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  • Coalition - Against Pepper Spray
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  • Steve Mann - Deconstructing the Video Surveillance Superhighway
  • JUSTRITT News! -  newsletter for Rittenhouse:

  • Archive:
    - Summit Reports - Quebec - 2001
    - Riot in Toronto -  Showdown at Queen's Park - June 15 2000
    - A16 -  Police Abuse in Washington at the anti IMF Demonstrations - April 2000
    - Police Abuse at World Trade Org Demo in Seattle -  Dec/99
    - the Protest at the Vancouver Hyatt - Collected Accounts


    Latest NEWS:
    -----------------------------------
    At the STAR
    - Privacy under attack - Watchdog: Government has lost 'moral compass' Nov.24.2002
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    Police and demos - May 2002
      Toronto Police Accountability Coalition draft brief on police and demonstrations and other stuff is at
    http://www.tpac.ca
    --------
    Montreal - Apr.28.2002
    - Police defend arrests of demonstrators
    - Advocacy groups denounce police tactics
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    Ontario Common Front Opposes the Tory Convention(Toronto, March 22nd & 23rd 2002)
    Page of Complete Reports Includes
  • Help with Legal Support
  • One of the 58 (arrested) by Stephanie Holliday
  • Report & Photos on the Protests By Gary Morton
  • Video Activists Coverage
  • Photos by Doug & Graeme

  • ---------
    At Eye - April.2002
    -   Police picnic (Protesters who gathered for Tory convention say police violence reached new heights)
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    INTERROGATION AT US BORDER by John Clarke – Feb.2002
    * US Authorities Detain OCAP organizer John Clarke and demand to know the whereabout of Osama Bin Laden
    --------
    At the Nation – Feb.2002
    - A Prayer for America by US Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
    - Better Safe...? (racial profiling) Diary of a Mad Law Professor by Patricia J. Williams
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    ACLU News - Jan.26.2002
    - Oppose Attempts to Allow Unchecked Domestic Spying!
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    At Mainline News - Jan.24.2002
    - The Bushes, the CIA and the Bin Ladens
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    At Counterpunch - Jan.24.2002
    - Former Beirut Hostage Speaks Out on the Guantanamo Prisoners
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    At Fair.org - Jan.24.2002
    - ABC Omits U.S. From Human Rights Report
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    The Detailed Conspiracy Theories on 9/11 - Jan.2002
    - Several files detailing the strange facts and possible conspiracies in regards to Sept.11.2001
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    At the Toronto Star - Jan.3.2002
    - Don't lie! You're on candid camera
    ---------
    At the National Post - Dec.28.2001
    Changes would allow search warrants from abroad to be executed in Canada
    - Ottawa ready to cede legal powers: Fighting cyber crime:
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    Protesters March to Reclaim Civil Liberties as the War Rages On – Dec.15.2001
       Toronto residents gathered at City Hall Saturday to oppose the loss of civil liberties contained in government anti terrorist measures.
        - Read the full article with photos.
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    Bill C36 - BUSTED! Cops Remove C36 Protesters  - Dec.2001
    - Updates are at http://alberta.indymedia.org/
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     Protest Begins Against Canada's Severe Anti Terrorist Legislation – Sat.Dec.8.2001
     The Bloor West for Peace group kicked off protest opposition to Bill C36 with a picket at liberal MP Tony Ianno's office in the Italian neighbourhood of Toronto.
    - read the full article with photos
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    Bin Laden Tape – Sequel to the Running Man – Dec.13.2001
       Trial and execution via Television from a Stephen King horror story is now reality.
       - read the article.
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    At the National Post - Dec.28.2001
    Changes would allow search warrants from abroad to be executed in Canada
    - Ottawa ready to cede legal powers: Fighting cyber crime:
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    Protesters March to Reclaim Civil Liberties as the War Rages On – Dec.15.2001
       Toronto residents gathered at City Hall Saturday to oppose the loss of civil liberties contained in government anti terrorist measures.
     - Read the full article with photos.
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    CIA and Corporate America By Steve Kangas  - Dec.2001
    http://www.korpios.org/resurgent/L-overclass.html
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    LIBERTY V.S. SECURITY - Nov.2001
    - web page of articles on Canada's anti terrorism legislation Bills C35 and C36 and the War in Afghanistan  written by Connie Fogal, Director, Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee
    ---------
    Liberal Bill C-36 – Invasion of the Terrorist Body Snatchers (Nov.15.2001)
    - read the full article
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    The Other Side of Policing - Oct.28.2001
    (Toronto Alternative to the International Police Convention)
    By Gary Morton

    Photos:
    http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc1.jpg
    http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc2.jpg
    http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc3.jpg
    http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc4.jpg

       The Saturday march was exiting Grange Park when I arrived. Catching the tail end I noticed people frowning from cars as it crossed Queen St. Obviously most locals view policing critics and protesters as misfits, rebels without a cause, feminist crazies or friends of criminals.

       That view is incorrect. The groups behind the weekend actions had a detailed agenda that is impossible to cover in a short article. It adds up to a mini convention of public groups on policing, running counter to the Police Chiefs' meeting.

       A Friday night public forum featured a few speakers. Most memorable was Pierre George's complete story of the shooting of his brother Dudley by police. Not only did police raid the park and shoot Dudley, they also worked to delay his medical treatment. Pierre recounts driving many kilometers on a flat tire, trying to get to the hospital, only to be grabbed and charged by police before he got Dudley into emergency. Dudley had been alive on the drive to the hospital, but delays due to police may have led to his death.

       Events continued Saturday morning at Grange Park and the march headed out for the Police Convention. Though we never got anywhere near Front Street. A wall of police met us at King Street so we turned and gathered in the park behind the CBC building. At that location a line of police stood behind a ribbon, and beyond them were more riot cops and teams of horseback officers. Plainclothes officers looked on as the rally began.

       The show of police force was in place for the 11,000 chiefs, sheriffs and other police personnel at Skydome and the Metro Convention Centre. Also receiving protection were Smith and Wesson, Glock, and Humane Restraint, which had complete weapons shows for the police.

       I had to delay this article due to a fever virus that came on suddenly. In memory the rally took place under a chilly sky of early winter with protesters often taking amazed glances at the police army on the other side of the ribbon. The vision of police still seems like another hallucination of the fever … the windy towers and parks of that segment of downtown holding nothing but roaming columns of police and horses, like social cleansing had finally been completed and no one was left.

       We were on the free side and there were some fine speeches at the rally. Don Weitz and the Dope Poets Society did poetry. We heard from police critics and those close to victims of police shootings. A flyer had photos of ten shooting victims, and speakers mentioned how hard it is to fight police on shootings. One example is the Committee for Justice for Otto Vass. They have only 200 dollars while the police association is spending money in wads of hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid the officers that beat Otto to death.

       Anna Willats' speech on policing issues should be made to the Chiefs. It won't be because people seen as critics aren't wanted. The authorities want to define the limits of the debate, keeping certain ideas out of the discussion.

       The debate police want to entertain is of mechanisms for delivering a law and order agenda on behalf of the state and corporate interests. Usually it is between community policing (police on foot and cycles) and the standard cops making calls in fast cruisers. High tech is also a facet with police now wanting to militarize with helicopters, super surveillance and weapons.

       If a message got across to me it is that most police critics favour a different kind of policing. Cops in fast cruisers often don't arrive when women beaten in their homes make 911 calls … and when they do they still tend to treat women as the property of men. Community policing is seen by many as harassment. Police on foot go out from mini stations and ticket and jail everyone they see as undesirable … meaning they tend to go after the poor, youth and people of color.

       Activists see policing as something that should rise out of a general social justice agenda or a world that works for all. Give us affordable housing, childcare, commitment to addressing racism and homophobia … the list goes on … and there'll be very little crime. Nowadays we must also say give us peace and not war.

       Anna Willats had a list of the police workshops, and read them out. Social justice was not on the police agenda. It was more a law and order agenda. - criminalization as opposed to liberation. No workshops on violence against women, racism and so on. But stuff like Fighting Terrorism at the Olympics, Every Police Chief has Role in the Fight Against Terror, Street of Madness, policing the mentally ill, etc.

       In response the coalition followed up the rally with its own workshops at the University of Toronto, addressing the issues the police want to ignore.

       The new focus on terrorism is also a concern, with many people opposing Bill C-36, which grants the police incredible powers. Things like breaking into your house without telling you or placing you in arbitrary detention. Though the RCMP chief says the new laws won't be used against protesters and activists, most people think they will. There has already been a movement in the media to label Canadian groups as terrorists. A number of media outlets have called the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty/Ontario Common Front terrorists and a special meeting was held between the mayor and police officials to find ways of breaking up the group. You can be sure that they didn't suggest eliminating poverty as a way of getting rid of OCAP.

        In the National Post the Canadian Columbian Association, which held a recent peace mission to Columbia, has been labeled a terrorist group. Most unlucky are Animal Activists as a Toronto Star columnist has given all animal defenders a blanket label of terrorist, regardless of the group.

       I wish visions of a police state were the fever and not the reality. But the police powers are in place and the tendency is going to be to expand their use. Especially when the media is pushing new panic buttons every day.

    For poetry from the protest see
    http://www.justusleaguerecords.com

    The Rally, Forum and Workshops included the following groups:
    Anti-Racism Media Education Group / Black Action Defence Committee / Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty / Coalition for a Public Inquiry Into Ipperwash / Committee for Justice for Otto Vass / Committee to Stop Targeted Policing / CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) local 1281 / CUPE local 3903 / Digital Praxis / Free  Mumia Now Coalition / International Socialists / June 13 Committee / Maggies / Metro Network for Social Justice / New Socialist Group / Ontario Coalition Against Poverty / OPIRG-Toronto / People Against Coercive Treatment / Toronto Action for Social Change / Toronto Friends of MOVE / Toronto Mobilization for Global Justice / Toronto Rebuilding the Left / Toronto and York Region Labour Council

