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The Toronto Star 13/03/2014 - Ottawa has slapped a life-long gag order on bureaucrats and lawyers working in a number of government agencies dealing with sensitive national security information. The changes enacted Wednesday, and published in the Canada Gazette, reveal employees in 12 government divisions - five of which have been disbanded - are now subject to provisions under the Security of Information Act that permanently binds them to secrecy. Those employees, mostly Department of Justice lawyers  and senior bureaucrats at the Privy Council Office, could face as much as 14 years in prison for disclosing "special operational information" without authorization. But while the government maintains the secrecy is necessary to maintain Canada's most "operationally sensitive" information, critics say it's designed to discourage whistleblowing and hamper the public debate now swirling around modern state espionage. "The practical implication of this is that it puts a terrific chill on the possibility of drawing on practitioner expertise, particularly the retired practitioners, to contribute to any kind of debate on intelligence and security matters in Canada if people followed the letter of the law," said Wesley Wark, a University of Ottawa professor and one of Canada's leading experts in national security and intelligence issues. |
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The Huffington Post 05/03/2014 - Telecom companies would be granted immunity for handing over information on their customers without a warrant under a law meant to target cyberbullying, civil liberties groups say. OpenMedia is leading a coalition of organizations that are lining up against Bill C-13, which the
Harper government tabled last fall in response to a series of high-profile cyberbullying cases. Digital law experts and civil liberties groups say the law goes far beyond targeting online bullying, and essentially revives many of the elements of a controversial earlier online spying bill. University of Ottawa digital law professor Michael Geist wrote last November that the proposed law would essentially allow authorities to request data on any telecom subscriber, regardless of whether the request is in connection to the investigation of a crime. |
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Liberté de la presse
Press freedom
Cairo extends detention of Al Jazeera staff
Al Jazeera 12/03/2014 - This week, the court extended Abdullah al-Shami's detention for a further 45 days. Al-Shami has already been held for more than six months and has been on a hunger strike since January 23. Meanwhile, the trial of three Al Jazeera English journalists in Egypt has been adjourned until March 24. The  defendants remain in jail on charges of spreading false news and belonging to a "terrorist group". Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, who have been held for more than two months, appeared in court for the second time last week when witnesses for the prosecution were heard. Al Jazeera rejects the charges against its staff and continues to call for their release. Read more - Lire plus |
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NSA and mass surveillance
NSA et surveillance globale
The Intercept 12/03/2014 - Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process. The classified files - provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden - contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology the  agency has developed to infect potentially millions of computers worldwide with malware "implants." The clandestine initiative enables the NSA to break into targeted computers and to siphon out data from foreign Internet and phone networks. Classification markings on the Snowden documents indicate that NSA has shared many of its files on the use of implants with its counterparts in the so-called Five Eyes surveillance alliance - the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. |
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Rendition to torture and CIA oversight
Renvoi vers la torture et surveillance de la CIA
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Autres nouvelles - More news
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Afghanistan
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Anti-terror legislation
Législation anti-terroriste
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Guantanamo
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National security
Sécurité nationale
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Primauté du droit
Rule of law
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Répression de la dissidence
Repression of dissent
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Surveillance
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Terrorism cases
Procès pour terrorisme
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Vie privée et données
Privacy and data
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The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG - Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC
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Action
Signez la déclaration Protéger notre Vie Privée maintenant
The government is about to ram through a new law, Bill C-13, that will provide immunity to telecom companies that hand over our sensitive information to authorities even when they don't have a warrant. |
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Action
Canadian campaign against mass surveillance: Call on your MP to stand against costly online spying
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What is the News Digest? Qu'est-ce que la Revue de l'actualité?
The News Digest is ICLMG's weekly publication of news articles, events, calls to action and much more regarding national security, anti-terrorism, and civil liberties. 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. +++
La revue de l'actualité est notre publication hebdomadaire de nouvelles, d'évènements, d'appels à l'action, et beaucoup plus, entourant la sécurité nationale, la lutte au terrorisme, et les libertés civiles. La CSILC est une coalition nationale de 38 organisations de la société civile canadienne qui a été créée suite aux attentats terroristes de septembre 2001 aux États-Unis.
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Senator Mark Udall and then CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston suggested last fall? And is the White House continuing to withhold 9,000 pages of documents without invoking privilege, as McClatchy reported yesterday? We can be sure about one thing: The Obama White House has covered up the Bush presidency's role in the torture program for years. Specifically, from 2009 to 2012, the administration went to extraordinary lengths to keep a single short phrase, describing President Bush's authorization of the torture program, secret.
