statism watch

The people of Canada have the power to fight that plan. And it is vital that they do, because otherwise, they may as well just tear up Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – the bit that protects you against unreasonable search and seizure. This journal is pretty certain this is a ‘must have’ piece of legislation for the Tories for multiple reasons relating to their agenda, but one motivating factor that never gets talked about is how it will also more closely align Canadian law with that of the EU, greasing the skids for the current free trade negotiations that are going on under the radar. See here and here for more on that.

Flashback: Tories revive random roadside breath test | Random breathalyzer tests considered for Canada | Secret juror background checks not illegal, prosecutor says | You Commit Three Felonies a Day | Police training to forcibly take blood in Texas, Idaho | US Supreme Court rules police can initiate suspect’s questioning if right to counsel waived | Cops can now ‘take all your stuff’ | Entrapment becoming standard procedure for police | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Ottawa moves to toughen anti-gang laws | Schools seek more police as crime drops | Ontario to place prosecutors in police stations | ‘Mens rea’ intention test questioned prior to Toronto 18 terror verdict | Tory ‘Guilty before proven innocent’ law to make debut in court | Perjury: Is it different for cops? | Police to demand blood, urine at roadside stops | Justice Critic Brands Street Racing Vehicle Seizure Law as “Police State-ism” | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | You Are a Suspect

The Windsor Star
March 16, 2010

It looks like the federal government will go through with a plan to force random roadside breath tests on Canadian drivers.

The Justice Department has posted a special committee discussion paper on its website outlining the “remarkable results” random testing has had in some of the 25 countries that now impose the practice. The idea is to draw people to the site and convince them that the benefits far outweigh the loss of their personal rights and freedoms.

The department is also asking for “public input” to gauge our national sentiment on the subject, but we believe that’s all for show. The Harper Conservatives already have their minds made up. They are intent upon scrapping the 40-year-old impaired driving legislation that says breathalyzer tests can be administered only if there’s a reasonable suspicion that someone is driving drunk.

They want to give police the power to pull people over at whim and demand they take a breathalyzer test. By law, individuals will not be able to refuse.

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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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With the caveat, of course, that laying the filter of ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’ over these issues muddles them horribly, this is an excellent account of undercover police operations, their rewards and risks. It’s complicated. And as Officer A points out, the risks involve destabilizing proper and legitimate social movements – the balance of power is disrupted is police infiltrate every organization that comes along. Often, the police end up running the organizations – it’s a matter of public record that CSIS ran the Heritage Front, a Canadian neo-Nazi organization, through its agent Grant Bristow. They even tried taking over the Reform Party, a grassroots conservative movement, in its formative years. Perhaps they were ultimately successful with that, who knows. The info block below contains similar material.

Related: Bomb plotter blames police in Toronto 18 case | Obama Information Czar Outlined Plan For Government To Infiltrate ‘Conspiracy Groups’ | UK Police in £9m scheme to log ‘domestic extremists’ | Montebello police provocateurs called before ethics panel | Students Protest Cops In School After One Of Their Own Arrested | UK anti-terrorism strategy ’spies’ on innocent | Olympic security follows protester’s friend | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | EU Plans Massive Surveillance Panopticon That Would Monitor “Abnormal Behavior” | Pentagon Caught Subverting Protest Group | DoD Training Manual Describes Protest As “Low-Level Terrorism” | UK: Police caught on tape trying to recruit climate activist as informant | G20 protests: Riot police, or rioting police? | UK police maintain databank on thousands of protesters | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Olympic security boss puts protesters on notice | Rioters Were Paid To Provoke the Police in Bulgaria | Greek Cops Caught on Video Posing as Anarchists | ACLU wants probe into police-staged DNC protest | Ex-Italian President: Provocateur Riots Then “Beat The Shit Out Of Protesters” | Activists seen as potential threat to Vancouver Games | Journalists urge ban on police posing as reporters | OPP officer posed as journalist during 2007 Mohawk protest | Protestors added to database of terror suspects | Police inspector posed as militant protester | CSIS Spying on Natives, Olympic Dissidents | Quebec police admit agents posed as protesters | Undercover cops tried to incite violence in Montebello: union leader | Officers never posed as protesters: Quebec police | Canadians who trust our secret police should think again

Tony Thompson, The Observer
March 14, 2010

For four years, Officer A lived a secret life among anti-racist activists as they fought brutal battles with the police and the BNP. Here he tells of the terrifying life he led, the psychological burden it placed on him and his growing fears that the work of his unit could threaten legitimate protest

They got drunk together, stood shoulder to shoulder as they fought the police and far-right activists, and became so intimately acquainted with each other’s lives that in the end they were closer than brothers. But it was all a sham. Hidden among the close-knit and highly motivated group of violent far-left activists was a serving police officer, operating deep undercover, whose presence was intended to bring the group to its knees.

