Is Chair of SIRC an honorary position too?
Chuck Strahl's name finally popped up! Five months ago he was named as the new head of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the agency that's supposed to hold CSIS to…
csis
Elizabeth May wants CSIS to weigh in on Canada-China treaty
Green Party leader Elizabeth May is spot on again! She’s demanding that CSIS should weigh in on the Canada-China treaty, due to be ratified by cabinet this week. The Harper…
Oh look. Security certificates are in the news again.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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’…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…