    For info call 416-656-2232
    e-mail oct27protest@hotmail.com
    --------
    At Mainline – Oct.28.2001
    - Gestapo Approved: House OKs New Police Powers
    - The New McCarthyism: Woman in Black, Kofi Annan
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    Flag Burner gets beaten in Jail - Oct.2001
       After burning the American Flag I was jumped by under-cover cops who made sure to act in the most violent way possible.
    - read the full article at Indy Media
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    At the Varsity - Oct.27.2001
    - Secret service spied at U of T
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    Canada-Colombia Solidarity Campaign Accused of Being Terrorist Group
    TORONTO -- Oct. 23 -- The Canada-Colombia Solidarity Campaign is defending itself against a false accusation by National Post columnist Diane Francis.  In an Oct. 16 column, Francis called the group a terrorist front.
             The CCSC does solidarity work with Colombian groups who are resisting violence and working on peaceful alternatives.
             The group says, "The attempt to discredit the CCSC is a part of the overall strategy to keep the invisible struggles invisible, to conflate them with terrorism, and to justify the repression and destruction of alternatives. On October 15, the U.S.suggested that a war on Colombia would not be ruled out as part of its campaign against terrorism."
             The full response from the CCSC is at
    http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/minga/debatewithfrancis.htm
    and the group has also posted a statement of its position, goals and efforts at
    http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/minga/offical-response.htm
    ---------
    At the Law Union - October 16.2001
        In the wake of September 11, the Commons had little trouble  passing the new Immigration and Refugee "Protection" Act.
    - Read  Bill C-11 as passed by the House of Commons.
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    At the Star - Oct.16.2001
    -Sweeping anti-terror powers unveiled -Bill proposes arrest without warrant, 72 hours' detention
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    Neo-Nazis Attack in Parkdale – Oct.15.2001
       A group of activists were attacked on Saturday, October 13th at the corner of Queen and Lansdowne in Parkdale. Since the tragedy of September 11th there has been an increase in sightings of Neo-nazi groups on Queen Street west between Dufferin and Roncesvalles Ave. There have been unconfirmed reports of attacks but nothing this bold. In broad daylight on a busy street corner they jumped a comrade who was on the megaphone doing a speak-out against the war and against the racist backlash. After the incident, we continued our leafleting and began calling on the community to join us for a rally on Thursday, October 18th at 6:30 p.m. at the Parkdale Library. The response from the people we spoke to was overwhelmingly "We don't Want Nazis in our neighbourhood!" We are calling on all community members to mobilize and send a strong message to these thugs. We will not accept this in our community! We have the right to free speech and we have the right to live without fascist intimidation. Join Us on Thursday.
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    Toronto Anti-War Rally Targets Racist Media –Sat.Oct.13.2001
       The Coalition Against War and Racism met near the U.S. Consulate today to oppose the war, Canada's involvement in it and the biased media coverage that has been prevalent since September 11th.
    - Read the full report with photos by Gary Morton
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    PROTECT CIVIL RIGHTS - From the NDP(Oct.12.2001)
       Some 20 leaders of community organizations met for breakfast this morning with Hampton, MPPs Peter Kormos and Michael Prue. They expressed their concerns about the Conservative government's erosion of civil rights in Ontario.  In Question Period, Kormos had some harsh words for the solicitor general, who tacitly backs a policy of ethnic profiling and insidious police surveillance hit lists.   "First you appoint a security adviser who believes in and advocates ethnic profiling. Now your Solicitor General says that he endorses the Toronto Police's thousand-person hit list, their target list.  The question is, how do you get on this target list, this hit list, and what do innocent people do to get their names off this list?  Ethnic profiling, geographic profiling-call it by any other name; it still means that people are being targeted because of where they come from. That means that they're being targeted because of the colour of their skin, because of their surnames, because of their religions.  Apparently, a list of 1,000 people exists here in Toronto and people want to know what criteria get people on that list. One person told us-these were hard-working people that Howard Hampton and I met with-they're afraid. They're afraid that they're being spied on for no good reason. One person told us today, 'I never thought that I'd experience in my lifetime what Japanese-Canadians went through.' What we're asking of you, sir, is very simple. Put it on the record today. What are the criteria for the creation of a surveillance list that you, as Solicitor General, endorse?"
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    At the Star - Oct.11.2001
    - Fingerprinting at the airport  - Air travellers to face security gauntlet
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    At Mother Jones – Oct.2001
    - Speak No Evil ... The government can be expected to clam up in times of war -- but why are citizens muzzling themselves?
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    At the Toronto Star - Oct.2001
    -Random police videos ruled illegal
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    At Fair.org - Oct.2001
    -Can the New York Times Count-- or Quote-- Peace Activists?
    -Media March to War (viscious quotes from US papers)
    -The "Wimp" Factor: Goading to Shed Blood
    -Action Alert: Nightly News Glosses Over Anti-Terrorism Act
    -Killing Civilians: Behind the Reassuring Words
    -Media Pundits Advocate Civilian Targets
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    New legal guide for activists - Oct.2001
    The Ontario Common Front Legal Committee has just released a new legal
    guide for activists.
    please check it out on-line at:
    http://www.ocap.ca/legalguide/
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    From the NDP – Oct.2001
    Harris' War on Immigrants
    RACIST POLICY A SHAME- The premier is fanning the flames of fear and racism with his newly announced war on immigrants, policies that could allow police to single out and scapegoat people based on skin colour, religion, language or birthplace, NDP Leader Howard Hampton charged today.  He chastised the premier for media comments that linked immigrants with danger and terrorists. "Premier, people have died (in the US attacks), so people are scared. But could you tell me how fanning the flames of fear, how equating immigration with terrorism, does anything positive, does anything to help the situation in Ontario today? People what to know what you can effectively do rather than simply fanning fears," Hampton said.
    'ETHNIC PROFILING' A CONCERN- Human rights Critic Peter Kormos today called on the Conservative government to distance itself from a proposal by Lewis Mackenzie's that racial profiling is necessary in Ontario to fight terrorism.  The premier has hired Mackenzie as a special security advisor to the Conservatives. In a radio interview September 12, the retired major-general said:  "I'm sorry, more current attention is going to have to be paid to people who are obviously, potentially part of that group. ... At some stage you have to say, "Look, I'm terribly sorry the odds are you're not involved but you're going to receive more thorough interrogation." "There is no place for this type of policy in Ontario," said Kormos. "The Conservatives should distance themselves from Mr. Mackenzie's 'ethnic profiling' proposal and promise Ontario that people will never be targeted because of their skin colour, the language they speak, and the place they were born."
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    Other Views of the War on Terrorism - Oct.3.2001
    -Concordia Student Union Accused of Links with Terrorists and Bin Laden
    -Pakistan on the Brink by Tariq Ali
    -The Terrorism Trap by Richard J. Barnett
    -Genocide or peace  We can feed the starving Afghan millions or mount a military campaign. We can't do both
    -Polarization - a war for capitalism
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    Paranoia via Mike Harris and Ottawa - Oct.3.2001
       Ontario Premier Mike Harris is running scared of Terrorists. Appearing by videotape out of fear of the public legislature, he appoints a general and RCMP chief to hunt alleged terrorists and creates an elite police unit to harass immigrants.
    -Elite police unit to hunt deportees
    -Terrorist fundraisers will face jail
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    Psychiatric Colonization of the Normal - Oct.3.2001
    -Prescription For Scandal:   Biological Psychiatry's Faustian Pact
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    Police Dog Critical Mass Ride – Sept.29.2001
       The Toronto police put last night's Critical Mass Bike ride under special surveillance. Four cruisers showed up, ticketed one rider, then followed the ride about the city at its tail with their spinners flashing like it was some sort of emergency. The ride ended at the small park by Hart House and people dispersed in various directions to confuse police.
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    At Wired - Sept.11.2001
    - Protestors Wish for Cams to Scram.
    Angered over the proliferation of video cameras and webcams in public places, 22 groups in seven countries mug for the cameras and get their 15 minutes of fame.
    By Julia Scheeres.
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    Cops attack Toronto Reclaim the Streets, 3 arrested - 18 Aug 2001
    From: Graeme Bacque <gbacque@netzero.net>
       Toronto's 'swinest' must have been craving an arrest fix or something - its been a bit of a drought for them just lately in terms of picking off activists. The dry spell came to an abrupt end at about nine this evening when the cops attacked a peaceful Reclaim the Streets celebration, charging into the crowd with horses, arresting three people and badly pepper-spraying a number of others.
       People had begun to gather in Grange Park in downtown Toronto about seven this evening, bringing drums, costumes and even a DJ who showed up complete with a portable sound system and records. A barbecue was set up and hot corn-on-the-cob was shared among the participants. At about quarter to eight the boisterous crowd of about 300 people made its way south to John Street, then down to Queen Street West for a rousing street celebration!
       As usual, the cops were there in droves ( something about these RTS events really seems to freak them out) but initially they kept their distance. The DJ set up his equipment atop a large trailer that had been left at the curb shortly before we arrived. Drums pounded, people danced, and there were even home movies being shown on a tiny hand-held screen! The BBQ was set up on the street and still more sweet corn was devoured.
       Shortly before nine the cops made their first move, walking through the crowd (which had swelled as passersby joined in) and ordered people to retrace their steps north to the park. Folks responded by congregating in the intersection of Queen and John, chanting loudly as the cops formed a line along the south side of the street. The mounted unit advanced slowly, forcing people back up on to John Street.
       Just south of the park some people attempted a flanking action, moving west along an intersecting street with the apparent aim of going back down to Queen St. At this point the cops made their move to arrest a woman, whom they'd apparently targeted for allegedly drawing on one of their horse trailers with chalk. Other people scrambled to her defense, the horses came rushing in, jets of pepper spray flew, and two more people were subsequently arrested.
       One young man required medical attention after getting hit directly in the face with a sustained burst of pepper spray. A number of other people were also affected. At this point, the people still there decided to go to 52 Division to offer solidarity to the arrestees.  :
       The young woman who was arrested first was released at a little after eleven this evening. As of midnight two others remain in police custody, and about forty people are maintaining a vigil outside the station.
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    Genoa News Digest (young man murdered by police, hundreds injured) July.2001
    - Protestor Shot Dead by Paramilitary Police in Genoa
    - Vigils for Victims of Police/State Violence at Genoa Summit
    - Click here to read a full news digest with photos
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    At Other Media - July/2001
    -Free trade', rape and murder
    -Human rights abuses with small arms: Illustrative cases from Amnesty International
    -USA - Civil Rights Groups Fight Eviction of Battered Women Under "Zero Tolerance" Housing Policy
    -Mother Jones Goes to Prison - The Real Price of Prisons
    -Australia - Helen Caldicott On Star Wars, Space War... Rick Rozoff
    -AP: Rightist rampage in Colombia kills at least 10
    -Crown Attorney on Trial: Judge takes dim view of attempts to keep john clarke in the slammer
    -Inmates face eye test for drugs
    -Premier silent on Ipperwash memo
    -Political Prisoners at the United Nations
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    AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL News- June.26.2001
    Americas: UN Day for the victims of torture -- a day for remembrance, a day for action
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    from the NDP- june.26.2001
    Death of Dudley George - PREMIER IMPLICATED - The premier has been implicated by new evidence that has surfaced in a civil suit launched by the family of peaceful native protester Dudley George, who was shot dead by an OPP officer at Ipperwash Provincial Park.  A government memo referring to ONAS (Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat), the AG (Attorney General) and the P (Premier) plotting to end the park occupation in 1995.  Ever since then, the Conservatives and the Premier himself have denied wrongdoing, but they have stubbornly refused to hold a public inquiry to reveal the truth.  NDP Leader Howard Hampton repeated his call for an inquiry and says the George family would drop its lawsuit if one were held.  Taxpayers have paid more than $500,000 in legal fees to keep the Premier out of court and likely hundreds of thousands more for the other cabinet ministers involved.
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    BARCELONA, Spain Protest - Reports from Plaça Catalunya - Sun, 24 Jun 2001
    From:web@j25.org
       Today, we are told, was the pacifist event. During said event Burger king lost its signs and all its windows, many shops on one  side of the road were smashed and banks locks were glued and windows covered in Grafiti.
    We spent a lot of the afternoon in bars building international links. At one point the police came under fire from bottles but responded by shooting the fuck out of everyone. The day has been charcterised   by skirmishes and extreme force from the police. Quite a few people have decided   they have had enough and have called it a day I think. It is very good that we have been able to regroup etc, given police tactics. When we were able to  push lines back and the police on other side of square were attacked with bottles which was empowering.
    http://www.j25.org/latest.htm
    http://barcelona.indymedia.org/
    http://uk.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=6357
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    Monsanto and the Drug War in Colombia -June, 2001
    http://www.corpwatch.org
    Toxic Drift: Monsanto and the Drug War in Colombia
       The United States has sprayed hundreds of thousands of gallons of Roundup, an herbicide produced by chemical and biotechnology giant,  Monsanto, in recent years as part of the drug war in Colombia.
    -------
    Harris's Ass Saved! - June, 2001
       Anti-poverty and labour activists rejoiced when Mike Harris's Ass was handed over to the people. After being captured on June 15th and spending the weekend in custody.  Mike Harris's ass was returned to the hands of the OCAP allies, who will be taking it on tour for a good kicking to raise money to support the OCAP-initiated campaign of economic disruption set to begin on October 16th, 2001.
       The ass was seized when over 30 officers of the law surrounded a small house in the Annex, blocked all exits, and swarmed the 4 or 5 puzzled revolutionaries who were relaxing on the porch enjoying the day. Officers were quick to identify the bouncy buttocks warming in the sun as dangerous instruments of violence, and fearing the buttocks might be deployed at the (OCAP June 15) public assembly that was to take place that evening, the officers grabbed them and whisked them into a nearby van.  Inside sources said that Metro Police abducted the ass to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Police Riot at Queen's Park and their ongoing tradition of completely absurd, unaccountable and pointless use of force.
       The hindquarters were returned without comment when the detectives concluded their weekend-long investigation of them.
       You can see the ass and kick it (for a small donation to OCAP) at upcoming rallies, fundraisers, GMM's and direct actions.
    Now that the Retreat is Over, let's kick Mike Harris's Ass!
    It's good for your health! It's good for your workplace!
    It's good for your education! It's good for your conscience!
    It's good for society as a whole!
    In solidarity,
    Neil :)
    Neil Braganza <braganza@YorkU.CA>
    --------
    Swedish Police Violence Protested in Toronto – Thurs.June.21
       A protest took place at the Swedish Trade Office in Toronto today. The issue being  the police attack on protesters at the EU meeting in Gothenburg Sweden. Three people were shot by the police in Sweden where demonstrators were opposing the idea of Fortress Europe, neo-liberalism and the presence of George Bush and his scrapping of Kyoto and selling of the new Star Wars Militarization of Space Plan (NMD).
    Toronto Photos:
    Protester chalks out body mark
    http://home.eol.ca/~command/gothen1.jpg
    And lies shot on the pavement
    http://home.eol.ca/~command/gothen2.jpg
       The Toronto protest was an information picket. People signed a petition, spoke through a horn and handed info to passersby.
       Info on Swedish Police Violence – In Sweden police targeted a high school that was legally being used as an organising centre for the protests. Hundreds of protesters were trapped inside and many arrested.
       The next morning 5,000 people attempted to march to the European leaders' summit, which was sealed off behind giant steel walls. Police halted the march with a barricade and started batoning people. Among the first victims was Knut Jensen, convenor of the print workers' union at one of Norway's main newspapers. He fell with blood pouring from his head.
       After the baton assault a snarling pack of police dogs and their handlers appeared. They tore into the march and dozens of protesters needed treatment for bite wounds. Seconds later baton-wielding mounted police charged into the rear of the demonstration. Only after these assaults did some protesters start throwing stones. Some went on to vent their rage at shops along the city's main street, mainly hitting symbols of the global system like McDonald's.
       The Shooting - People were dancing, enjoying themselves. Then the police started charging. As police kept charging, some people started fighting back, throwing stones. The police then fired leaving a young man on the ground.
       Three people were shot by police in the square and the next morning some 30,000 people joined an already planned demonstration. Some of them accepted the entirely false government claims that the police acted in self defence.
       Others condemned the police, but also accepted media tales of violent protesters. Many others understood that the police alone were responsible for the violence.
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    Notes & Photos on the June 16-17 Festival of Life and Nonviolent Resistance to the Hamilton War Show
    June 16.17.2001
    - read the entire report with photos
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    Protest Photos – Kimy Pernia Domico - June 15th
       There was a protest and march to the Columbian Consulate in Toronto yesterday evening. It was on behalf of kidnapped Columbian Indigenous leader Kimi Pernia Domico.
       It is believed that he was kidnapped by paramilitary forces backed by the Columbian military and business interests.
       Protesters chanted against plan Columbia and Free Trade with chants like He was taken alive, we want him back alive and Free Kimy not Free Trade.

