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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This comes up every time there’s a move towards holding Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. And it’s deliberately provocative. That administration knows perfectly well that Mahmoud Abbas has already said there can be no further talks until there is some kind of moratorium on Israeli expansion. The predictable response? Not, let’s sit down. It’s to mobilize AIPAC.

Flashback: Canada ‘regrets’ Israeli settlements

Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian
March 15, 2010

United States determined to persuade Israel into substantive peace talks with Palestinians, Obama administration source says

Palestinian boys play soccer in the Arab neighbourhood of east Jerusalem, where Netanyahu supports the building of 1,600 Jewish homes. Photograph: Ammar Awad/REUTERS

President Barack Obama and the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, are on a collision course today in a row described by a senior Israeli diplomat as the worst crisis between the two countries for more than three decades.

An Obama administration source told the Guardian that the White House and US state department are intent on pushing Israel into substantive peace talks with the Palestinians and will not shy away this time as they did when the last effort ended in embarrassing failure in September.

“No one gets anywhere by accusing each other. We are hoping to lay the foundations for negotiations,” the source said. In order to get negotiations under way, the US is demanding that Netanyahu cancel or freeze plans to build 1,600 planned Jewish homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem. But Netanyahu, speaking at a meeting of his own Likud party, showed no signs of backing down. “The building in Jerusalem, and in all other places, will continue in the same way as has been customary over the last 42 years,” he said.

The Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, in a weekend telephone call to other Israeli diplomats, expressed alarm about the extent of the confrontation.

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A legislator, actually doing their job and writing independent legislation to fix a national problem? It’s a novel idea but it just may work. One might have thought, or hoped, that this was already covered under existing legislation (eg; The Geneva Convention) but it appears not.

Flashback: Ottawa anticipated Afghan torture allegations: memo | CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Harper grilled over prorogation, Afghan detainee torture documents | MP threatens motion on Afghan documents | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | Claims troops mistreated prisoners unfounded: military police | Peter MacKay, Red Cross discussed detainees in 2006 | Canada’s troops investigated for Afghan abuse | Colvin disputes witnesses’ detainee testimony | Tories sabotage Afghan committee meeting | Canada ‘defended’ torturer | Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

CBC News
March 15, 2010

NDP human rights critic Wayne Marston has tabled a private member’s bill in the Commons that he says will prevent any government complicity in torture.

If passed, the Prevention of Torture Act would oblige officials to “report knowledge of torture to the proper authorities” and would establish diplomatic protocols for the “immediate repatriation for any Canadian citizen [abroad] at risk of torture,” Marston said Monday.

He said the proposed new law would not undermine Canada’s ability to investigate or prosecute those citizens in Canada, but would make it a criminal offence to use information acquired by torture.

“It would also call for a creation of a government watch list of those countries known to engage in torture,” said Marston, MP for Hamilton-Stoney Creek.

The House rarely passes private members’ bills, but Marston said he believes the bill will gain support because it recognizes that Canadians don’t condone torture “in any form, at any time.”

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Related: China launches interview requirement, licensing for personal websites | Activists Shut Down Australian Government Websites in Internet Filter Protest | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | China tells web companies to obey controls | Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search | China Imposes New Internet Controls | 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 | China begins internet ‘blackout’ ahead of Tiananmen anniversary | 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’ | In Australia, censored hyperlinks could cost you | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Australian web censorship plan to begin trial despite house opposition | Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | Protests in Australia over proposal to block Web sites | China restarts online crackdown | Australia to Implement Mandatory Internet Censorship | 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

Steve Watson, Infowars.net
March 12, 2010

Infowars, Prisonplanet websites were mysteriously blocked at the same time as government filter was switched on

The government of New Zealand has quietly implemented an internet filter and is urging the leading ISPs in the country to adopt the measure, in a move that would give the authorities the power to restrict whichever websites they see fit.

The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) reportedly turned on the internet filter on February 1st without making any announcement, prompting critics to charge that the measure had been activated in stealth.

“It’s a sad day for the New Zealand internet” a spokesperson for online freedom lobby Tech Liberty told the leading New Zealand tech website Computerworld.

