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Canada, CSEC and mass surveillanceReports that Canada is spying on Brazil should surprise no one
The Toronto Star 07/10/2013 - Pop quiz: Who is Jane Shorten? You don't have a clue, do you? Well, you're not alone. Most of official Ottawa and Canada's press corps likely don't know or remember who she is either. Long before Snowden began spilling his world-reverberating secrets, a courageous and brilliant young Canadian named Jane Shorten exposed the notoriously secretive CSEC's questionable conduct in the amorphous name of national  security. I met Shorten in the mid 1990s while I was an investigative producer at CTV National News. At the time, Shorten had worked for several years at CSEC as a much-respected linguist and translator. Her job was to pluck intelligence from the mountain of raw data that CSEC vacuumed from cyberspace. Shorten learned, for example, that CSEC was routinely collecting industrial and commercial secrets from Canada's trading allies and partners, notably Japan, Mexico and South Korea. She also discovered that the spy service was breaking the law by intercepting the communications of Canadians emanating in Canada. The tipping point for her was listening to a conversation a young Canadian woman working at foreign embassy in Canada had with her gynecologist. Read more
New Commissioner of the CSEC appointed
Canada News Centre 09/10/2013 - The Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Niagara Falls, Minister of National Defence, today announced the appointment of the Honourable Jean-Pierre Plouffe, as the new  Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment. A graduate of the University of Ottawa, Mr. Plouffe was appointed to the Superior Court of Quebec in 1990, and was appointed as a Judge in the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada in March of 2013.
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Torture
Former foreign minister Cannon faces examination in Abdelrazik lawsuit
The Canadian Press 14/10/2013 - Former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon recently spent more than two hours answering questions under oath as part of a lawsuit filed by a Montreal man seeking compensation and an apology from the federal government for his prolonged detention in Sudan. Abousfian Abdelrazik, who was  imprisoned by the Sudanese before being stranded in the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum, put questions to Cannon - now Canada's ambassador to France - through his counsel during a closed-door examination process, a precursor to trial. Abdelrazik's lawyer, Paul Champ, says while particulars of the session - which took place in Ottawa last Thursday - are confidential at this point, his client found the experience both cathartic and challenging. Abdelrazik, 51, launched the lawsuit against the federal government and Cannon in September 2009 over his detention and torture due to alleged terrorist ties.
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US, NSA and mass surveillance
CBC 17/10/2013 - The National Security Agency has been extensively involved in the U.S. government's targeted killing program, collaborating closely with the CIA in the use of drone strikes against terrorists abroad, The Washington Post reported after a review of documents provided by former NSA systems  analyst Edward Snowden. In one instance, an email sent by the wife of an Osama bin Laden associate contained clues as to her husband's whereabouts and led to a CIA drone strike that killed him in Pakistan in October 2012, the Post reported in its online edition Wednesday night. While citing documents provided by Snowden, the Post reported that it was withholding many details about the drone-strike missions at the request of U.S. intelligence officials. Read moreThe troubling State-identified reaction to Washington Post's story on NSA's role in drone strikesNSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally
The Washington Post 14/10/2013 - The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top-secret  documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and "buddy lists" from instant messaging services as they move across global data links. Online services often transmit those contacts when a user logs on, composes a message, or synchronizes a computer or mobile device with information stored on remote servers. Rather than targeting individual users, the NSA is gathering contact lists in large numbers that amount to a sizable fraction of the world's e-mail and instant messaging accounts. Read moreObama Administration fights quick Supreme Court review of NSA programGCHQ accused of monitoring privileged emails between lawyers and clientsBritish Prime Minister endorses Parliamentary investigation into Guardian for publishing Snowden's leaksNew York Times says UK tried to get it to hand over Snowden documentsBrazil announces secure email to counter US spyingNo NSA poster child: The real story of 9/11 hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar |
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Access to information
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Biometrics
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Charities and dissent
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Criminalization of dissent
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Freedom of the press
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Guantanamo
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Immigration and refugee rights
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Privacy
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Rule of law
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Security certificates
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Technology
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Terrorism
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Torture
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War on terror
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Miscellaneous
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The views expressed in this News Digest do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG
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Take action
Stop the deportation of Jose Figueroa!
WeAreJose campaign - Jose Figueroa is a Salvadoran-Canadian living in Langley, B.C. He's married, a loving father of three and a productive member of the community. He has lived in Canada for over 15 years. Jose and Ivania came to Canada as a refugees over 15  years ago, as he faced danger, having spoken out against a repressive military dictatorship during a violent civil war in El Salvador. Canada accepted him on these grounds, but then, 13 years later, the government decided they want to deport him for the same reason he was originally permitted into Canada. And this simply does not make any sense.
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Take action
Tell Harper: No Secret Spying!
Openmedia.ca - According to online surveillance expert Ron Deibert, a secretive Canadian government agency is collecting our sensitive private information, giving them  the power to "pinpoint not only who you are, but with whom you meet, with what frequency and duration, and at which locations." We need to use this moment-when privacy issues are in the spotlight-to get answers. Call on the government to stop this secretive spying scheme, and to tell Canadians exactly what's going on. We deserve to know
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What is the News Digest?
The News Digest is ICLMG's weekly publication of news articles, events, calls to action and much more regarding national security, anti-terrorism, civil liberties and other issues related to the mandate and concerns of ICLMG and its member organizations. The ICLMG is a national coalition of thirty-eight Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the September, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
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