    Here are some digital photos anyone can use.
    http://home.eol.ca/~command/kimi1.jpg
    http://home.eol.ca/~command/kimi2.jpg
    http://home.eol.ca/~command/kimi3.jpg
    http://home.eol.ca/~command/kimi4.jpg
    http://home.eol.ca/~command/kimi5.jpg
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    Diemaco Transformed...For a Day – May.2001
    from Homes not Bombs
     "TASC" <tasc@pop.web.ca>
       On a beautiful spring day May 13, about 30 people held a mothers day march, picnic for peace and non-competitive badminton festival at Kitchener, Ontario arms manufacturer Diemaco.
    - read the full article
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    Spirited Free Mumia Demonstration  in Toronto – May.12.2001
    - read a full report with photos
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    Police Violence at  the Summit of the Americas - April 20.2001

  • Summit Reports from Quebec

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    POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST WOMEN - May.9.2001 NDP justice critic Peter Kormos called on the provincial Conservatives today to conduct an independent investigation into police brutality of women, including strip searches, in Ottawa.  The Niagara Centre MPP's quest for an independent, open review follows the release of a disturbing home videotape of an Ottawa police officer bashing a woman's head into the hood of a car. He says having Ottawa police investigate itself isn't good enough.
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    Report on the Memorial Rally for Otto Vass - Feb.9.2001
    (Police killings and brutality in Toronto)
     - read the full report
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    Read - Who's the Target?  - Sept.2000
    (An Evaluation of Community Action Policing by the Toronto Committee to Stop Targeted Policing)
    Posted at the bottom of our Target Policing Opposed page
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    Craig Bromell threatens to sue board over strip search statistics - Dec.2000
       Craig Bromell, president of the Toronto's police union, has threatened to sue the force's civilian overseers unless they stop requesting statistics on strip searches performed by officers. Bromell said he is fed up with the "second guessing" and the excessive scrutiny placed on his union's 7,000 members by the Toronto Police Services Board.
       In 1998, complaints surfaced from individuals who said they were strip-searched for minor offences. A report in 1999 set strip-search guidelines. It requires  officers to fill out a report each time they conduct a strip search and requires that statistics on these incidents be kept.
       Chief Julian Fantino agrees with Bromell and wants the compiling of statistics stopped. In spite of that the board refused Chief Fantino's request and asked that the statistics compilation continue.
       Angered by the response, Mr. Bromell said his union would be "looking at getting a legal opinion on whether we are going to challenge it or not."
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    Police board delegates on a leash - December, 2000
       Toronto Council now requires councillors who are members of the police services board to report to one of its committees every six months.
       Councillor Jack Layton proposed the accountability plan saying it will give council a chance to debate police issues thoroughly when the council's representatives on the board report in every six months.
       The report would be debated in committee, where the public could make representations, and the committee would send a report to council, where it could be discussed by all councillors.
        "Council can pass resolutions suggesting changes in direction or new ideas that emerge through the community," he said.
        The three council representatives on the police board are Mayor Mel Lastman, who is automatically a member, and councillors Bas Balkisson  and Gloria Lindsay-Luby, whom the council appointed to the board for  the first time.
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    Cops Complaints up 30% - Dec.2000
    The Toronto police force has reported a 30% hike in public complaints against officers. Several officers are facing criminal and disciplinary charges, and there are allegations that Internal Affairs staff lack good investigatory skills. Of the dramatic rise in complaints -- 378 allegations from Jan. 1 to June 30,  a large percentage is due to 25 officers charged with serious criminal offences, including manslaughter, sexual assault, fraud and breach of trust.
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    UN on Canada and Torture - 2000
    The UN has recently expressed concern about Canada’s use of force and torture against women, Aboriginal people, “rejected asylumseekers” and APEC protesters. The United Nations Committee against Torture released a report which focusses on activities within Canada.
    - read the report
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    Read the citizens information flyer opposing Police Helicopters in Toronto
    Flyer at Election 2000 -  Stop the Police Helicopters. Before It's Too Late!
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    Male Police Goons Raid Female Bath House - Sept.15.2000
       Officers from 52 Division Toronto showed Thursday night to harass several hundred women gathered at the Club Toronto baths for a ladies only event.
       Police say it was to search for any kind of liquor license violations, and they did not even bother to send in female officers.
       Event organizer Carlyle Jansen said, "We thought they would have had the courtesy to send female officers." The women at the event felt harassed."
       The women had a special occasion permit.
       When asked about sending male officers, Supt. Bill Blair stated, "We don't have the luxury of picking the gender of our officers to attend our calls."
       Police spent three hours touring the site and Councillor Kyle Rae says the police were mainly interested in seeing naked women. He is demanding severe discipline of the officers involved.
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    Saskatoon Cop to Stand Trial in Freezing Case - Sept.11.2000
        One of two veteran Saskatoon police constables alleged to have abandoned an aboriginal man in the freezing cold has been ordered to stand trial.
       A judge has ruled there is enough evidence to try Const. Kenneth Munson on charges of assault and unlawful confinement. The charges followed a complaint by Darrell Night that two police officers picked him up in their cruiser and then abandoned him on Saskatoon's outskirts in late January.
       The RCMP is investigating allegations that Saskatoon police routinely picked up aboriginal men and dumped them in remote areas. Of seven cases being investigated, five involve aboriginal men who died.
    No charges have been laid in those cases.
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    Fantino Speaks out in Favour of Police Lawbreaking - Sept.11.2000
       Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino says police officers should be allowed to break the law under certain circumstances. "Undercover officers need greater flexibility to get evidence," Fantino told  the press in Toronto.
       In this Fantino backs a resolution by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police urging the federal government to allow officers greater freedom to break the Criminal Code.
       "They're not asking to break the law willy-nilly here -- there would be stringent controls," Police Services Board chairman Norm Gardner said.
       Unfortunately Gardner's statement is incorrect. The law as proposed to the Canadian federal justice minister would allow police to commit criminal offences such as buying and selling drugs, using or selling counterfeit documents, communicating for the purposes of prostitution, physical assault and the destruction of property. Police would gain immunity in all but the most serious crimes. Only murder, manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and sexual offences would not be allowed under this insane law.  Police have even proposed that they be allowed to freely beat and torture informants who threaten an undercover officer's identity.
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    New site page: Target Policing Protests and the Beating Death of Otto Vass - Aug.17.2000
       Media reports today are to the effect that Mayor Lastman wants to bring in Target Policing all year round in Toronto and he will make it a key plank in his fall election campaign.
       The truth is that citizens are protesting against this form of discriminatory policing and even Chief Julian Fantino is said to oppose it. I have put up a web page and photos covering the recent protest on Target Policing and the beating death of Otto Vass to draw attention to this issue.
       Please read it at - http://www.interlog.com/~command/targetp.htm
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    A Tale of Harris Jails - A Toronto Tenant Activist Reports on the Terrible Conditions inside Harris' Jails. He underwent five weeks of incarceration after an official of the Federation of Metro Tenants called police during a dispute and had him taken into custody.
    - Read the full article
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    At Eye Magazine Toronto- Aug.2000
    Dungeon on the Don: Conditions at Ontario's jails are appalling, and could get worse as the province takes a more punitive approach.
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    Julian Fantino Criticized for Actions in Land Deal Investigation - Aug.22.2000
       Some city councilors feel Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino acted improperly when he spoke with the Ontario Provincial Police about a city-ordered investigation into improper land leases.
       Three months after Toronto City Council asked the OPP to investigate an improper land lease by a city agency to sports and grocery magnate Steve Stavro, the deal has yet to be investigated.
       Councilors are wondering why Fantino got involved in the first place. Councillor Michael Walker says Fantino inserted himself into the issue. Councilor Sandra Bussin also wants to know why the chief of police got involved, saying she thought it would have been best if Fantino had not entertained any discussions with the OPP.
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    Vicious Attack on Teen puts Toronto Cop behind Bars - Aug.2000 - Constable Peter Grande was sentenced to 21 days in jail for common assault, after a judge ruled he acted like a street bully when he kicked and punched a skinny 15-year-old. Grande was also prohibited from possessing firearms for two years.
       Grande dropped his head to his chest and sighed deeply when Regis delivered his sentence before more than a dozen stunned off-duty Toronto police officers.
    The jail sentence will effectively end Grande's policing career.
       Teenager Ryan Scullion still has nightmares about the beating, which began after Flis mistook him for a suspect in an investigation of a stolen van. Scullion was waiting at the bus stop to go home after seeing a movie with friends. He didn't fight back as he was violently tackled, then kicked and punched for about a minute.
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    Statement from the June 13th Committee on Police Harassment and repression- Aug.2000
       Policing and brutality are certainly issues in the Toronto election, especially as this article is being posted just as a local man was brutally beaten to death by four policemen. The June 13 Committee has sent out a detailed post on policing issues - it covers harassment of gays, repression of political action groups, the Black community, Raves and it calls for mutual support and common action.
    - read the report on the megacity election opinion page.
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    The Federal Justice Department is planning to give the RCMP power to break the law in order to pursue a criminal investigation. Check out the page.  I  think we should make this very, VERY public.
    http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/cons/lecl.html
    Ottawa - New Proposal would Transform Canada into a Police State
    (New Law Would Let Police Behave like Hell's Angels and KGB)
     - June.2000
       Police officers will gain unbelievable powers to break the law in the line of duty under a law proposed yesterday by Justice Minister Anne McLellan and Solicitor-General Lawrence MacAulay.
       The law would allow police to commit criminal offences such as buying and selling drugs, using or selling counterfeit documents, communicating for the purposes of prostitution, physical assault and the destruction of property.
       Pretty much anything would be permitted that could be tagged as "reasonable and proportional acts" undertaken for "legitimate law enforcement purposes."
       The proposed law, which is supposed to be aimed at gangs, would give police immunity in all but the most serious crimes. Only murder, manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and sexual offences would not be allowed under this insane law.
       "The government believes it is in the public interest to create a limited exemption from criminal liability for law enforcement officers so they may carry out their duties in accordance with the rules of law," says the discussion paper, tabled yesterday in the Senate.
       With the exception of some drug offences, evidence currently collected in investigations in which police commit illegal acts is not admissible in court. In addition, police officers are open to personal criminal liability for offences they commit in their work.
       Under the new law, police would be required to prove that illegal activity is the most effective means of carrying out the investigation. Permission from senior officials is all that would be required for major law breaking by the police. It is expected that the law will have undercover officers or agents trafficking in drugs or other contraband in order to 'play along' with their criminal targets. Police will also be communicating for the purposes of prostitution, damaging property, assaulting people and knowingly giving false names and placing illegal bets in gaming houses. The use of force causing bodily harm would be allowed if the identity of an undercover officer, informant or agent, or evidence was under threat. Federal immigration officers would also be free to break the law.
       Law enforcement officials and the RCMP are hailing the proposed immunity as a much-needed tool in their battle against organized crime. The draft law comes as a response to a case where two hashish traffickers escaped conviction because police officers had acted illegally.
       The law is the most dangerous police state law ever proposed in Canada, and the insanity of it needs no explanation.
       The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is studying the proposed law. If it is not widely opposed, Canada will become one of the most oppressive police state nations in the world.
       The government is seeking public reactions to its discussion paper and plans to introduce a bill when the House of Commons resumes sitting in the fall.
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    Police Union Bully brings in team of Americans – Aug.6.2000
    (Police Union money and right-wing Americans are being used to destroy Megacity Democracy)
       The majority of Toronto’s 58-member city council signed a petition in February opposing the police association’s raising of money to fund political causes. But now some of them are seeking the support of police union bully Craig Bromell and his high-priced team of American Republicans.
       Mayor Lastman has met with Craig Bromell twice in the past month to discuss the fall vote, and it is known that the intimidating union will focus its attention on 12 races in the new 44 city wards. Bromell was instrumental in getting Lastman elected in 1997, and also in getting Mike Harris elected.
       Most insulting is the fact that a team of U.S. Republican political strategists has been hired to run the police association electoral machine. A war chest of several hundred thousand dollars will be provided so these Americans can do damage to City of Toronto Politics.
       1,000 police canvassers (called volunteers) will be dispatched to key wards and 300 of them will drive people to ballot boxes on Election Day.
       To date Bromell is endorsing or has gained control of Case Ootes, the Deputy Mayor, Bill Saundercook, Rob Davis and Milton Berger. Which means that Bromell and his Americans will be opposing Gail Nyberg, David Miller, Joe Mihevc and Anne Johnston.
       Ootes, Saundercook, Davis and Berger are part of Mel Lastman's slate of candidates.
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    Women  say - Fire Fantino!– July.29.2000
       Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino is in a nasty quarrel with women's groups. Women are taking him to task for being complicit on the issue of violence against women.
       Chief Fantino responded at a Police Services Board meeting, saying he would not say specifically what police are doing to respond to antiviolence issues.
       At a City Hall news conference, speakers representing various women's groups responded to Fantino’s remarks.
       "We are calling on the city to insist the chief does his job. What does an employer do when an employee doesn't do his job?" asked Beverley Bain, who acted as chairwoman for the news conference.
       "Fire him!" replied a chorus of voices from the back of the committee room.
       Speakers called for police to implement recommendations to improve training and policies specific to violence against women. There are 57 recommendations, including expanding the sexual-assault squad and improving training. Women with complaints would be given a choice of having a female officer conduct the initial interview.
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    Bleeker Street Protest for Better Policing - July.16.2000
       It's been a cool summer so far but some folks in Toronto say the police have been uncool. So much so that a black woman named Murphy Browne called a Sunday protest on Bleeker St. at St. James Town
    - click here for the full report
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    New Site on Prisons and Harris - June.2000 - Here's a great website authorized by Citizens Against Private Prisons (CAPP) located in Penetanguishene, where Harris and his corporate buddies plan to start their prisons-for-profits program very soon.
    http://www.crosswinds.net/~capp/
       Sharon Dion is chair of CAPP and she can be reached at 705-549-4382. CAPP's email address is wredditt@csolve.net which belongs to CAPP member Wayne Redditt. I (Jim Fraser) and my webmaster Pat Keenan maintain the site as authorized by CAPP.
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    Toronto Police Services Board Should be Directly Elected - June.2000
       Recent news articles point to the danger police union bully Craig Bromell poses after Olivia Chow's exit. The truth is that the problem lies in the lack of democratic structure in the board.