That man, known only as Officer A, has now come forward to give his account of the years he spent working for Scotland Yard’s most secret unit, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), on a mission to prevent disorder on the streets of London. For four years in the mid-1990s, he lived a double life six days a week, spending just one day a week with his wife and family.

Week after week, year in and year out, he lived and breathed the life of a hardcore Trotskyist agitator with a passion for heavy drinking, a deep-seated hatred of the police and a predilection for extreme violence. It was a persona that took him to the heart of some of the most violent groups in the capital at a time when tensions between extreme left and extreme right were at their peak.

“I never had any respite when I was back at home. I simply couldn’t relax,” said Officer A. “The respite for me was being back in my undercover flat because that was where I was supposed to be. Even if my targets were not there, I felt more at ease. I had a really good time with my targets and enjoyed their company enormously – there was a genuine bond. But I was never under any illusion about what I was there to do. They were not truly my friends. The friendship would last only up until the point when they found out what I really was. I was under no illusion about what would happen to me if they did.”

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Related: Research Calls Forensic DNA Technique Into Question | Israeli Scientists Show DNA Evidence Can be Fabricated | UK: Pilot project for DNA, isotope analysis of immigrants ‘deeply flawed’ | Study finds genetic discrimination by insurance firms | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | Australians refused insurance because of poor genes

Kirk Makin, The Globe and Mail
March 13, 2010

Gregory Turner feared he was bound for life in prison after an RCMP lab reported odds of 163 trillion to 1 that a tiny amount of DNA on his gold ring could have come from anybody but a 56-year-old woman found murdered in rural Newfoundland.

The only real evidence in a first-degree murder charge against Mr. Turner, the golden sheen of DNA appeared certain to become a silver bullet in the hands of the Crown.

“I told my lawyer, Jerome Kennedy, that there was no way in the world it was true,” Mr. Turner recalled in an interview. “He believed me. He said that I was too stupid to commit that crime and leave no evidence.”

A lucky hunch by Mr. Kennedy – now Newfoundland’s Minister of Health – saved Mr. Turner from a life behind bars. He sought the name and DNA profile of every technician who had worked at the RCMP lab. It turned out that the technician who had tested the ring had also been working on the victim’s fingernails a few inches away, creating a strong possibility of contamination.

The technician conceded at Mr. Turner’s 2001 trial that she had also contaminated evidence in two previous cases. In another disturbing twist, it emerged that she had mistakenly contaminated Mr. Turner’s ring with her own DNA, causing police to waste considerable time on a futile search for a presumed accomplice.

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Let’s look at this as a sort of media test case. Apparently, there’s been a low intensity war simmering on the southern border of the US for some time now. The local press covers stories of bombings, incursions, and helicopter flyovers. All of these are at least indicative of a power struggle both within the Mexican military and externally, between drug gangs and the existing Mexican establishment. So the question is – why haasn’t there been any wider coverage of this? And what is the function of the relationship between the local press and the national press? Are glaring exclusions of this sort systemic or deliberate? Does the relationship fall within the parameters of Chomsky’s ‘propaganda model‘ of the media? (A model with both systemic and deliberative elements) Or are we seeing the invisible hand of the state trying to avoid a general panic, mass xenophobia, keep the lid on a political situation, or some other intent? Clearly, the CIA is wrapped up in the drug trade, that’s practically mainstream information. Have their pet gangs gotten out of control, destined to be cast as the next ‘Al-Qaeda’ but on the southern US border? Dying states are dangerous for the same reason dying animals are. This article raises as many questions as it answers about what’s going on in Texas.

Related: Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border | Border guards are now Olympic thought police – Amy Goodman detained | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Sarnia resident plans ‘moon’ protest of US border spy balloon | Military spycraft patrols Ontario border from Fort Drum | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | New US border technology directed at insidious threat: Canadians | Predator drones patrolling border irk Manitoba MLA | U.S. set to launch Predator drones to monitor Manitoba border | Military Tech on the Home Front: Predator drones to begin surveillance of Canada-US border | Homeland Security Assuming Broad Powers, Turning Swaths of U.S. into “Constitution-Free Zone” | 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 | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | U.S. to patrol Manitoba border with drone aircraft

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
March 12, 2010

Navy chopper with armed troops conducts surveillance in south Texas border town, authorities couldn’t care less

While the U.S. government and federal authorities busy themselves targeting American citizens as domestic terrorists, it seems they couldn’t care less about the fact that the military of a foreign power is flying around American airspace with wanton abandon.

Residents of Falcon Heights, a south Texas border town, saw a Mexican helicopter hovering over a house shortly after 6pm on Tuesday night. The chopper conducted surveillance for about 15 minutes before flying back to Mexico.

“They had armored individuals in the chopper, open ramp, very military looking, in style and preparation,” said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr.

