giant Counterfeiter | Americans Deserve a Transparent Federal Reserve | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | Federal Reserve Appeals Order to Disclose Emergency Bank Loans | Judge Orders Federal Reserve To Disclose Who Received Bailout Trillions | Former NY governor Spitzer: Federal Reserve is ‘a Ponzi scheme, an inside job’ | Hands off the Fed, Bernanke warns Congress | US Senate Blocks Bill To Audit The Fed As Government Prepares For Second Round Of Looting | Congressman Ron Paul Slams Federal Reserve’s New Dictatorial Powers | Federal Reserve To Be Given Sweeping New Powers | HR 1207: Battle To Audit The Fed Has Only Just Begun | Geithner Said to Have Prevailed on the Bailout | Banks won’t say where U.S. bailout money going | Paulson, Bernanke defend change of plan: $700-billion now to be given directly to banks | Congress Accuses Federal Reserve Bagman Of Bailout “Bait and Switch” During Angry Hearing | U.S. government won’t use bailout fund to buy troubled assets | The Bush gang’s parting gift: a final, frantic looting of public wealth | Why Paulson’s Plan is a Fraud | Congressman Ron Paul: Bailout Will Destroy Dollar, World Economy | Congressman Ron Paul Schools Fed Chairman Bernanke on the Bailout Plan

Scott Lanman, Alison Vekshin, Bloomberg
February 26, 2010

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke renewed his push to keep bank-supervision authority as some senators expressed support and others wavered.

Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee that it would be a “grave mistake” to remove the Fed’s authority to oversee banks, as the panel’s chairman, Christopher Dodd, has proposed.

Democrat Evan Bayh of Indiana and Republicans Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Mike Johanns of Nebraska, on Capitol Hill yesterday for a committee hearing with Bernanke, said they support Bernanke’s position. Rhode Island’s Jack Reed suggested the Fed may lose at least some of its authority.

“I don’t think it’s going to maintain its current role completely,” Reed, a Democrat, told reporters after the hearing.

There’s an “emerging consensus” on the panel to move the Fed’s regulation of smaller banks to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. At the same time, there is a “real substantive question” about the Fed’s role in overseeing large firms and its position on a council of regulators that would monitor risks to the financial system, Reed said.

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Flashback: Conservatives accused of hiding information | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

Jeff Davis, The Hill Times
February 22, 2010

PMO urged staffers to pare down Access to Information documents before release.

Access to information: Dimitri Soudas, press secretary to the Prime Minister, pictured last month. Mr. Soudas recently told Cabinet staffers that adherence to the Access to Information Act ‘is a condition of continued employment within this government.’

Cabinet ministers’ offices had been under orders to pressure bureaucrats to pare down the amount of information released under the Access to Information Act up until The Canadian Press recently broke the story on how one political staffer killed the release of a document, forcing the Prime Minister’s Office to get involved and to do some damage control, says one Conservative staffer.

“Since we formed government, the PMO has been pressuring us to take a hard line on ATIP requests,” the staffer, who did not want to be identified, told The Hill Times.

The claim of apparent centrally-directed political interference in Canada’s access to information system comes in the wake of a Feb. 7 CP story that reported on how Cabinet staffer Sébastien Togneri ordered the “unrelease” of a sensitive report on the government’s real estate portfolio last July. At the time, he worked for then minister of Public Works Christian Paradis (Mégantic-L’Érable, Que.) and subsequently pressured officials to release only 30 pages of a 137-page document. Public servants, Justice Department lawyers and consultants had agreed there was no legal basis to withhold any of the document, CP reported.

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Mayor Miller seems to think that hosting “the world” means hosting heads of state and bankers. Perhaps what he meant to say was, think of the opportunity when we host the world government. He seems to believe that the event in Pittsburgh was “terrific”. Does that mean the G20 will be equally terrific in this city? With wonderful teargas, awesome military sonic cannons, loving black-clad stormtroopers, and beatings for the children?

Flashback: Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

Natalie Alcoba, National Post
February 22, 2010

The G8 and G20 summits this summer will be the largest security event in Canadian history, officials said today.