       The Police Services Board starts out stacked with three Harris appointees. Mel Lastman is on it by virtue of being mayor. Then we have a lobbiest, Lyons. And of course there is Councilor Gardner. And one lonely citizen representative.
       Another Councilor wants to replace Chow and look liberal by smoking some weed at the meetings.
       In Votes only the Citizen Rep and Chow dared to oppose the majority on some issues.
       The system of appointees should be dumped altogether. Why is Harris (through appointees) running Toronto policing? The Board should be composed of elected councilors only. Or else be created by direct election from the people. The mayor should not be on the Board at all.
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    Liberals Neuter Big Brother Data Base - May.31.2000
       Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart has pulled the plug on the Big Brother databank. Recently Stewart has been under fire for controlling a mountain of personal information on Canadians.
       Opposition critics have expressed fears over how secure the information is considering the history of the department that has been entrusted with its safekeeping.
       Jane Stewart now says the Longitudinal Labour Force File (LLFF) is being dismantled. She conceded that the databank could be misused. As the issue heated up her department got flooded with faxes, e-mails, phone calls and thousands of requests from Canadians asking to see what goods the feds had on them.
       Stewart said her department has eliminated the computer program used to link its information -- EI claimants, pension recipients, etc. -- with that from the Canada Customs Revenue Agency and data on social assistance from the provinces.
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    Report on this year's  International Conference on Penal Abolition march in Toronto - by Brian Burch - May.2000
       For the participants at the International Conference on Penal Abolition the Toronto police provided a clear example of the arbitrariness of the justice system in Canada when two marshals for the rally were arrested at the corner of Dundas and Yonge, approximately 10 minutes after the rally began.
    -  read the full article
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    Community Treatment Orders - another key part of the Harris Police State - Apr.27.2000
    A Quick Analysis of 'Brian's Law'
    By Graeme Bacque <gbacque@idirect.com>
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    Updated - Feds Keeping Detailed Files on 30 Million Canadians - May.16.2000
       A Canadian Government database holds thousands of details about individual citizens, the privacy commissioner Bruce Philips said Tuesday.
       In his annual report to Parliament Phillips contradicted assurances by previous privacy commissioners that there are no federal government profiles of individual Canadians.
       Phillips says that the citizen profile contains as many as 2,000 pieces of information about each of more than 30 million Canadians. The database is extraordinarily detailed and is held by the Human Resources Department in what's referred to as the Longitudinal Labour Force File.
       The file draws information from sources such as income tax records, and is supposedly kept for research purposes.
    Private Information on Canadians not Protected - May 18-
       An internal Human Resources Development Canada audit showed that security measures intended to guard private information about the lives of 33.7 million Canadians need to be improved.
       In some cases, HRDC staff members take the files on Canadians home with their laptop computers, where teenagers could easily gain access to the information.
    Want to see your file?
    The federal government says anyone can request the information about them in its computer database:
    - Fill out a personal information request form, available at local Human Resources Development Canada offices, or;
    - Write a letter, including your name and Social Insurance Number, and mail to: Access to Information and Privacy Co-ordinator, Human Resources Development Canada, Place du Portage, Phase IV, Level 1, 140 Promenade du Portage, Hull, Que. K1A 0J9.
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    USA Report - Police State Targets the Left by Jim Redden - posted Apr.27.2000
       US intelligence and other assorted Pigs are using the sorts of civil liberties violations and surveillance that we used to criticize China and the Soviets for -using them to target legitimate protesters of the left. Across the USA and in Canada with a recent brutal attack on a16 protester in Toronto, our rights are vanishing.
    - read the full report
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    Cybercrime Plan Violates Basic Privacy Rights - May.03.2000
       A proposed Draft Convention on Cybercrime being studied by over 40 nations would give U.S. and European police agencies excessive new powers. The Council of Europe's 65KB proposal is designed to aid police in investigations of online attacks or intrusions.
       Details worry civil libertarians. They say the plan would violate longstanding privacy rights and grant the government far too much power. The proposal would make it a crime to create, download, or post on a web site any computer program that could gain access to a computer system without permission. Authorities will be able to order someone to reveal his or her passphrase for an encryption key. It will also require web sites and Internet providers to collect information about their users.
       Article 6 of the measure, titled "Illegal Devices, would ban commonplace network security tools included with Linux. And companies would be able to criminalize people who reveal security holes about their products.
       Representing the U.S. is the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property section, which chairs the G-8 subgroup on high-tech crime and also is involved with a cybercrime project at the Organization of American States
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    British Launch Net Spy Network - May.03.2000 - The British government is building a system to monitor all online traffic in Great Britain, ostensibly to help catch money launderers, terrorists, pedophiles, and other criminals who do business online.
       It also could help usher in an era of Orwellian surveillance.
       The British system, called the Government Technical Assistance Centre, will have its hub in the headquarters of the MI5, the British secret service agency. All of Britain's Internet Service Providers will be connected to the GATC through dedicated lines (which they will have to pay for themselves).
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    The Safe Streets of Toronto
    Julian Fantino - Chief wants PM to ride with him - Apr.29.2000
       Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino wants the Prime Minister to ride with him to see the mean streets of Toronto. Seems Julian is concerned about drugs and raves and wants the feds to spend more on drug education.
       One thing police don't mention is that some of the kids getting liver transplants aren't taking drugs, they are taking poisons such as rat poison being sold as drugs. Perhaps tougher penalties should be set when it can be proven that a person was packaging household poisons and selling them as ecstasy. As far as raves or dances go, there's been a drug problem at them since the 1960s.
       The mean streets are really only mean if you are homeless. And they are going to get meaner as the Harris Safe Streets Act and the City's Target Policing plans send hundreds of officers out to harass squeegee kids and poor people. I think the Prime Minister should take the tour and ask Julian Fantino and Mike Harris why they want to spend millions to jail squeegee kids, graffiti artists and homeless people. He could also ask them why this police harassment is being extended to political protesters, which is what happened last week when police attacked and pepper sprayed sixty people at a peaceful demonstration. He could also ask if this new war on raves and drugs is an extension of this form of bad policing.
          I often walk the streets of Toronto late at night, and I find them much safer than they were years ago. There are a number of gun-toting killers on the loose and I could become their next victim. So why don't we have a Safe Streets Act and Policing that targets real criminals? Why are our resources being used to create a police state for people who are not a problem?
       If Fantino really wanted drug education he could ask the mayor and council to re allocate the millions spent on cruel Target Policing. The money would be better spent on drug education. Education is what we need.
       We don't need fake Community Action Policing, a bogus US style War on Drugs, Fantino's Surveillance Cameras or ridiculous Harris CTO Squads on the street forcing psychiatric patients to take their medication.
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    Brian's Law a Brainless Law - Apr.26.2000
        Though Brian's Law is supposed to be on behalf of a sportscaster killed by a psychiatric patient on a rampage, it ignores the fact that using forced medication on patients in the community could lead to the very rampages the law aims to prevent. Applied to patients with depression, such intervention will lead to suicides.
       Forced Medication through Community Treatment Orders is an act of violence. The larger tragedy in society is mental illness itself, and having a government that is more interested in bringing about a violent police state than it is in providing real medicine for social ills.
       Most psychiatric medication is largely ineffective in treating the illness but effective in producing side effects. Pouring more of it down patients' throats will not work. Brian's Law is also mainly a bill to incarcerate people as they can only be released if supports are in the community for CTOs. And they never will be as the government cant' afford it.
       If there is a good side to this bill it that so many Ontarians suffer from some psychiatric problems and nearly all of them will vote against the Harris Tories due to Brian's Law.
       Public Hearings on Brian's law begin soon.
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    Toronto Police use Pepper Spray and violence against Rally in Support of Political Prisoners in DC
    4 arrested, several injured by pepper spray
    see our - A16 Links and News Page
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    Toronto Police Chief and Police Association Members a No Show at Public Forum - Apr.10.00
       Craig Brommel and the Toronto Police Association will aid a campaign to toughen up the Young Offenders Act beginning today. The Jonathan Wamback campaign will run eight weeks of ads, street corner petitions and a web site.
       In spite of this new grass roots appearance by the police, I include a letter from Lester Brown in this post revealing that the Police Association had no interest at all in a major public debate that took place last week on the very same issues.
    _ Read the full article.
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    Continuing Police Atrocities Against Canadian First Nations - Mar.21.00
    A letter campaign and news on the freezing murders of natives in Saskatchewan
     - Read the full article
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    Montreal Protester/Riot Cop Story Recipe: Montreal
    read jaggi singh's report on
    police brutality and police brutality protesters
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    Police Brutality Ends Women's Action In Montreal - Mar.00
    Jaggi Singh - A-Infos News Service
     - Read the article
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    Model Citizen Loses All Respect for Toronto Police - Mar.00 - Barnaby Case
       Brenda Bice's respect for police officers faded away after she sat through the trial of the two
    police constables charged with dangerous driving in connection with her father's death.
       Officers Karl Heilimo and Geraid O'Kane were found not guilty of dangerous driving in the police chase that preceded the accident that led to the death of Clyde Barnaby, 73.
       Bice was disappointed with the verdict, but what upset her most was the behaviour of officers who attended the trial.  Bice said, ". . . I have no respect for these officers who have slammed doors in my face, glared at me, passed remarks loud enough for me to hear, just because I choose to come and hear a case against their colleagues charged in connection with the death of my father.''
       When the jury retired to consider the verdict, the ranks of the armed, uniformed officers grew to include the new chief, Julian Fantino, and his three-man retinue. Bice is bitter over the fact that the judge allowed 50 cops and the police chief in the courtroom. Bice says intimidation was also allowed, including intimidation of the jurors.'
    Bice says her 72-year-old mother died of a broken heart after the accident.
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    Freezing Murders - Lead Points to Saskatoon Police -  February 17, 2000
       Lawrence Wegner's body was frozen solid when it was found in a stubble field on the outskirts of Saskatoon.
       Saskatchewan's Justice Minister has ordered the RCMP to probe allegations that Saskatoon Police officers may be involved in two freezing deaths of aboriginal men. Two veteran Saskatoon officers have been suspended.
       A third aboriginal man, Darrell Night says officers stripped him of his jacket, threw him out of their cruiser and told him to walk back to the city in freezing temperatures. He alleges the policemen repeatedly made racial slurs.
       Several police sources told The Globe and Mail  that it was common knowledge among the force that some members would take unruly suspects out near the power plant and abandon them in the cold. The area is about a 10-minute walk from the outskirts of Saskatoon.
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    Policing and CAP - Tue, 15 Feb 2000 - The Committee to Stop Targeted Policing is concerned that Toronto's Community Action Policing (CAP), has targeted specific people. The $2.9 million program is under review and will be part of the overall Police Services budget that will be considered by the Budget Advisory Committee starting on February 21, 2000. Citzens can help oppose a renewal of this discrimatory police program.
    Read the committee's detailed article and letter.
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    Activists' Lawsuit Aimed at Toronto Police Force "Unlawful Assembly" charge challenged
    Thu, 10 Feb 2000 FROM THE DESK OF CLAYTON RUBY
    Re: LAWSUIT TARGETS USE OF "UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY" CHARGE
       On Wednesday, January 25th Brian Burch and Kevin Thomas launched a civil suit against the Toronto police force. They are seeking over $500,000 in specific and general damages as a result of their experiences when they were charged with Unlawful Assembly while present at a peaceful 1998 Reclaim the Streets protest in downtown Toronto.
       Taking this action was not an easy decision to make. However, it was felt that something had to be done to respond to the growing criminalization of public protest in Canada.
    Read the full letter and report
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    Quebec Police Remain a Law Unto Themselves- Feb.6.00
    info from the Toronto Star
       The Poitras inquiry commission published its 2,700-page report on the Sûreté du Québec a year ago. The commission, headed by Lawrence Poitras, a retired chief justice of the Quebec Superior Court, laid bare what it called a crisis of values in Quebec's provincial police force.
       Poitras and his two co-commissioners, Louise Viau and André Perreault denounced what they
    described as a police culture of secrecy, intimidation and an unhealthy solidarity, reinforced by a union contract so loaded with special deals that its exact contents are cloaked from the public.
       Across Quebec, there is a growing unease that police, in the Sûreté and other forces, have become a law unto themselves. Consider the deaths of two black men in Montreal from police bullets in 1987 and 1991; two deaths, one in 1993 and another recently, of men allegedly beaten by Montreal police; the bungled Sûreté operation during the 1990 standoff with Mohawks at Oka; the allegations by former Sûreté investigator Gatan Rivest that fabrication of evidence and lying under oath are frequent practices in the force; the Keystone-Cops Sûreté raid on the entire municipal force of the Montreal suburb of Chambly in 1994.
       In spite of evidence of police corruption, the PQ government's is claiming that it doesn't have enough money to apply the commission's recommendations. And some police critics are saying that their knowledge of the police world, especially police unions, leads them to suspect that the PQ government has been subjected to some form of blackmail, subtle or otherwise.
       In the 586 personal interviews done across Canada for a federal green paper, local politicians confided that they feared the police.
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    Democracy Still Fading as Toronto Police Union Ends True Blue - Feb.4.00
    By Gary Morton
       The police union has called off its True Blue political fundraising campaign. Without a doubt the union's expensive lawyers groaned in horror Wednesday night as Craig Bromell and other officials dug a grave for themselves on CBC TV's the fifth estate. A highlight of the show was a shaken deputy police chief Robert Kerr saying he believed the union intended to release dirt on him unless he resigned.
    - Read the full article.
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    Policing and Politics - Mel Lastman and Toronto Council out on Harris' Limb - Feb.01.00
    Click here to read this article plus - Bylaw Busts Police Union Telemarketing Campaign and other material on this issue.
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    Try Stealing GM's Big Orbit Brother Cars - Jan.24.00 - General Motors is about to begin tracking vehicles via the ORBCOMM low-Earth orbit satellite system. With the systems installed in a vehicle, from the desktop and using only a web browser, GMTG's staff can see where the vehicle is located on a map, view engine start and stop events, and communicate directly with the vehicle's onboard data network.
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    BC - Group Protests Police Violence on the Street - Jan.22.00 - Report from a BC street action group staging street demos and demanding that complaints of police violence be investigated by an independent body
    - Read the full report with dates of upcoming actions
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    PORN LAW Straw Poll - 9 out of 10 Single Males with Home Internet Access could be charged under Canada's Child Porn Laws  - Read the Full Article -Jan.20.00
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    Police Association Raids the Grassroots - Jan.14.00