“It’s proof the Mexican military sees no boundaries,” reported local KRGV News’ Stephanie Stone, adding that the incident wasn’t the first of its kind and wouldn’t be the last.

“The markings I understand read ‘La Marina’ which is equivalent to the Mexican Navy,” said Gonzalez.

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It’s another insanely oppressive attack on your section 8 charter rights to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, back from the dead. First floated last October and effectively quashed by the act of prorogation, these agenda items will keep coming back like the undead until Canadians capitulate or a regime more favourable to our natural rights is installed. But here’s the big picture. As this journal mentioned back in October, the reason why we’re seeing this, or continual reintroduction of DMCA or ACTA copyright legislation, is because it’s one tiny but important part of an agenda to ‘harmonize’ Canadian law with that of the EU as we drive towards a free trade pact. The HST tax (known in Europe as the VAT), restrictive copyright negotiations, industrial food advocacy and random roadside checkpoints are a part of EU law – not Canada’s. So why are the Tories forcing parts of that rulebook on Canadians – a sovereign nation with a Constitution that says this sort of thing just isn’t done – if not to grease the skids for economic and legal integration? We’ve all got the same body scanners now, the control grid is being manifest. So here’s a question to ponder, because it’s vital to the wider issue of whether it’s legitimate to be scanned and analyzed and prodded without reasonable suspicion you’ve already committed a crime – does the state grant its citizens rights, or does a state govern by the consent of its citizens? These are the two political worldviews typified by Machiavelli and Locke – choose wisely.

Related: Random breathalyzer tests considered for Canada | Secret juror background checks not illegal, prosecutor says | You Commit Three Felonies a Day | Police training to forcibly take blood in Texas, Idaho | US Supreme Court rules police can initiate suspect’s questioning if right to counsel waived | Cops can now ‘take all your stuff’ | Entrapment becoming standard procedure for police | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Ottawa moves to toughen anti-gang laws | Schools seek more police as crime drops | Ontario to place prosecutors in police stations | ‘Mens rea’ intention test questioned prior to Toronto 18 terror verdict | Tory ‘Guilty before proven innocent’ law to make debut in court | Perjury: Is it different for cops? | Police to demand blood, urine at roadside stops | Justice Critic Brands Street Racing Vehicle Seizure Law as “Police State-ism” | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | You Are a Suspect

Janice Tibbetts and Kenyon Wallace, National Post
March 11, 2010

Critics fear racial profiling

The Harper government appears ready to move ahead with imposing random roadside breath testing, which a new federal discussion paper says has produced “remarkable results” in catching drunk drivers in other countries.

The proposal has encountered skepticism, however, with civil liberties proponents warning that the new legislation could give police the power to detain drivers without reasonable grounds or suspicion.

“The reality is that it creates a bit of a police-state mentality in which an innocent person can be subjected to a whole host of testings,” said Edward Prutschi, a Toronto criminal lawyer.

“One’s going to have to put an awful lot of faith in the typical officer on the road because they are going to be given a dramatically expanded discretion — basically absolute carte blanche — to stop anyone, anywhere, anytime and demand breath alcohol testing.”

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Flashback: Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Greece unveils radical austerity package | Athen’s coffers to run dry in two weeks, more cracks appear in Eurozone | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | Greek workers stage general strike | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | Collapse of the euro is ‘inevitable’: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says French banking chief | Euro currency union shows strains | Stimulating our way into debt crises | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Could Greece drag down Europe? | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | A world awash in debt

The Associated Press
March 11, 2010

ATHENS-Serious street clashes erupted between rioting youths and police in central Athens Thursday as some 30,000 people demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government’s austerity measures.

Hundreds of masked and hooded youths punched and kicked motorcycle police, knocking several off their bikes, as riot police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.

The violence spread after the end of the march to a nearby square, where police faced off with stone-throwing anarchists and suffocating clouds of tear gas sent patrons scurrying from open-air cafes.

Police say 12 suspected rioters were detained and two officers were injured.

Rioters used sledge hammers to smash the glass fronts of more than a dozen shops, banks, jewelers and a cinema. Youths also set fire to rubbish bins and a car, smashed bus stops, and chopped blocks off marble balustrades and building facades to use as projectiles.

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So basically, the cops in Chicago accept there’s going to be some collateral damage when using TASERs – but they keep you safe. By euthanizing cokeheads? TASER International makes this huge announcement by acknowledging the moving the target area of the TASER away from the heart is a good thing, it gets spun as being all we can really do, you know, and then the TASER rollout continues.

