Normally the sight of the moon rising over Mount Royal on a beautiful cloudless night would make me whoop with joy at the thought that I had finally escaped from Harperland. If only for a few precious moments. Or smile at the sight of the Muslim crescent and the Christian
Continue readingTag: csec
The Disaffected Lib: This Was No Mistake
Tom Mulcair says it was a “mistake” for Canada to spy on Brazil but there was no mistake involved. On behalf of Canada’s extractive industries the government targeted Brazilian companies. It was an extensive and protracted exercise in commercial espionage. It’s the sort of skulduggery that has Stephen Harper’s hoofprints
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Your organization can join the ‘Protect Our Privacy’ campaign
Protect Our Privacy Position Statement The Protect Our Privacy Coalition has banded together to ensure Canadians get effective legal measures to protect their privacy against government intrusion. The broad-based coalition includes organizations and individuals from a wide range of political perspectives, including citizen-based groups, civil liberties groups, privacy advocates, right-leaning
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Day Dilma Rousseff Took on Stephen Harper
I realize that for many Canadians Latin America begins and ends in Cancun, Cuba, or the Dominican Republic. And that they know as much about the rest of the continent, as they know about Quebec.But if Stephen Harper thinks he can shrug off the allegations about spying on the Brazilians, he
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Is the Harper Regime Spying on the Brazilians?
We know he wants total control. We know that he believes that the end justifies the means. We know that Canadian mining companies are some of the most ruthless and rapacious companies on earth.But did Stephen Harper really authorize the spooks at CSEC to spy on the Brazilians? Read more »
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Blacklocks reports (PDF) on the abuse of a corporate tax credit which served as an “open bar” allowing businesses to have the public fund their basic operations. And it’s surely worth noting that after that abuse was identified, the Cons’ reaction was
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why PRISM Matters
The Guardian has done an excellent and vital job digesting the U.S. National Security Agency PRISM data leaked by Edward Snowden. A good deal of it had come out, in part, in dribs and drabs but it was the British newspaper that put it all together in chilling context. It’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Polly Toynbee discusses how the UK’s attacks on social programs are based on gross ignorance about what social spending does (and who it helps): The Citizens Advice Bureau reports a rise of 78% in the last six months in people needing food banks
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: On watchdogs with no bite
The watchdog charged with keeping tabs on CSEC, Canada’s signals intelligence agency, filed his annual report yesterday and I’d say it justifies recent demands by the federal opposition parties for stronger oversight. The Commissioner, Robert Decary, found evidence suggesting that CSEC may have targeted Canadians for surveillance, which is illegal
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: PM Harper has set up a sophisticated program to read our email and monitor our online activities.
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Good morning folks. I was looking to do some tidying up and editing posts on the left side under News & Opinion from Home and Abroad. These are items from across the internet that I include because of their interest and relevance. This story regarding surveillance caught my eye again and
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Why should CSIS have all the fun?
We learned recently that the policy framework which allows CSIS to trade in information that might be the result of torture, or might lead to torture, or both, was actually a collaborative effort involving several federal agencies and departments. Now we have confirmation that CSEC is playing by the same
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: CSEC is just part of a larger picture
About six weeks ago when CSEC, Canada’s signals intelligence agency, was suddenly getting a lot of attention in the media, I wrote that in order to protect our rights as citizens, greater oversight of CSEC isn’t enough. We need to examine our relationships with intelligence and law enforcement agencies abroad
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: A group effort
A year ago last March, I took Vic Toews to task for granting CSIS the authority to trade in information derived from torture. In that post, I described a scenario in which the torture of one, possibily innocent, person of interest could easily lead to the torture of additional, possibly
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Polly Toynbee writes that there’s no magic involved in collecting fair tax rates from the rich – only a need for the political will to fund public priorities: Cutting the 50% top rate suggests no great enthusiasm for rigorous taxing. Last week’s ONS
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: That didn’t take long
June 10, 2013: Defence Minister Peter MacKay says Canada’s own secretive online and phone metadata surveillance program is “prohibited” from looking at the information of Canadians and is directed at monitoring foreign threats. June 13, 2013: Declassified records show the defence minister quietly issued new instructions to Canada’s electronic eavesdropping
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Holding CSEC to account isn’t enough to protect our rights
Open Media, with support from Leadnow, has begun a campaign to demand answers from the Harper government about exactly what kind of information our national signals intelligence agency is gathering about us. While it’s certainly worth trying to get answers to Open Media’s questions, let’s not lull ourselves into thinking
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