       In Operation True Blue the Toronto Police Association is using a telephone campaign to raise money and organize citizens. Yet a manual on police activism used by associations reveals that the police only want power for themselves and not citizens. The associations use a textbook by the Police Labor Institute, a Texas-based company dedicated to training North America's police unions in high-stakes pressure politics.

       Page 173 of the firm's Police Association Power, Politics and Confrontation states: "The fact is that police associations should exist for one, and only one purpose -- the accumulation and use of power."

       Toronto Police Association Head Craig Bromell is no stranger in this use of power. His association hires private investigators to aid police officers accused of wrongdoing ,and to protect rank and file officers by silencing the union's political foes.

       Can anyone seriously believe that a group that operates like this has interests of the public at heart?

       Here is my report on the Start of Operation True Blue
       I just got a call from the Toronto Police Association, Operation True Blue. Using phone canvassers they are campaigning for cash like Greenpeace. For 25, 50 or a 100 dollars they will forward me one of their True Blue information packages.

       The canvasser informed me that the police are going in to raise money, organize citizens and kick the butts of politicians promoting soft laws and justice.

       My response to that promo was roughly - We have some police accountability now because of citizens, activists and politicians who weren't organized by the police association. Lately things have been eroding fast as what the police call cleaning up neighbourhoods is really an outward show of a new lack of tolerance for those who have fallen through the cracks. As family incomes are eroding there are going be more of those poor and homeless people and cleaning them up and off to jail or wherever is the sort of community action policing the association and its organized citizens will promote.

       In a legitimate citizens group, a person takes off his police or company uniform and joins an action as a citizen. Citizen bodies controlled by the police association will not be genuine in their representation of the public. I think this whole action is a police association raid on democracy, and unless some people organize to fight it the real community voice is going to be silenced. It doesn't take much thinking to gather that the association is not going to argue for police accountability; it is going to lobby for harsh laws, a police state and more military-style police equipment at a time when crime rates are falling.

       Crime rates themselves are a touchy subject as a couple weeks back incoming Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino announced his displeasure with police chiefs and organizations that keep revealing statistics showing crime steadily decreasing. Perhaps Fantino would be happier if everyone saw only the City TV daily crime news and believed crime was sky high.

       The citizens of Toronto already spend 520 million a year on policing. More than the entire budgets of some third world nations. Do we really need to donate more to the Police Union and its political action wing?

       I think not, and I'm also worried that it may be too late already. The Police Association will storm the grass roots, hijack democracy and the creeping police state will grow fast.

    Gary Morton
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    Treaty to implement digital wiretapping - Jan.14.00 - a new treaty will force countries to implement digital wiretapping into their national laws and also outlaw hacking tools.
       The Council of Europe is preparing a so-called "Cybercrime" treaty. European countries, the USA, Canada, Japan and South Africa are involved in the talks. There is no draft made public but a letter of the Dutch minister of Justice to the Dutch parliament is mentioning some of the details of what is discussed during the negotiations about the treaty. The draft is prepared by an ad-hoc group of experts (PC-CY) who will have to finish their work by the end of 2000.
       One part of the treaty will outlaw hacking tools and the production, making available or distribution of hardware and software tools to do hacking. The letter explicitly points out that as a result of this treaty countries that wish to implement digital wiretapping or the use of hacking tools by law enforcement need to implement that in their national legislation.
       Critics feel that having digital wiretapping enshrined in national laws is not a a good idea.
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    Slippery Police Chief - Nov/99 -
       The whole selection process for the Chief of Toronto Police was hijacked, taken out of public scrutiny and turned into a Tory coup.
       The new Chief, Julian Fantino did not even apply fgr the job and there is no way the public can have any confidence in a police chief who was too arrogant to enter the process as the other candidates did.
       Two top candidates dropped out in protest after the Toronto news media leaked the fact that the whole process was just a fixed rubber stamping of Fantino. Those who selected him could also be said to have applied for him since headhunters for the police services board submitted an application for Fantino in his absence. This was done because some members of the board, the mayor and the Tories felt that Fantino would better push their police state agenda and war on the poor.
          Voting for Fantino were Norm Gardner, vice-chairman Jeffrey Lyons (a lawyer and provincial appointee), Mayor Mel Lastman and Tory appointees Sylvia Hudson and Emilia Valentini. Though the media announced that the chief would be selected early this week, the whole process was suddenly rushed so Fantino could be rubber-stamped before democratic opposition could develop.
       Police Services Board chairman Norm Gardner went so far as to hold rushed press conference at 10 pm Sunday night to announce Fantino as the new chief.  Board member Olivia Chow called for a delay in the vote because of all the problems that had forced at least two very good candidates to drop out of the running. Chow and civilian representative Sandy Adelson voted against Fantino.
       The Toronto Police Services Board also did not act on behalf of the people of this city last week when they voted for three million in spending on extra community action policing that every citizens group present attacked as unfair and discriminatory.
       Now citizens have no choice but to openly demonstrate their contempt for the Police Services Board. They must protest the process and continue to oppose target policing.
       The Toronto Sun says Fantino's zero-tolerance, tell-it-like-it-is style has been popular with the
    rank-and-file. We the public should have zero tolerance for this sort of  arrogance and fixed democracy, and zero tolerance for a police services board that promotes it.
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    Read the Coalition for a Federal Ban on Pepper Spray's Letter Protesting the November 1999 Pepper Spraying of Housing Protesters on Parliament Hill
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    Bankrupt City finds 3 million to harass the poor - Nov/99 - Though Toronto is heavily in debt and its credit rating is collapsing, the police services board has decided to expand the Community Action Policing program from 11 weeks to 16 next year at a cost of $2.9 million.
       Last summer's crackdown missed crime altogether and was really just police working overtime to harass the poor and homeless in Toronto. Thousands of jaywalking tickets were handed out to people in this unwanted police blitz.
       The Committee to Stop Targeted Policing is protesting the program. Representatives of 11 community groups took the podium to oppose this form of policing.  They feel individuals who are poor, homeless, people of colour, native community members and young people have been specifically targeted and treated as criminals.
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    Safe Streets Act & Pepper Spray - Nov/22/99 - Professor Harry Glasbeek of Osgoode Hall and civil rights lawyer Peter Rosenthal spoke tonight at a Citizen for Local Democracy meeting on the erosion of our personal rights.
    - Read a report on the talk
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    RCMP Pepper Sprays Members of Ban Pepper Spray Group at Housing Demonstration - Nov/99 - For the first time protesters have been sprayed on parliament hill.

  • Read a report on the demonstration from Don Weitz.
  • View pictures & text report from Graham Bacque
  • Also see the Ban Pepper Spray Site

