By ELIZABETH THOMPSON , Sun Media. 8th June 2009
OTTAWA — The federal government plans to start fingerprinting applicants for temporary resident permits as early as 2011, Sun Media has learned. By 2013, all prospective temporary residents, including those who apply for work permits or study permits, will have to submit fingerprints and photographs.
Thursday, June 4, 2009 | 2:54 PM ET, CBC News
Abousfian Abdelrazik, seen in this undated family photo, has been living in the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum for the last year. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)The Federal Court of Canada on Thursday ordered the federal government to allow the return of a Montreal man stranded in Sudan for six years as an al-Qaeda suspect, ruling his charter rights have been breached.
May 21, 2009 By BOB MACKIN, 24 HOURS
The Canada Border Service Agency will be doing much more than stamping passports for 2010 Winter Olympics visitors. The November 2007 Pacific Region Olympics operations plan and funding request, obtained under Access to Information by the Work Less Party, shows the agency’s Olympics Intelligence Unit coordinating a wide-ranging program of enforcement to combat perceived threats involving organized crime, sex trade workers, human trafficking and terrorism.
May 1, 2009, Briarpatch, Christopher Shaw and Alissa Westergard-Thorpe
On February 12, 2009, exactly one year before the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, the grim future of political freedom in British Columbia was on full display. Military and police flanked by helicopters rehearsed manoeuvres in Vancouver, where escalating harassment, intimidation and surveillance of activists had already begun. Those celebrating the event put aside concerns about the costly preparations for the Games. As the orchestrated magic took hold in Whistler Village, celebrants and athletes were swept up in the moment. They, like most of the mainstream media and all levels of government, were simply not going to think about the elephant on the slopes: security. Security has emerged as one of the largest single costs associated with the 2010 Olympics, and will carry significant costs for civil liberties as well.
JIM BRONSKILL. The Canadian Press. April 27, 2009
OTTAWA — The Canadian Security Intelligence Service makes a “disconcerting” number of mistakes in applications for eavesdropping warrants, raising potential concerns about liberties and privacy, says a watchdog over the spy agency. In a top secret report, CSIS Inspector-General Eva Plunkett criticizes the agency for failing to comply with policy, a lack of written documentation on important matters and gaps in the service rules. Ms. Plunkett said in an interview the spy service has not moved quickly enough to create up-to-date guidelines for an era when it is operating around the world against terrorism, not just keeping an eye on spies at home.
