Winnipeg Free Press 14/11/2012 - It's a story that is becoming all too familiar. Last week, the CBC reported the Canadian Mennonite, a church-based organization with a monthly magazine of the same name, received a letter from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The organization's charitable status was at risk, said the letter, due to its engagement in "partisan political activities." Yet the political criteria of the CRA are applied with remarkable selectivity. On the federal list of registered charities is the Fraser Institute, a self-described "think-tank" whose mission is to promote free-market economics. It produces a guide called Miningfacts.org, which promotes the economic benefits and safety of the mining industry. This puts the institute squarely behind the Harper government's controversial development and export policies on the oil sands industry via the Northern Gateway Project. 

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Global Research 13/11/2012 - One of the key priorities identified in the November 2011 Beyond the Border Action Plan is cybersecurity. The agreement lays the framework for enhancing U.S.-Canada, "bilateral cyber-security cooperation to better protect vital government and critical digital infrastructure and increase both countries' ability to respond jointly and effectively to cyber incidents. This will be achieved through joint projects and operational efforts, including joint briefings with the private sector and other stakeholders, and the enhancement of real-time information sharing between operation centres." The deal will also works towards strengthening, "cooperation on international cyber-security and Internet governance issues to promote prosperity, enhance security and preserve openness in our networked world." Merging cyber threat strategies would force Canada to further bring its security practices in line with American ones and under the reach of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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The Guardian 21/11/2012 - Government proposals to expand secret courts suffered a series of crushing defeats in the House of Lords on Wednesday night, significantly narrowing the scope of the justice and security bill. By margins of more than a hundred votes, peers opposed to the bill limited the government's power to control the deployment of secret intelligence in civil courts and gave judges greater independence. During a lengthy debate in a packed Lords, the government came under ferocious assault from many of the country's most senior retired judges and politicians. The bill has, unusually, been introduced into the Lords first. The defeats will send a powerful message to the House of Commons and the government.  

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The New York Times 18/11/2012 - As President Obama prepares for his second term in the White House, should he put an end to military commissions, used to prosecute captured enemies for war crimes, and finally close Guantánamo? Read the discussion between human rights activists, law professors, and authors. 

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