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    Homes Not Bombs Protesters Denied Rights on Arrest - Nov/99 - Four of the 54 people arrested at a recent Homes not Bomb Demonstration in Ottawa were not charged and released after being in custody about 14 hours. Over half of the 50 who were charged were held in custody longer than 24 hours before being released on $500.00 personal surety, a promise to appear in court and a requirement to return to Ottawa for fingerprinting and mug shots.
       People were charged either with mischief or obstruct police. The maximum jail term is 6 months and maximum fine is $2,000.00. Probation can also be imposed.
       Right to a phone called a U.S. based myth - No one held in custody was allowed to make a phone call while they were in custody. Fortunately, lawyers were able to visit during the late morning. Once this visit was over contact with those in custody (even for lawyers) was minimal. One woman, who became ill to the point of vomiting, was denied medication.
        Although the media from Sarnia to Montreal covered the Homes Not Bombs action the morning of the 12th.  The vigil the night before, which attracted some 200 people and included the reading of names of victims of all forms of war and violence was totally ignored.
       For more info contact <tasc@web.net> or 416-651-5800. info from Brian Burch
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    Anti Squeegee Tour a Big Tory Washout- November 2/99 -  Ontario Attorney General James Flaherty needs a squeegee kid to wash the egg off of his face after the event he staged today to announce his so-called Safe Streets Legislation. -- Read About it.
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    RealNetworks Really a Spy - Nov/99 -  While we've been happily using RealJukebox, RealNetworks' software for playing CDs on a PC, the software was spying on us, collecting such information as the number and file formats of songs on our hard drive, and reporting back to HQ. Clearly unethical and possibly illegal, this is just the latest example of a too casual attitude towards real privacy, and a tendency to let technical tricks ride roughshod over real respect for customers.
    Doesn't it seem we keep turning over the same stone and discovering the same ugly creatures?
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    Excerpts from the Squeegee Debate:  Mike Harris is coming out with new legislation that would jail squeegee kids for up to 6 months if they squeegee. Harris' Minister of Squeegees, James Flaherty was to introduce the bill during a walk-about in a troubled downtown neighbourhood, yet the walk-about got canceled as local residents chased Flaherty out of the area.
    Squeegee Law will force kids into life of Crime - Nov/99 - Liberal MPP Michael Bryant (St Paul's): We got the name of the act wrong. It should be called the "Let?s sweep it under the rug" act. This approach is going to fail. It's doomed to failure.
       Last September the minister held a press conference in which he waved a squeegee around in one of the lowest moments in the history of this province?s justice department and said, "Mark my words: There'll be no more squeegees in the city of Toronto a year from now." Well, mark my words: The kids will be back.
       The reality is that this act attempts to sweep the problem under the rug. There is nothing in this act that is going to do anything more than put them in the revolving door of the criminal justice system. They?re going to congratulate themselves when the kids go through the door and hope that none of us notices when everybody is coming right back out and going right back to the streets. You can take a street cleaner down Bloor Street and sweep away the rubbish, but you can?t do the same thing with the poverty in the streets of Toronto. These kids are going to come back. . . . This government is bent on turning squeegee kids into crowbar and crack kids. Everybody understands that if you take the squeegee out of their hands and give no other alternative, provide no other diversion, all that?s going to happen is you?re going to be putting a crowbar in their hands and they?re going to be coming to a neighbourhood near you soon.
       Lastly, the priorities of this government are completely out of whack with the priorities of Ontarians. This government is prioritizing squeegees over stretchers, squeegees over schools. Within the criminal justice portfolio itself, within law and order itself, there are so many more issues we could be dealing with but this is the first one that we're looking at.
       It's Holocaust Education Week and hate crimes are going up in Ontario. Is the government doing anything about hate crimes? No. They want to deal with 200-odd squeegee kids.
       There?s a rise of gangs and organized crime in the province of Ontario. Does this government want to do anything about organized crime? No. The 200-odd squeegee kids.
       Proliferation of guns on the streets of our cities. You know what? This government wants to intervene, along with the government of Alberta, to strike down our federal gun control laws.
       Police and prosecutors tell me that domestic assault has been on the rise over the last few months, and this week in particular it would have been appropriate to bring forth a bill to deal with the mess . . . Are they going to deal with that? No. They want to crack down on 200-odd squeegee kids.
       Deadbeat dads can roam the streets of Ontario without concern. This government committed in 1995 and 1999 to crack down on deadbeat dads, and their great crackdown rate of 1% was reported last month.
       NDP Leader Howard Hampton (Kenora-Rainy River): We were expecting a major piece of legislation today and instead we're presented with some fluff that is about as transparent as a clean windshield.
       The fact of the matter is this legislation is an embarrassment and it's an insult. It's an embarrassment because there are real crime problems out there in our communities. This legislation will do nothing about it.
       This legislation will do nothing about wife assault. This legislation will do nothing about the increasing experience that seniors have of home invasion. This legislation will do nothing about hate crime. This legislation won?t even put any more police on the street to deal with those real issues.
    . . . What a misuse of the criminal law. What a misuse of police resources. What a missed opportunity to do something about the real crime problems in our society and to put together a strategy to deal with some of these social problems. What an embarrassment. What an embarrassment that the Attorney General today had to take six police officers off the beat to go down the street with him so he could have a photo opportunity chasing some squeegee kids.
    ......  NDP MPP Peter Kormos (Niagara Centre): This government has one real twisted point of view about what constitutes crime prevention in our communities. . . .  We've got a serious drug problem in this province and you guys should be standing up, committing yourselves to devoting specific funds to specific police forces in very specific communities to combat drug trafficking and drug use. . . . You want to take on squeegee kids? . . . You want to put squeegee kids in jail? Think about it, Speaker. If they put all the squeegee kids in jail, there won?t be any cells left for the cabinet ministers.
       This government is trying to divert attention from its incredible mismanagement of law and order and of policing in this province. It's trying to distract attention from its lack of support from crown attorneys and other personnel in the criminal justice system. It's trying to distract attention from its complete failure in the area of corrections, especially youth corrections, and its failure to implement meaningful programs to straighten out young kids who run afoul. This is just another example of trying to steer people away from the real issues. It ain?t going to work. You?re going to be mocked. It's going to be a subject of laughter.
    Laughable Legislation - Here are some activities that could be deemed illegal under the Harris government's law cracking down on aggressive panhandlers and "squeegee kids".
    *       selling blueberries at the side of the road,
    *       thumbing a ride if your car runs out of gas,
    *       beckoning to motorists to urge them to attend a student-run car wash,
    *       borrowing an urgently needed quarter to make a phone call or change for a parking meter,
    *       firefighter campaigns for charity that involve being on the roadway such as the Muscular Dystrophy drive,
    *       Boy Scout Apple Day,
    *       Cancer Society Daffodil Day,
    *       Seeking directions if you're lost,
    *       And a host of other good works and activities that may cause a person to be on a public roadway,
    *       On-street newspaper giveaways.
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    Target Policing at the Trick or Treaty Demonstration - Oct/31/99
       Herbert Cunningham is a black man of 50 or so who showed at today's Free Trade Area of the Americas Demonstration at Nathan Philip's Square. He sat in the front row for a hour and then got up to leave. Only he didn't get far because a police officer suddenly waded in and confronted him.
       The officer demanded that Herbert open a small canvass bag for a search. When Herbert refused there was some arguing, then police suddenly cuffed him, took him to a van and gave his shin a a nasty bang as they threw him inside. They then searched his bag in public view out in the square, though they found nothing in it but his ID and notebooks containing material he had written.
       After that they released him and he was excitedly talking to people who had gathered. At one point he dropped a piece of his ID in a crack in the square and one police officer thought that was hilariously funny.
       According to police they say they think Herbert stole that small bag from a woman. Though the bag doesn't at all look like a woman's bag.
       This looks like more of city's shoddy target policing. Grab one of the only black men at the demonstration and make a public display out of humiliating and assaulting him.
       Rally organizers did come to help Herbert, but in most public situations he would not find help. He would just get seized by police.
       It should be noted that police are so nervy now that they don't care who is present; they still carry out their discriminatory form of target policing.
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    City Announcement shows that Sexual Assault is almost Legal in Toronto - Oct/99
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    Harris Drug Testing to face legal Challenge - Ontario human rights commissioner - Nov/99
    Ontario human rights commissioner Keith Norton says the province's plan to force welfare recipients to undergo drug testing and treatment could be discriminatory. "Mandatory drug testing or treatment as a condition of receipt of public assistance might directly or adversely discriminate against individuals with a dependency disability,'' Keith Norton said yesterday.
    Norton is a former Tory cabinet minister once responsible for provincial welfare programs. He said the proposal would result in a Charter challenge.
    The Tories plan to cut the benefits of those who refuse drug testing. And Social Services Minister John Baird continues to lead the government on its departure from reality, saying the government will defend the plan in court.
    It has already been demonstrated that the Harris Government lacks respect for the law. Last August, the Ontario Superior Court ruled the province acted unconstitutionally when it imposed work-for-welfare on eight native communities.
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    Federal Privacy Law may not pass the test - Oct/99 -  The Federal privacy law passed its final vote in the House of Commons by a margin of 200-49. Bill C-6, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act requires Canadian companies and institutions to get informed consent before they collect or disclose personal information.
       This is a step in the right direction but it will do little to protect Canadians on the web from billion dollar ad and data gathering companies like DoubleClick. In order to stop giant international companies like DoubleClick from continuing to gather huge data bases of information on the shopping habits of citizens, the cookie loophole must be closed.  The HTTP specification that allows GIFs (banner ads) to drop data gathering cookies on home computers is the problem. The browsers like Netscape and Explorer should change their implementation of cookies so that, by default, foreign sites can't send us cookies along with their GIFs.
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    APEC Command Post Was Bugged - Oct/99 - Feds Refuses to Disclose Many of the Tapes
       New evidence at the APEC Hearings reveals that the RCMP bugged their own command center. The command center, know as APEC Command was the hub of the APEC operation. From November 16th to November 25th, 1997, the RCMP bugged at least three phones in the command center and recorded all conversations on the phones.
    The Government is currently refusing to release or even examine many of the tapes, stating that it would require too much work to listen to them.
    Some of the tapes were disclosed to complainants. In one conversation, two top RCMP officers discuss telling APEC delegates that great care had been taken to ensure that they would not be embarrassed by demonstrations.
    A conversation between the head of APEC security Superintendent Wayne May and a representative of the Chinese delegation will also be filed, in which the RCMP are asked to ensure that there are enough police to prevent banners and slogans.
    The tapes also contain conversations between RCMP brass and senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of External Affairs.
    The tapes reveal that the PMO became obsessed for two solid days with a bunch of
    hippie protesters camping in a pup tent.
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    RCMP Spied on Hundreds of Peace Groups - Oct/99 - All across Canada, in cities and towns, the RCMP monitored peace groups they considered subversive.  Any protest was monitored as the Government feared all organized opposition.  The RCMP would even break & enter premises in order to gather material for the inclusion in their files on protest groups.  Many of the RCMP Security Service files were transferred to the National Archives of Canada. This means that secret RCMP files on protest groups ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO YOU!  All you have to do is request the files from the National Archives, and you will be able to prove the wrong- doings and civil rights violations by the RCMP which went unchecked for decades, and continue today under CSIS.
       In Ottawa, go to the NAC Reference Room and view the public RG146 finding aids for the secret files. There are hundreds of pages of lists of groups and activities and  protests which were observed and noted by the RCMP undercover agents and their moles and snitches. If you are not in Ottawa, you should ask the National Archives of Canada to make a copy of the finding aid available to you in your city through the office of your local Member of Parliament.
       These files can be accessed by anyone.  An electronic version of the AIA request form is available at:
    http://www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/ip/infosource/Info_6/Request-Frms_e.html
    Simply make a request in writing, using the form or letter, by mail, and include $5.00 per file part, to: Access to Information Coordinator, National Archives of Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0N3, tel. (613) 947-1532/954-4142  fax. (613) 992-9350
       Simply state that you request access to an RCMP file under the Access Act (AIA) of Canada.  Just describe in as much detail as  possible the records you seek. Give the name and location of the protest group, and have the NAC look it up for you. Then add $5.00 and send it to the NAC.
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    Community Action Policing Statistics Prove the Program Useless - Oct/99 -
       Reports from the United States show that violent crime there fell to its lowest level in thirty years. Special Policing was not required to lower the crime rate as it has been naturally falling for years.
       Now Mayor Mel Lastman wants to bring in Community Action Policing 6 months a year at a high cost. Yet his own statistics show that each officer added deterred about one crime every five weeks. (nearly 700 extra police were used in CAP) When you consider that crime is naturally falling and that these statistics need scrutiny, the true numbers may be much less than one crime deterred per week.
       Groups opposing Target Policing as racist and harassment of the poor have statistics showing a large number of people harassed by police. So it can easily be said that CAP damaged the human condition in society. It was only improved if you are well to do, white and perhaps a merchant.
       What CAP also proved is that the poor are not criminals. Police got almost no major charges on the poor people they targeted.
       The most corrupt people in society have always been the rich. Imagine the cocaine busts and corporate crime that would be uncovered if Target Policing targeted the rich.
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    Choke Echelon - Mon/Oct/18/99 - The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants the public to help trip up a world Spy system called Echelon today. The system monitors much of the world's e-mail, web traffic, telephone conversation and other communications in an effort to uncover terrorists and enemies.
    The monitoring system is triggered by certain keywords in the traffic, like "terrorism", "bomb", "MI5" and "revolution". The Hacktivism mailing list community has called on concerned net users to include the trigger words in their communications on Monday, and so overwhelm the system.
    European parliament last year alleged that the system was used by the US to get European government and industrial secrets.
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    School Surveillance Really Fascism - Oct 99 - Since September 1999, 54 cameras have been recording students' and staff's every move at L'Amoreaux Collegiate Institute in Scarborough. Everyone also has to wear photo I.D.