The federal government announced last week it would host the G20 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre June 26-27, despite the city’s expressed wishes that it be at Exhibition Place. It will be preceded by the G8 in Huntsville, Ont.

In the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, a three-metre concrete and wire fence encased a security zone around the meeting site, which included parliamentary and residential buildings. A blueprint of Toronto’s security perimeter has not been divulged, but there is already a glimpse of the force being amassed to protect those coming to and living in Toronto: the federal government’s “Integrated Security Unit” will include Toronto police, RCMP, the OPP, the Canadian Forces and Peel Region Police.

“Collaborative efforts required across law enforcement and security professionals to safely carry out these summits will result in the largest security event in Canadian history,” said a report presented to city council yesterday.

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The Guardian actually reports that “The summit on Thursday is shaping up as a piece of political manoeuvring by the Democrats rather than a genuine attempt by Obama to secure bipartisan support for health reform.” Republicans have been challenged to post their own suggestions, and the administration, says The Guardian, is counting on them not doing this in the three day time frame before the meeting this Thursday in order to paint them as obstructionist. Tricky, tricky.

Flashback: Barack Obama healthcare bill passes vital US Senate vote | House of Representatives passes Obama healthcare legislation | Obama tries to save health-care overhaul on primetime broadcast | Canadian defends anti-medicare ad | ABC Turns Programming Over To Government to Promote State Healthcare Agenda

CBC News
February 22, 2010

U.S. President Barack Obama has unveiled a new compromise health-care plan that attempts to bridge the differences between the stalled House and Senate bills.

The proposal, posted on the White House website on Monday, would not include a publicly run insurance plan, but would allow the government to cap health insurance premiums “if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified.”

It would also require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage and bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more.

The proposal claims it will insure more than 31 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance and reduce the U.S. deficit over the next 10 years by $100 billion.

The plan would also scale back a Senate-proposed tax on high-cost health insurance plans objected to by House Democrats and labour unions, but will include a Medicare payroll tax increase on upper-income earners.

The plan would also eliminate what has become known as the “Cornhusker Kickback” — a controversial deal that would have exempted the state of Nebraska of having to pay its share of Medicaid expansion.

Instead, the federal government will provide additional financing to all states for the expansion of Medicaid.

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Is that anything like appointing Senators during prorogation? Whatever – there’s an interesting (and seemingly balanced) take on Karzai’s history with the Mujahideen, the ISI, and the Taliban here.

Flashback: Karzai set to replace most of his cabinet | Afghanistan announces latest ‘corruption crackdown’ | Karzai ‘wins’ as Afghan run-off cancelled | Occupiers involved in drug trade: Afghan minister | Afghan leader’s corrupt brother paid by CIA, U.S. officials say | Afghan probe voids thousands of Karzai votes | I was ordered to cover up President Karzai election fraud, sacked UN envoy says | EU observers say a third of Karzai’s votes might be suspect due to fraud | Afghanistan Drug Raid Snares Border Police Commander | Afghan vote called ‘mockery’ | Accusations over Afghan vote rigging | Afghan President Karzai registers for re-election, picks warlord as running mate | Canadian troops could soon target Afghan drug trade: top soldier | Reports reveal concerns over drug use among Canadian military | Afghan government sacks Kandahar governor | NATO to let troops fight Afghan drug lords | Karzai’s kin linked to heroin trafficking | Afghani Narco-state Continues to Blossom under Puppet President

Jon Boone, The Guardian
February 22, 2010

Guardian Exclusive: While parliament is in recess, president unilaterally decrees he can appoint entire panel, reigniting fears of fraud

The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has unilaterally taken control of the country’s top electoral watchdog, provoking outrage from western diplomats, the Guardian has learnt.

The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), which forced Karzai into a runoff election after it disqualified nearly 1m fraudulent votes in last year’s presidential election, previously included three foreign experts named by the UN.

However, according to a new presidential decree published today, Karzai will have the exclusive power to appoint all five panel members.

His decision to “Afghanise” the ECC came while parliament was in recess.