Flashback: RCMP to test Taser cameras | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | Canadian police adopt new TASER directive | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | RCMP halts use of malfunctioning Tasers after B.C. decision | RCMP still uses Tasers too often, watchdog finds | RCMP softened Taser-use restrictions | Ban Tasers if RCMP doesn’t curb use by year’s end: Commons committee | U.S. jury shocks Taser, investors, with rare loss in court

Annie Sweeney, Kristen Schorsc, Chicago Tribune
March 11, 2010

Announcement comes as man dies in suburbs after police use stun gun

The Chicago Police Department is dramatically expanding its use of Tasers, adding several hundred more and putting them in the hands of patrol officers for the first time, officials said Wednesday.

The “stun guns” will go in every squad car to give front-line beat officers a more effective way to protect themselves and calm a disturbance.

But the electrical devices have caused controversy nationwide, with debates about their safety and lawsuits filed on behalf of dozens of people, some in the Chicago area, who have died after being “Tased.”

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Of course he does. In order to avoid unceasing surprise at anything Obama does, ask yourself one question – “What would George W. Bush do?”. Obama’s backed by the same institutions. This would have been perfectly clear from the beginning, if it hadn’t for the media fawning all over the guy, pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. As Alexander Cockburn wrote in the Toronto Star on November 3, 2008, change should be more than a slogan.

Flashback: UK: Commons committee rejects six-year DNA records plan | DNA matches solve only a fraction of crimes, police admit | UK Police routinely arresting people to get DNA, inquiry claims | UK: Terror ’suspects’ could remain on DNA database for life, innocents get 6 years | UK: Home Office climbs down over keeping DNA records on innocent | UK: Police ‘must purge innocent DNA’ | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | UK: DNA details of 1.1m children on database | Controversial US measure would require DNA sampling at arrest | Police to demand blood, urine at roadside stops | Newborn Blood-Storage Law Stirs Fears of DNA Warehouse | Man spends 18 hours in police cell and has his DNA taken for ‘dropping an apple core’ | Widen DNA dragnet: Police Chief Blair

David Kravets, Wired.com
March 10, 2010

Josh Gerstein over at Politico sent Threat Level his piece underscoring once again President Barack Obama is not the civil-liberties knight in shining armor many were expecting.

Gerstein posts a televised interview of Obama and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted. The nation’s chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, “It’s the right thing to do” to “tighten the grip around folks” who commit crime.

When it comes to civil liberties, the Obama administration has come under fire for often mirroring his predecessor’s practices surrounding state secrets, the Patriot Act and domestic spying. There’s also Gitmo, Jay Bybee and John Yoo.

Now there’s DNA sampling. Obama told Walsh he supported the federal government, as well as the 18 states that have varying laws requiring compulsory DNA sampling of individuals upon an arrest for crimes ranging from misdemeanors to felonies. The data is lodged in state and federal databases, and has fostered as many as 200 arrests nationwide, Walsh said.

The American Civil Liberties Union claims DNA sampling is different from mandatory, upon-arrest fingerprinting that has been standard practice in the United States for decades.

A fingerprint, the group says, reveals nothing more than a person’s identity. But much can be learned from a DNA sample, which codes a person’s family ties, some health risks, and, according to some, can predict a propensity for violence.

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So the DNA of innocent people will ‘only’ be kept on file for three years. One day is completely unacceptable. If less than one percent of cases are solved using the DNA database, they’re not spending all that money to maintain it to fight crime. It’s for something else. In the US, DNA is being sent to the military for research. Why? Should we be taking a closer look at the kind of warnings well placed people like Aldous Huxley made about the use of eugenics technology in Brave New World?

Related: DNA matches solve only a fraction of crimes, police admit | UK Police routinely arresting people to get DNA, inquiry claims | UK: Terror ’suspects’ could remain on DNA database for life, innocents get 6 years | UK: Home Office climbs down over keeping DNA records on innocent | UK: Police ‘must purge innocent DNA’ | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | UK: DNA details of 1.1m children on database | Controversial US measure would require DNA sampling at arrest | Police to demand blood, urine at roadside stops | Newborn Blood-Storage Law Stirs Fears of DNA Warehouse | Man spends 18 hours in police cell and has his DNA taken for ‘dropping an apple core’ | Widen DNA dragnet: Police Chief Blair

Alan Travis, The Guardian
March 8, 2010

MPs’ report ahead of key vote says DNA profiles of inncent people should be kept for no longer than three years

Government proposals to keep the DNA profiles of innocent people for up to six years have been rejected by the Commons home affairs select committee.

The MPs’ report, published in advance of a key Commons vote on DNA, says they are not convinced that such a long retention period will lead to any more cases being cleared, let alone getting more convictions.

Instead, the cross-party committee backs a maximum period of three years for the police to keep the DNA profiles of those people they arrest but release before they are charged or convicted.

The home affairs committee says its short inquiry has concluded that as few as 0.3% of crimes are detected as a result, at least in part, of matching crime-scene DNA to a personal profile on the national DNA database.

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