n a t i o n a l   ( i n ) s e c u r i t i e s

…. An evening of cultural resistance with our community of courageous poets and word warriors performing staged readings of Kafka’s The Trial, readings of statements from detainees in the War on Terror, along with poetry readings and spoken word performances….

Hari Alluri * Chin Banerjee * Nadine Chambers * Charlie Demers * Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance * Junie Desil * Phinder Dulai * Raul Gatica * Fiona Jeffries * Aziz Khaki * Katsumi Kimoto * Marge Lam * Cecily Nicholson * Carmen Rodriguez * Tom Sandborn * Ange Sterritt * Itrath Syed * Marcus Youssef

“There can be no doubt—said K.  that behind all the actions of this court of justice, that is to say in my case, behind my arrest and today’s interrogation, there is a great organization at work. An organization which not only employs corrupt warders, oafish Inspectors, and Examining Magistrates of whom the best that can be said is that they recognize their own limitations, but also has at its disposal a judicial hierarchy of high, indeed of the highest rank, with an indispensable and numerous retinue of servants, clerks, police, and other assistants, perhaps even hangmen…”  -The Trial

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National ID card back on the agenda as Canada seeks quick border access By DAN DUGAS, CP

OTTAWA (CP) – Sooner or later, Canadians will have to carry some form of  identification other than a passport to travel outside the country, says the new federal minister of public safety. The British Commons has just adopted legislation for a government-issued
national ID card and Stockwell Day suggested in an interview with The Canadian Press that such a card is inevitable for Canada. “At this point, I don’t know what it should be called, to tell you the truth,” Day said.

“I don’t know if we’ll call it that, but we want good, law-abiding people to have smooth and quick access at all border points – not just North American, but international.”New life is being breathed into the proposal now that the United States has dropped its demand that Canadians be required to show passports to cross the border.

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The Canadian Press Thursday, January 19, 2006. Canada allegedly backed Bush on forced disappearances. We ran interference, says rights group

Ottawa — A civil liberties group accuses Prime Minister Paul Martin of siding with the Bush administration to undermine a proposed United Nations treaty outlawing forced disappearances. Human Rights Watch says in its annual report that Martin aparently
decided to run interference for the U.S. as a way for Canada to mend strained relations. The group says disappearances occur when governments seize people without acknowledging their detention, leaving them highly vulnerable to torture or execution. Human Rights Watch says Canada “worked aggressively” to dilute key elements
of the treaty. “Canada contributed to this shameful opposition, not because it is known to forcibly ‘disappear’ people but apparently because Martin decided to run interference for one of his neighbour’s unsavoury practices.”

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CSIS policy on records hit. Material should be kept: Watchdog. Toronto Star

Canada’s spy service should stop destroying original notes or recordings, the chair of the service’s civilian oversight committee says. Gary Filmon said in an interview that one of his priorities as the new chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee is to push for a change in the security service’s policy that requires employees to shred or erase original material, arguing that there are cases where information can be stored without infringing on the privacy rights of Canadians.

“To just have a blanket (direction to) destroy after such and such a period of time doesn’t make sense to us and that’s what we’re saying to CSIS,” said Filmon, a former Manitoba premier, who became SIRC’s chair in June.

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New surveillance bill introduced, CBC News

The federal government has introduced a bill to make it easier for police and CSIS to monitor private cellphone conversations and communication on the internet. The Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act, if passed, would require internet companies to give the police confidential information on their subscribers. The information, which includes the person’s name, address and telephone or cellphone number, would allow the police or CSIS to identify the location of a person’s computer.

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