It provoked a shocked reaction from western diplomats, who fear parliamentary elections – due to take place in six months – will be fatally undermined by a repeat of last year’s electoral fraud.

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Remember Bush Jr’s much derided signing statements? Apparently the authoritarian temptation to enact legislation by executive fiat is too much for President Barack Obama as well. Despite his campaign promises to the contrary. Now, this journal is by no means an expert on American politics, but if Congress isn’t going along with you, you’re pretty much expected to suck it up, since the three branches of government are coequal under the Constitution. Obama knows this. He’s a constitutional lawyer. Or was. But no one cares much about that “goddamned piece of paper” on either side of the border, apparently.

Flashback: The US budget: Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion red ink blueprint | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | Obama orders ’strengthened’ no-fly list after bomb plot | Taibbi: Obama’s sellout to Wall Street creates ‘permanent bailout’ | Obama sends 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan | Nobel Peace Laureate Obama Will Send 40K More Troops To War | Obama rules out Afghanistan troop cuts | Obama White House can’t find – or won’t release – millions of Bush emails | Obama Stands Behind Use of ‘State Secrets’ in Warrantless Surveillance Lawsuit | Obama tells UN new era demands global unity | Obama Backs Extending Patriot Act Spy Provisions | Barack Obama to cement new US-UN relationship, chair UN Security Council | Obama’s effort in Afghanistan ‘just beginning’: U.S. defence secretary | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing – overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | Obama Administration Shuts Down 9/11 Families Lawsuit | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | Obama Nominates Globalization Advocates to Clinton’s State Department | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | Obama adds another brigade to Afghanistan troop surge | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Dismay at Obama plan to leave 50,000 US troops in Iraq after 2010 | Obama administration tries to kill Bush e-mail secrecy case | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | After Obama praises torture ruling, civil liberties group appalled | Obama eyes 3 more brigades for Afghanistan | Obama’s planned troop surge in Afghanistan could lead to more violence: ISAF | Obama requests Guantánamo Bay tribunals suspension | Obama appoints architects of economic collapse, financial globalism to economic team | Obama, like McCain, surrounds himself with elite CFR, Brookings powerbrokers | Hope for Obama’s US and Europe to drive a ‘new deal’ for a ‘new world’: Barroso, Brown | Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan

Peter Baker, The New York Times
February 12, 2010

WASHINGTON — With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.

Mr. Obama has not given up hope of progress on Capitol Hill, aides said, and has scheduled a session with Republican leaders on health care later this month. But in the aftermath of a special election in Massachusetts that cost Democrats unilateral control of the Senate, the White House is getting ready to act on its own in the face of partisan gridlock heading into the midterm campaign.

“We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

Any president has vast authority [Ed. Note: Recently and illegitimately] to influence policy even without legislation, through executive orders, agency rule-making and administrative fiat. And Mr. Obama’s success this week in pressuring the Senate to confirm 27 nominations by threatening to use his recess appointment power demonstrated that executive authority can also be leveraged to force action by Congress.

Mr. Obama has already decided to create a bipartisan budget commission under his own authority after Congress refused to do so. His administration has signaled that it plans to use its discretion to soften enforcement of the ban on openly gay men and lesbians serving in the military, even as Congress considers repealing the law. And the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with possible regulations on heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change, while a bill to cap such emissions languishes in the Senate.

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Somewhere, Mel Lastman is laughing.

Flashback: Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | Police State Canada 2010 and the Olympic Crackdown | Public Safety Canada’s emergency plan not implemented: Auditor General | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Canada’s military peers into future, sees drone patrols, draft, insurgency | Maximum Alert: U.S. Troops Now Occupying America | More troops on the streets: U.S. terror alert expands to transit and stadiums | Ground broken on $3.4 billion Homeland Security complex | Military helicopters over downtown Montreal for exercise | British Army to Police Medicine Hat During Urban Warfare Drills | Urban warfare drills coming to Medicine Hat | Military readies reservists for threats to ‘domestic front’ | Military may patrol bar zone in Barrie | British Secret Service, Army Alert on Bank Riots | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | A decade later, Lastman proud he called in army | Canadian military getting 1,300 new heavily armoured trucks for ‘domestic use’ | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | Pentagon earmarks 20,000 additional troops for American streets | Troops in the Streets: Army Brigades Standing By to Assist in Disasters, Help Quell Dissent | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies | U.S. Northern Command, Canada Command establish new bilateral Civil Assistance Plan | Harper pledges to boost military presence in cities | Ontario Police Chiefs travel to Israel to study police tactics