“It establishes the principle that the government can choose to arbitrarily set up a new censorship scheme and choose which material to block, with no reference to existing law,” the group states.

The filter is already being used by leading internet providers Maxnet and Watchdog, with the government refusing to comment on which other providers are set to take up the technology similar to that used by the Communist Chinese government and the ruling regime in Iran.

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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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Sending mixed messages here ensures that other parties to the ‘peace process’ – which by all appearances seems more a decades-long stalling tactic – enter from a position of weakness, wherein the debate’s already been set around how many new settlements Israel is going to build. It’s an effective misdirection, an additional bargaining chip to ensure territorial gains rather than losses.

Flashback: Israel denies Gaza war crimes in report to UN | Chomsky says Israel, ‘US military base’ | Israel rules out Gaza probe | UN body endorses Gaza war crimes report | UN body debates Gaza war crimes report | UN condemns ‘war crimes’ in Gaza | Israeli soldiers allege abuses against Palestinians | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Israeli military whistleblowers: troops fired on children | Israel pulls land forces from Gaza, gunboats continue shelling coast | Israel admits troops used phosphorus shells in Gaza | Israel steps up Gaza withdrawal after ceasefire | Hamas joins fragile Israeli ceasefire | Israel declares ceasefire | Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel | Video shows proof of phosphorous bombs in Gaza | Aid destroyed as UN’s Gaza HQ hit by Israeli fire | Protests over Israel’s Gaza offensive held in Canadian, world cities | Israel ignores ceasefire plea, pounds Gaza | UN relief agency halts aid to Gaza, citing Israeli attacks on staff | Rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel | Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip | Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza | Tanks, rockets, death and terror: Gazan civilian catastrophe unfolding | They hate us for our bombs | Israeli army set for invasion | Food, medicine, fuel needed in Gaza, agencies warn | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Worldwide protests urge end to attacks on Gaza

CBC News
March 11, 2010

Canada voiced muted criticism Thursday over the planned expansion of 1,600 new Israeli housing units in disputed East Jerusalem.

In a statement released in Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Canada “regrets” Israel’s settlement decision, because it undermines the pursuit of peace in the region.

The statement echoes Washington’s strong condemnation of the move, which cast a pall over U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel this week to revive the stalled Middle East peace process.

Biden was there to mediate indirect peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Israelis and Palestinians must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them, he said.

The Interior Ministry announced the construction plans just as Biden was wrapping up a series of meetings with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A spokesman for Netanyahu said he was unaware of the construction plan just announced by the Interior Ministry.

Efrat Orbach, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman, said the new homes are to be built in Ramat Shlomo, a neighbourhood for ultra-Orthodox Jews in east Jerusalem.

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Good news. As Mike Masnick at Techdirt notes, “This is pretty big — and a massive setback for ACTA supporters. The MEPs didn’t just reject the lack of transparency, they were blatantly rejecting some of the proposals that were in the leaked documents.” Let’s hope that any other parliamentary defenders of the freedom of information as may exist out there don’t lose the momentum this generates.

Related: 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?

Euractiv.com
March 10, 2010

The European Parliament defied the EU executive today (10 March), casting a vote against an agreement between the EU, the US and other major powers on combating online piracy and threatening to take legal action at the European Court of Justice.

Incredibly, columnists at the National Post and the Star may actually have some common ground here. There is a distinction in philosophy that is worthy of more consideration precisely because it is lost on so many people, that of natural rights versus legal rights. In Canada and much of the Western world these days, we assume that rights are privileges granted by the state, a sort of legal allowance granted by our Mommy or Daddy, subject to change, without which all our actions would be proscribed, prohibited, and we would be unable to live. Gee, thanks Mom! This is a fundamentally Hobbesian notion of rights – rights as granted by social contract and enforced by the overwhelming power of government, without which there would be anarchy and a ‘war of all against all‘.

There is an alternative view however, and this gets to the heart of Mr. Jonas’ point on gun ownership and the conduct of one’s business. The classical liberal or Lockean tradition- which has nothing to do with what ‘Liberal’ means to the public today – was the tradition that ran through our culture when the American constitution was framed, and by contrast, it subscribed to a rather more benevolent view of human nature. On this view, rights are not granted, but observed by government. In a state of nature, the thinking goes, men and women are unmolested and so perfectly free to sustain their lives, their rights are inalienable, granted by nature (or God). Thus government’s role is not to grant rights, but to sustain them in a social setting. Which view do you subscribe to? Are you an atom of the state, or is the state your servant?

