I wonder if the Harper government has really thought this one through. A security certificate issued against Hassan Almrei was thrown out by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley in December of 2009. Almrei filed a civil suit against the government and asked for a summary judgement on the basis that
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Peace, order and good government, eh?: Understatement
As I wrote about last night, former Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day testified before a Federal Court on Thursday to explain why, in 2008, he renewed five security certificates, including one against Mohamed Mahjoub which was the subject of the proceeding. Predictably, Day was asked about the possibility that some
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: It seemed like a good idea at the time
In February of 2008, then Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day renewed the security certificates on five men that CSIS deemed to be threats to national security. A Supreme Court decision in 2007 had forced the Harper government to revise the relevant legislation and reissue the certificates within a year. With
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Huffington Post: CSIS Suspends Two Over Security Lapses
Last month we brought you news on how it had been revealed that CSIS wanted to help ‘advise’ Vic Toews on rewriting Canada’s Online Spying Bill C-30, all in the hopes that with their input the legislation would be passed through government. Although they want to bypass our Internet security
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The Star-Phoenix editorial board comments on the need to crack down on tax havens: (T)he scale of the avoidance Mr. Henry detailed in his report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, drives home just how immoral is the practice of tax avoidance, particularly
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Confirmed again: “Canada may use information obtained through torture”
Last February, we learned that Public Safety Minister Vic Toews had quietly authorized the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to use information gleaned from terror suspects through torture. Today, Toews’ spokesperson, Mike Mueller, confirmed that the Canadian government is open to using information gleaned under dubious circumstances abroad. Mueller was
Continue readingArt Threat: Duets for Abdelrazik help keep human rights abuses in spotlight
Sam Shalabi joins Stefan Christoff on stage at the June 16 launch of Duets for Abdelrazik. To understand the grotesque, inhuman and criminal depths to which the Canadian government will go in order to deny one of its own citizen’s legal rights, one need look no further than the case
Continue readingLeft Over: Faddening Up the Support for Spy Bill
Online Surveillance: CSIS Chief Dick Fadden Supports Lawful Access Bill As ‘Vital’ To National Security- from this morning’s Huffpost Canada Here we go again..the slinking of these circus clowns towards a fascist state looms ever closer..and CSIS is ‘happy’ to see this legislation being pushed onto a continuously
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: The Obert Report: Harper and Obama Argue About The War of 1812 (VIDEO)
Co-hosts Obert and Anita dramatize a recent secret conversation between Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and US President Barack Obama. Harper and his Conservative majority government are militarizing Canadian society. They’re re-writing the country’s history to fit their fledgling right-wing worldview. Canada‘s Independence Day is around the corner and Harper
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Harper’s Canada “Making Up Terror Identities”
In Stephen Harper’s Canada, we’re all potential terror threats. Until proven otherwise. So suggests a recent study by Queens University’s Jeffrey Monaghan and Kevin Walby, published in the journal Policing and Society. Welcome to Multi Issue Extremism (MIE), Canada’s new classification of so-called domestic terror threats. We saw it coming.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading. – It’s a few months old, but the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s comparison of U.S. states with a zero personal income tax to those with the highest tax levels looks like one of the most clear refutations yet of the idea that
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Terror is in the Eye of the Beholder: Alberta’s Counterterrorism Unit to Protect Oil and Gas Industry
Picture 2.png In January, during the week before Canada’s federal hearing on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, the Harper government and Ethical Oil Institute launched an unprecedented attack on environmental organizations opposed to the pipeline and accelerated expansion of the tar sands. Resurrecting Cold War-style ‘terrorist’ rhetoric, conservative politicians like
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Steve Harper’s Taxpayer-Funded Enemies List
Last evening I wrote of a state security operation on behalf of the Tar Sanders that has been launched by Stephen Harper. It is a supposed counter-terrorism organization staffed by the RCMP, CSIS, the Calgary and Edmonton cops and the border patrol agency to “defend” the tar sands operations, the
Continue readingArt Threat: News Remix: March 15-22, 2012 – Bricolage of (some of) last week’s headlines
This is the first in a new (ir)regular installment summing up last week’s news headlines using a ‘remix’ style — a quirky restless glance into the wreckless feckless immediate past. (Inspired by Harpers Magazine’s ‘Scientific Summary’.) Aerial photo of tsunami debris from Japan US peacekeeping forces joined with Congolese army troops
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Work-arounds
Before Justice Dennis O’Connor had even finished his final report on the Maher Arar case, officials in Paul Martin’s government were meeting with their American counterparts to determine how they could make a key portion of O’Connor’s recommendations irrelevant. Writing at Prism, Jeff Sallot has an article based on an
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: I wonder if Justice McDonald would be pleased
CSIS is back in the news, this time defending a policy of paying surprise visits to people at their places of employment. The particular case described in the current news item involves a woman who had previously been visited by agents at her home on three different occasions. At the
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Monsters
A bit less than a month ago we learned that Public Safety Minister Vic Toews had loosened the rules governing the ability of CSIS to trade in information derived from torture. That was bad enough but it gets worse. The federal government has given Canada’s spy service the go-ahead to
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Indulge me for a moment while I become hysterical
Much of the establishment media coverage of the public reaction to Bill C-30 — and Vic Toews initial comment on it in Question Period — has been annoying, to say the least. Did you know it’s naive of us to be outraged at Toews claim that opposing the bill is
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Enemies of the People Identified by Harperites
The Harper regime’s security forces have identified new threats to the people: Greenpeace and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: In a series of documents from 2005 to 2009, the RCMP and CSIS assess “threats from terrorism and extremism” and report growing concerns about environmental and animal-rights groups, as
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Free Mohamed Harkat
Mohamed Harkat has been either imprisoned or subject to restrictive bail conditions for over nine years without ever being convicted of a crime. He’s been the subject of a Security Certificate issued on the recommendation of CSIS since December, 2002. He’ll be back in a courtroom — this time a
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