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
February 9, 2010

Americans are once again being conditioned to accept the sight of troops patrolling the streets and dealing with domestic law enforcement issues under the pretext of National Guard soldiers “helping” recovery efforts after the deluge of snow that has hit the East coast, the same soldiers who just months ago were also “helping” authorities to brutalize innocent people during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

“In the aftermath of the weekend’s storm, hundreds of National Guard members have been helping Pittsburgh’s emergency personnel respond to residents’ needs; and beginning tonight, they’re also going to be patrolling some city streets,” reports KDKA.

“We will also begin to have the National Guard patrol our neighborhoods to deal with any issues that come up,” Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced at an afternoon news conference. “So city residents,” he added, “be advised that you will begin to see National Guard Humvees in some of your neighborhoods beginning this evening.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also reported that Gov. Ed Rendell dispatched the troops to deal with all manner of calls that would normally be handled by police, including “domestic disputes”.

The use of National Guard soldiers to provide aid in emergency situations is a perfectly reasonable measure, but when those troops start to randomly patrol the streets and work with cops in dealing with “domestic disputes” and “any issues that come up,” then a dangerous precedent is being set, especially considering the fact that less than five months ago, these same troops were working with the Army and the Air Force to conduct “crowd control” duties and run military checkpoints during the G20 summit.

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That’s pandering to your constituency at the expense of addicts in Vancouver’s blighted downtown eastside. Is the ‘Conservative’ party now pro-HIV and pro hepatitis?

Clearly, any high-profile loosening of the official proscription against drugs will be resisted by the state. Insite is an anomaly, an experiment made possible by the (formerly) laissez-faire culture of Vancouver. It is officially unthinkable, however, to suggest that the individual has the right to the disposition of his or her own body and health. Because if drugs were decriminalized, the bottom would fall out of the illegal market, prices would collapse, and that would undercut an important source of funds for the global intelligence mafia. It’s a sure bet this ideological trickle-down has a lot to do with the campaign against Insite.

Flashback: Congressman Ron Paul: After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’ | Occupiers involved in drug trade: Afghan minister | Afghan leader’s corrupt brother paid by CIA, U.S. officials say | Madsen: CIA collusion with “Al Qaeda” financiers and attack planners | Secret RCMP studies of Insite ideologically biased, advocates say | Karzai’s kin linked to heroin trafficking | Confirmed: Mexico drug plane used for CIA ‘rendition’ flights | Afghani Narco-state Continues to Blossom under Puppet President | Third Cocaine Plane Surfaces and is Tied to Web of Government Connections | How the CIA infiltrated the DEA | Sloppy tradecraft exposes CIA drug plane | DC9 with 5.5 tons of cocaine was CIA plane | Pulitzer Winning Journalist Who Linked CIA to Crack Sales Found Dead of Apparent Suicide | Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion

CBC News
February 9, 2010

The federal government is asking the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal a lower court ruling that sanctioned Vancouver’s supervised drug injection site.

The case has raised important questions about the division of powers among federal and provincial governments that need answers, said Justice Minister Rob Nicholson on Parliament Hill Tuesday.

“The case we’ll be presenting before the court is to ask for clarification,” he said. “I think it is important to do that.”

Nicholson pointed out that there was a dissenting opinion in the lower court ruling. “I think it is appropriate for me to seek leave to appeal,” he said.

The minister agreed that drug addicts need assistance, pointing out that the federal government’s anti-drug strategy is aimed at prevention, and treatment for addicts.

The B.C. Appeal Court ruled Jan. 15 that provinces, not the federal government, have jurisdiction for health care, which includes services such as supervised injection sites for addicts of illegal street drugs.

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