Flashback: 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

George Jonas, The National Post
March 6, 2010

The minute anyone talks or writes about free speech, some twit is sure to pop up and say that there’s no absolute freedom of speech. They usually can’t resist adding that no one is free to shout “Fire!” in a crowded movie theatre.

They’re quite right. The only thing wrong with those who keep insisting there are no absolutes is they do it to restrict some particulars that irk them.

Everyone knows free speech isn’t “absolute.” If it were, it would be legal to defame people, counsel murder, or impersonate a police officer. No one disputes that being free to use hand gestures doesn’t entitle anyone to signal a truck to back over a toddler. Our freedom to gesticulate isn’t “absolute.” It’s enough, though, to give censors the finger.

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W. T. F. Expect more of this sort of thing as every aspect of your life is micromanaged and trcked under the technological control grid. Enjoy being fingerprinted and iris scanned, prisoners.

Flashback: UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | Homeland Security to scan fingerprints of travellers exiting the US | Tories propose law allowing fingerprinting before charges are laid | UK: New biometric security checks could include brain scans, heart rhythm fingerprinting | Parents, children to be fingerprinted at initial 250+ nursery schools in UK | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Scots schoolchildren to be fingerprinted in controversial ID scheme | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | UNBC students give thumbs down to fingerprint scanners | Give public biometrics the finger

Susan Taylor, NBC Poway
March 4, 2010

Skateboarders in Poway will have to register and be fingerprinted before using the Skate Park.

The city council voted in favor of the new high tech entry system Tuesday night. Skaters will have to press a thumb pad on a turnstile. If a scanner matches a skateboarder’s print to the one given in a new, free registration process, they’ll be allowed in. A security camera will record the entry.

Park users who break the house rules or indulge in roughhousing, bullying or vandalism will have their thumbprint voided.

“So the next time they put their thumb in (the thumb pad), it will not work,” says Poway City Councilman Jim Cunningham. “Then they will contact someone and find out why.”

To critics who may see all this as somewhat Orwellian, Cunningham has this comeback “We’re not Big Brother. The thumbprints are not going to Homeland Security. [Ed. Note: Yet. You're being conditioned.] They’re being used specifically for this particular facility, and we want people to enjoy it.”

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Teach your children well – while you’re still allowed to, that is.

Flashback: UK: Parents need license to play with children in public | UK: Now Big Brother targets helpful parents – 1 in 4 Britons vetted for giant new child protection database | Has your child been CAFed? How the Government plans to record intimate information on every child in Britain | Do Swiss parents need a childrearing licence? | UK Parents Need Government Permission to Kiss Children

Ryan Kisiel, Steve Doughty, The Daily Mail
March 4, 2010

Heads will be forced to list children as young as five on school ‘hate registers’ over everyday playground insults.

Even minor incidents must be recorded as examples of serious bullying and details kept on a database until the pupil leaves secondary school.

Teachers are to be told that even if a primary school child uses homophobic or racist words without knowing their meaning, simply teaching them such words are hurtful and inappropriate is not enough.

Instead the incident has to be recorded and his or her behaviour monitored for future signs of ‘hate’ bullying.

The accusations will also be recorded in databases held by councils and made available to Whitehall and ministers to help them devise future anti-bullying campaigns.

The scale of the effort to stop children using homophobic or racist language was revealed after the parents of a ten-year-old primary school pupil in Somerset, Peter Drury, were told that his name would be put on a register and his behaviour monitored while he remained at school.

The boy was reported after he called a friend ‘gay boy’. His parents fear the record of homophobic bullying will count against him throughout his school career and even into adulthood.

In another incident last year a six-year-old girl, Sharona Gower, was reported for ‘racist bullying’ at her school near Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

Sharona was chased by two 11-year-old girls, one of whom taunted her that she had chocolate on her face.

The six-year-old responded to one of the girls, who was black: ‘Well, you’ve got chocolate on yours.’

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