The government is keeping us busy this week. Two days after tabling the “lawful access” bill, government tabled Bill C-31, the so-called “Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act”, a draconian overhaul of the immigration laws aimed at “getting tough” on “bogus” … Read More
Features Blog
Access this
Posted onThis morning, the government tabled its so-called “lawful access” bill — which, if enacted, would enormously expand the ability of law enforcement agencies to engage in telecommunications surveillance (and for certain types of information, without even the benefit of a … Read More
No means no
Posted onJim Bronskill is reporting today on a December 2010 directive recently obtained under the Access to Information Act, in which Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has apparently informed CSIS that the spy agency is expected to rely on information possibly … Read More
Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but it isn’t, it ain’t.
Posted onContrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic. (1) Happy 2012 from the BCCLA National Security Blog. We start off the year with a report … Read More
Extraordinary assistance
Posted onThe CBC is reporting today that U.S. flight logs show Canadian involvement in CIA extraordinary rendition flights: Reprieve, based in London, said a chartered plane long suspected of transferring prisoners repeatedly stopped in Gander, central Newfoundland, on its way to … Read More
Anti-smuggling, or anti-Charter?
Posted onThe Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) may be only a little over a month old, but they’ve already published a terrific paper on the unconstitutionality of Bill C-4, the so-called “anti-smuggling” bill. Readers of these pages will know that … Read More
46 percent
Posted onToday, the BCCLA and Amnesty International Canada renewed calls for the Canadian government to convene a public inquiry into the Afghan detainee scandal, following yesterday’s publication of a report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documenting widespread … Read More
Whispers and innuendo
Posted onToday, the BCCLA wrote to the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Public Safety about a recent government leak of purported intelligence information implicating two Canadians in a terrorist plot. The contents of the leak, the timing of it, … Read More
A hit, a very palpable hit
Posted onGood news from the Federal Court this morning. As those of you who have been following our work at the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC) may recall, the Department of Justice filed a series of applications for judicial review in … Read More
Second verse, same as the first
Posted onLast week, the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) published a declassified version of its review into CSIS’s role in interviewing Afghan detainees. Shortly following media reports in early 2010 that CSIS was involved in interrogating prisoners captured by Canadian Forces … Read More