       Opponents of police state surveillance hope that the Toronto board Safe Schools report won't recommend similar extreme surveillance.
       The surveillance plays on fears teachers have of intruders, and alters schools from an educational model to a corporate/prison model that increases alienation. Teaching people that being watched is proper is also teaching them that a police state is preferable to one with democracy, civil rights and freedom of speech.
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    Community Action on Target Policing- Sept/30/99 -   Parkdale Community Legal Services held a community forum on policing tonight. Read the full report
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    Ottawa Immigration Detention Proposal a Rights Violation - Oct/99 - The Canadian Council for Refugees opposes an immigration department proposal to lock up some refugee claimants for months without frequent detention review hearings.
    "They're trying to bring in a quickie piece of legislation to prove to the Reform party that they're tough,'' Janet Dench, executive director of the council, said yesterday.
    Immigration officials would do this by suspending the legal requirement for frequent hearings to review whether claimants should be held in jail or other detention facilities.
    Dench said there is a grave danger such a change could lead to arbitrary detention. Such a change would not likely respect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Under the Charter of Rights everybody has the right to life, liberty and security of the person.
    Toronto immigration lawyer Geraldine Sadoway said the proposed legislation is against the United Nations convention for refugee protection and thus unlikely to stand up in a Charter of Rights challenge.
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    British Electronic Communications Bill Will Create Police State - Sept/99 - Deep inside the draft Electronic Communications Bill, which is designed to prepare Britain for a future based on electronic commerce, are a series of clauses that many experts say are the biggest single assault on our rights in fifty years.
       If the Bill is passed, the police and secret services will be free to tap people¹s emails with virtually no judicial oversight. They will be able to - - in effect - write their own warrants and search home computers for anything interesting or useful. If, for example, you have encrypted data or email on your computer, then the police will have the right to demand the password unlocking them. If you refuse, or have forgotten it then you face two years in jail. To be imprisoned, the police have to do nothing. It is up to you to prove your innocence - reversing the usual innocent until proven guilty principle of law.
    The police will also be able to issue gagging orders - preventing you from telling a soul that your home has been raided. Again, there is virtually no judicial oversight. If you do let on, then you face five years in jail. This gagging order also extends to any complaint which you may make about
    abuses of power by the police or security services. If you do have a complaint, then your concerns will be heard by a secret tribunal - sitting without a jury - and the evidence can be submitted behind your back. Cross-examination, and therefore a fair defence, will be impossible.
    Nor are the new powers limited to suspected criminals: they apply all. The police will be allowed to raid the homes and workplaces of a suspects' friends, family and business associates. If they are unable to co-operate and prove their innocence, then prison beckons. Any specific complaint about the police will be dealt with by a secret tribunal. Gagging orders could well be used to stifle any unwelcome press attention.
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    Eighteen Students Arrested at Montreal Exchange Protest - Sept/99 -  Several hundred CeGEP and university students, calling on the provincial and federal governments to spend budget surpluses on education, rallied quietly through the streets of downtown before the trouble began at the Montreal Exchange building at Victoria Square about 4 p.m. Protesters vandalized the stock exchange and set a bonfire before the riot squad moved in and arrested 18 people. About a dozen were caught in an enclosed circle of about 40 police officers in full riot gear, wielding batons, outside the entrance to the metro.Some students appeared to be in shock, finding themselves trapped by the riot police. Many of them had done nothing other than exercise their right to protest, yet they were handcuffed and loaded into the back of a police wagons.
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    Toronto Loblaws Customer Killed - Sept/99 - A citizen suspected of stealing baby food was wrestled to the ground and killed by a Wackenhut guard and two Loblaws employees.
    A retired nurse who witnessed the incident said they chased him around the parking lot in circles. After catching him, they all fell on top of him. The man was handcuffed, then held down by the three men, one holding his ankles, another his back and the third his head. The nurse said, 'Would you turn him over so he can breathe." And the three refused. The man was fighting and saying, I can't breathe, as he was restrained face-down in the parking lot at the Agincourt Mall, near Sheppard Ave. and Kennedy Rd. His girlfriend begged the three to release him, saying he suffered from asthma. When they rolled him over he was staring straight ahead, bleeding from the mouth and had urinated in his pants.
    "They killed my son," his weeping mother said as she left the hospital. Police said they would release his name today after an autopsy. The man may have been trying to steal the baby food to help a mother without money to feed her child.
    The man has now been indentified as Patrick Shand Jr., 31,
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    CSIS Alive and Active on Canadian Campuses - Sept/99 - Newly declassified documents reveal that Canada's spy agency has sneakily gained enhanced powers to run undercover operations on Canadian Campuses. This is despite opposition from teachers and their union. Ward Elcock, director of CSIS says the organization works for a free and democratic society and to preserve the free flow of ideas. But skeptics doubt that, keeping in memory that the RCMP forerunner of CSIS was on campuses to spy on the nuclear disarmament movement.
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    Are Toronto Cops Sucking the Tax Trough Dry- Sept/99 - (This is further to my earlier post called City Gives Away the Store to Cops - Toronto Cops are Tops in Pay)
       Though the first post may have offended some people, facts seem to be that Toronto police remain the highest paid in the province. Some of the details are that City Council gave union boss Craig Bromell and his officers a 7 percent increase plus other benefits over the life of the contract, raising base pay to $60,300. Yet I read on the Citizens for Local Democracy list that workers for the city that are now in negotiations have not received increases over the last eight years while the cops have been steadily gaining. Another comparison is that in negotiations all police boss Bromell had to do was oink very loudly once in order to get the city to cave in to his demands.
       Treatment of the city workers has been different with council members issuing more threatening statements and saying they are preparing for a long strike. Another report I received was that the raid on the Allen Gardens Safe Park last month was motivated by the anger the mayor and the parks boss felt over the presence of some members of the Parks union and their banner at the park. They are part of the bargaining unit in negotiations now.
       I still think that the police have robbed the city store when you consider they are gaining a lot while the rest of semi skilled workers and even skilled city staff do not. It is also clear that Council needs police loyalty as increasingly police are asked to do dirty work. The city and the province continue to build a police state with Target Policing and Traffic Neighbourhood Task forces (note that TNT has nothing to do with traffic.) that harass the homeless and ticket and gather the names of innocent citizens onto police data bases as suspects in future crimes.
       Supporters of the police say it is a thankless job, but that is not true. Police get all sorts of credit and awards. If it is now thankless it is because of the dirty work they now do because of political misuse. Though it is known that traffic will increase in Toronto twenty percent in coming years, police are instead being used basically to harass anyone who doesn't drive. Crackdowns on panhandlers, the homeless and squeegee kids have been noted, but the press hasn't been noting that this has also been a crackdown on cyclists and plain ordinary pedestrians on the streets. Something like fifteen thousand jaywalking tickets this summer and cyclists ticketed everywhere. Plus spotlight raids on the parks at night with cops racing in to grab people necking.
       So if cops don't want to be hated they should get their priorities straight. People are dying from auto pollution and accidents. Two people were run down on the sidewalk last weekend. That is where the danger is rising. Crime in other areas has fallen dramatically. If you are going to grossly overpay this force then at least pay for the right kind of policing.
       We don't need anymore police state harassment of citizens in Toronto.
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    Police Raids on Innocent Civilians in Toronto Parks - Sept/99 - Toronto councillor Jack Layton had clear view of Community Action Policing recently on a late-night bike ride home. Biking through Grange Park he saw six bike cops flashing their high-intensity headlights into the park. These cops are catching people necking or sleeping and so on in the parks with these police state bicycle raids. Queen's Park is another target of the raids. The police race in with blazing lights and create illegal info sheets on people they harass. These PSB 208 forms kept on innocent civilians are a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Innocent civilians don't have to answer cop questions unless under arrest or being ticketed for an offence. Those who do you answer are entered into a police database for use in criminal investigations.
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    Disallow Police Drug Testing - Aug/99 - Police Chiefs now want the power to harass motorists with drug testing. The Canadian Association of Police Chiefs is calling for legislation enabling them to test drivers for drugs and for the development of better technology to do drug testing.
       Our editorial view is that this expensive invasion of privacy will set the stage for a police state that keeps medical records on the public. Confidential information that properly can only be judged by a person's doctor will end up under the scrutiny of police.
       Drivers that are obviously impaired on some other drug than alcohol could simply be taken off the road in a check without a test, under the listing - Impaired, substance unknown.
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    The High Cost of the War on the Poor - A new program called Squeegee Work Youth Mobilization will place street kids in legitimate trades through job skills training. Starting with $250,000 in city money and $400,000 from Ottawa, SWYM hopes to put at least 100 kids through its program this summer.
       At the same time Mike Harris is promising to amend Ontario's Highway Traffic Act to allow police to ticket and eventually jail squeegee kids. Presently the kids are harassed and chased from parks by police. Beat cops have also begun new busts of amorous homosexuals in city parks.
       In an action similar the TTC cops, police have been taking illegal mug shots of kids and threatening to use them to identify them for future arrests. This is a violation of the UN agreement on human rights, which prohibits such forms of unjust incrimination.
       Arresting squeegee kids is a more expensive option as it costs $110 a day to keep a person in a provincial jail. So the idea of police sweeps, using officers making $40 dollars an hour in overtime pay is ridiculous. It would be cheaper to buy condominiums for all of Toronto's panhandlers and squeegees.
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    Mayor Mel a Thug - Aug/99 - Anti-poverty activists and members of the Committee to Stop Targeted Policing called the mayor a thug today at a city hall meeting.
    The city is spending $1.9 million to pay overtime to police officers to crack down on squeegee kids and beggars in selected hot spots. A plan city council brought in using the lie that armed criminals would be the target.
       "It has nothing to do with fighting crime; it has everything to do with intimidation, harassment and social cleansing," said Kathy Hardill of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee.
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    Children Strip Searched - Aug/99 - Victoria -- Police conducted strip searches on dozens of children who arrived on a smugglers' ship from China two weeks ago. Five of the children, including an eight-year-old girl, have been separated from their mothers. Several girls, as young as 12, were strip-searched by female police constables last weekend at the detention site.
    RCMP Constable Tracey Rook confirmed that strip searches were conducted.  Lawyers for the youths aboard the smugglers' ship are appalled at the tight security involving the children. They were handcuffed during immigration hearings last week.
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    Police State for the homeless in full force:
    Fraudulent Community Action Policing takes its toll - Aug/99 -  In week four of CAP Toronto police made 370 arrests, issued 1,430 tickets for petty offenses for things like jaywalking and wrote 8,621 contact cards known as PSB 208s. These forms contain things like name, address, description, names of companions and so on.  They are kept on people who are not even suspected of a crime for later computer reference in the event of a crime and in a democracy they are an insult and outright evidence of massive civil rights violations and fascism on the part of politicians and the police.
       Keep in mind that the mayor and council said this program was coming in to combat violent criminals of the shotgun killer variety. Instead the poor, the homeless and street kids have been the target of this political policing. City officials have engaged in this as a long-term plan to sweep the poor out of Toronto before the next Olympics. The city hopes to win on a bid for the Olympics and major media outlets controlled by Olympics boosters are doing everything in their power to promote this horrid form of target policing and to discredit those who oppose it.
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    Sex Offender File Leaked at Kingston Pen - Aug/99
    Officials at the Kingston Pen seized 70 computers and floppy disks in a bid to recover a confidential computer file that puts the lives of dozens of inmates in danger. The file was copied after it was inadvertently left on the hard drive of an old staff computer donated to the inmates.
    An internal probe and another by the federal privacy commissioner have been launched into the breach of confidentiality that affects more than 300 prisoners.
     Authorities believe the file fell into the hands of inmates six months ago, was copied and passed around. The file identifies sex offenders and lists those who remain untreated, violent or notorious. It also identifies inmates who were transferred to the penitentiary because of threats to their lives in other prisons.
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    CSIS, Canada's spy agency is spying on the anti-racist movement (June/99) and other organizations engaging in legitimate political dissent. In its latest annual report to the federal government, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says it opened files on a variety of people who made violent threats, including individuals fighting racism. CSIS investigated extremists devoted to animal rights and environmental causes, as well as radicals who signaled intent to harm others "in relation to Quebec separation," says the report. The top secret report for 1997-98, Canadian Eyes Only, was submitted to Andy Scott before he stepped down as solicitor- general last fall.
       Five years ago CSIS infiltrated the white-supremacist Heritage Front. The latest report also confirms CSIS' ongoing interest in aboriginal activism, also considered a potential source of violent conflict.
       Under the CSIS Act, the service has the power to investigate anyone who advocates serious violence to advance their political aims.
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    Government anti-Hacker Squad- July/99 - Five provinces are working to build a National Information Protection Centre to help strengthen the defenses of computer systems in government and the private sector against viruses and attempts to break in to acquire data or damage the systems.
    Its creation is the extension of an agreement among the chief information-technology officers of several provinces that each province should establish its own information-protection centre. The agreement was extended into a nationwide pact, which included the federal government, in May.
    The Canadian government is also looking at creating an emergency squad to respond to cyber-attacks on key computer networks. A federal report warns that Canada must do more to counter the threat from computer hackers or risk being shunned by companies worried about lax security.
    In some circles, Canada now has the reputation as a 'hacker's paradise' and a jumping-off point for attacks on U.S. systems.  The study recommends examining the possible establishment by the federal government of a Canadian Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT, which could track breaches, collect statistics and provide advice on security measures.
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    Some Key Recommendations of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

