This
recent article highlights just how much information
foreign governments (in this case the U.S.) are able to obtain about
you or I, meanwhile details of the agreement on almost all of the
three dozen separate initiatives in the Beyond the Border action plan
are “closely held” , i.e. unavailable to the general
public or even our MP's. So in other words your government is
negotiating providing even more information to U.S. Law enforcement
whist at the same time withholding information as to what exactly
they are negotiating, seems a little one sided to me!
Read on.......
More than a dozen Canadians have told the
Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office in Toronto within the past year
that they were blocked from entering the United States after their
records of mental illness were shared with the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security.
Lois Kamenitz, 65, of Toronto contacted the
office last fall, after U.S. customs officials at Pearson
International Airport prevented her from boarding a flight to Los
Angeles on the basis of her suicide attempt four years
earlier.........................
So far, the RCMP
hasn’t provided the office with clear answers about how or why
police records of non-violent mental health incidents are passed
across the border.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did
not respond to a CBC News request for comment.
According to diplomatic cables released
earlier this year by WikiLeaks, any information entered into the
national Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database is
accessible to American authorities.
Local police officers take notes whenever they
apprehend an individual or respond to a 911 call, and some of this
information is then entered into the CPIC database, says Stylianos.
He says that occasionally this can include non-violent mental health
incidents in which police are involved.......................
RCMP Insp. Denis St. Pierre says information on
CPIC not only contains a person's criminal record, but also
outstanding warrants, missing persons reports and information about
stolen property, along with information regarding persons of interest
in ongoing cases. It also can contain individuals' history of mental
illness, including suicide attempts.
The database contains anything that could alert
authorities to a potential threat to public safety and security, and
all CPIC information is available to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, St. Pierre says. There are a few exceptions,
including information regarding young offenders, which is
not available to American authorities.
The administrations of Prime Minister Stephen
Harper and President Barack Obama are in talks over a perimeter
security deal that would include further cross-border
intelligence-sharing as part of a joint border security
strategy.
In an Aug. 29 news conference in Toronto,
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told reporters that the privacy
rights of Canadians remain top-of-mind during discussions about
cross-border law enforcement programs........... OH REALY!
Not
only that but said discussions are all but a done deal according to
this
article......
U.S. and Canadian negotiators have successfully
concluded talks on a new deal to integrate continental security and
erase obstacles to cross-border trade.
Negotiators have reached agreement on almost all
of the three dozen separate initiatives in the Beyond the Border
action plan, said sources who cannot be named because they are not
authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The few remaining items
mostly involve questions of wording and should be settled in time for
an announcement in late September......................
Opponents have raised alarms that an agreement
would cost Canadians both sovereignty and personal privacy. But
failure to implement the agreements could further impair the world’s
most extensive trading relationship, and put manufacturing jobs
across the country at risk.
Details of the agreement are closely held. But
goals outlined earlier include specific proposals to co-ordinate and
align such things as biometrics on passports, watch lists,
inspection of containers at overseas ports and other security
measures..........................
The action plan is expected to propose making it
easier to obtain temporary worker permits and documents such as the
NEXUS card to circumvent Customs lineups. Factory shipments could be
prescreened at the factory rather than at the border to ease passage.
The sources said much of what is proposed will
not require legislation, although some if it will require budget
outlays............................
Meanwhile in this
recent Green Party mailing our attention is drawn to another area
where government is not only seeking to access your private
communications without warrant but doing it by including it in other
legislation in a massive 'Omnibus' bill.........
Harper’s
Conservatives plan to table an omnibus crime bill that contains
some very bad legislation.
Three of the more disturbing items lumped in with the omnibus
Crime Bill are collectively known as the “Lawful Access”
legislation:
The Green Party
supports efforts to tackle cyber crime, but is deeply concerned
about the erosion of Canadians’ privacy. Currently,
government agencies must show probable cause and obtain a court
order before tapping your phones, and intercepting your mail and
online communications. If this bill is passed, government
agencies will be able access your online communications without a
court order--they
need only tell your service providers that they have a
‘reasonable suspicion’.
In this
context, reasonable is a dangerously flexible word that threatens
your right to privacy.
A reasonable government would give each section of the crime bill
the attention that it deserves, encouraging debate and a
clarification of possible, unforeseen consequences. Omnibus bills
are known to make profound changes to unrelated aspects of
administration and policy, especially because Parliament can’t
properly study them.
With a majority
government, knowing that it can pass every piece of legislation
that it creates, the Conservatve government shows a disturbing
contempt for Canadians by continuing the practice of linking
highly dubious laws to those upon which we can all
agree................
No further comment
required!
Then there is this from David Dodge retired Governor of the Bank of Canada which points out that Each (Ontario Provincial) leader is promoting “impossible” economic plans that unrealistically promise lower taxes and improved services for a province that he believes is facing a shrinking tax revenue base. “Whoever wins will be seen to have lied to the public,” he said. Some extracts follow........ During a recent early morning breakfast meeting in the Toronto office of his law firm Bennett Jones LLP, he says it is “unfortunate” that most senior civil servants have “hidden a bit,” from the long-standing tradition of speaking their minds about public policies in speeches, public hearings or committee sessions. “I believe that Canadian citizens are more intelligent and more able to deal with things than the political operators believe. The foundation of a good public policy is really an open dialogue and open debate.”..................... In Europe and North America, households are bogged down by debts, job growth is stalled and governments are burdened with too much debt. Add it all up, he says, and “clear and real economic growth is not in the cards for some time.” How bad will it get? To this question, Mr. Dodge responds with another: “Are we in North America and Europe facing a Japanese decade?” The question will not be directly answered, but his implication is clear: Most of the industrialized world is a long way from economic recovery................. Given the current strength of the Canadian currency and fragility of the U.S. economy, he says, “we in Ontario are in an extremely difficult position.” The worst of it, he says, is that none of the province’s three political parties appear willing to admit that jobs and corporate tax revenues are at potentially at risk. More disconcerting are the absence of viable economic strategies and incentives to attract manufacturing investment............... |
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