    GREEN PARTY OF CANADA LEADER FILES COMPLAINT WITH CANADIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (CSIS) COMPLAINTS COMMISSION -- Friday, January 29, 1999 -- VICTORIA, B.C.
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    Mounties - Dirty tricks - Past dirty tricks of the Mounties include
    - barn burning. 1972, RCMP burned a barn they thought would be the site of a meeting of FLQ and American Black Panthers.
    - Praxis. The force had been in possession of documents stolen from its Toronto office.
    - Operation Ham - The force arranged the theft of Parti Quebecois membership lists in the early 1970s.
    - Other Mountie operations during the late 1960s and early '70s include the break-in at a left-wing press agency; theft of dynamite, abduction, several other thefts and forgeries.
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    Mounties spied on Rhinos Jan/99 -The RCMP didn't find the comedic Rhinoceros Party to be funny. Newly released records reveal the service watched the Rhinos from 1971 through 1984. The RCMP's 106-page file on the Rhinos, obtained by Southam News under the Access to Information Act, show the Mounties were by the Rhinos. An October 1984 report notes the party's involvement in a coalition protesting a visit by the Pope. Another memo, stamped secret, earnestly documents a 1979 incident in Laval, Que., in which a ragtag group of Rhinos, apparently with Communist sympathies, made fun of the RCMP.
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