Chantal Bernier is challenging the Government on
- the indiscriminate, no-warrant collection of personal data by the Government from the Telecom companies. (The Telecoms typically have both your phone and email conversations.)
ALSO
2. the data the Government is collecting on citizens through facebook
See Chantal Bernier says Ottawa snooping on social media (2014-05-08): http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/chantal-bernier-says-ottawa-snooping-on-social-media-1.2635998
(back-up copy at http://sandrafinley.ca/?p=12949.)
A break-through like this – Bernier’s efforts to heighten public awareness and hold the Government to account – last only a minute in today’s news. We can prolong it. Spread the word.
There’s an on-line petition, right-hand side at https://openmedia.ca/defendprivacy
And very good articles on the issue by Michael Geist, Chris Parsons, etc. at https://openmedia.ca/
CONTEXT IS CRITICAL, BUT MISSING
The news coverage and commentary on what the Privacy Commissioner is saying fails to include Context.
I tried every which way to submit a “Comment” on the on-line story. (There are more than a thousand so far.) But kept getting a message saying there was a problem.
So I sent the CONTEXT to the panelists in the 7 minute video (at the above CBC link) . . . at least they will have it! See below.
One panelist, Steve Anderson from OpenMedia.ca, understands better than the other two. He said “Canadians should be VERY ALARMED” by what the Privacy Commissioner is pointing out.
This is an important time to communicate with your Member-of-Parliament. If you can copy and paste from the following, please help yourself!
/Sandra
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“CONTEXT”
AS SENT TO PANELISTS and OTHERS
SENT TO: list, including email addresses, appended
Dear (- – – ),
Thank-you for adding your weight to defend the principles of democracy in Canada.
(http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/chantal-bernier-says-ottawa-snooping-on-social-media-1.2635998)
Perhaps you know the following. But JUST IN CASE you don’t!
Add this to the
- data collection from social media and
- the “almost 1.2 million requests for personal information about Canadians from Canada’s major telecom companies . . .”, keeping in mind that the telecoms have both our phone and email data:
1. CBC News, Oct 2013 – “Inside Canada’s Top Secret Billion Dollar Spy Palace”.
2. The Guardian, Dec 2013 – “Edward Snowden revelations prompt UN investigation into surveillance”. (News story set in the UK, but equally applicable to Canada.)
3. Ottawa Citizen, Nov 2008 – “American officials are pressuring the federal government to supply them with more information on Canadians, says an influential analyst on Canada-U.S. relations. Not only about (routine) individuals, but also about people that you may be looking at for reasons, but there’s no indictment and there’s no charge,” Christopher Sands of the Hudson Institute told a security intelligence conference in Ottawa . . .”
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=64f59d78-ce97-48dc-b2fd-381859ce6c84
4. US Legal, Nov 2009 – NSA to Build $1.6 Billion Storage Facility to House Personal Surveillance Data
5. Hansard, October 9, 2003 – Government contracts to Lockheed Martin Corp for work related to the data base on Canadians at Statistics Canada.
(Note that the data is being added to continuously, every day, through StatsCan “surveys”. StatsCan is no longer limited to once-in-five-year data collection on citizens through censuses. Also, individual records are not “anonymous”. Your name is on your record.)
“Bill Blaikie pressures government on Lockheed Martin Government Contracts
Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg—Transcona, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Industry.
We have heard a troubling rumour that Statistics Canada has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to an American corporation to do the dress rehearsal for the census in 2005 and subsequently the census itself. That corporation, we have heard, is Lockheed Martin, one of the biggest munitions companies in the world. . . . ” (Not to mention that it also specializes in surveillance.)
6. BC Privacy Commissioner, Oct 2004 — “Access to personal information through the USA Patriot Act”
Excerpt:
“On the first question, we have concluded that, if information is located outside British Columbia, it will be subject to the law that applies where it is found, regardless of the terms of an outsourcing contract. Therefore, if an outsourcing arrangement calls for personal information to be sent to the US, that information would be subject to the USA Patriot Act . . .
Further, we have concluded that it is a reasonable possibility that the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FIS Court) would issue a FISA order requiring a US-located corporation to produce records held in Canada by its Canadian subsidiary or, indeed, require any person or corporation within the jurisdiction of that court to disclose records held outside the US that they control because they have the legal or practical ability to obtain the records. . . . ”
(The Government and citizens of Canada, owners of the StatsCan data base for example, would never be told if Lockheed Martin turned over access to the data base to the NSA or some other entity within the American Govt.)
7. Ottawa Citizen, June 2008 – “. . . the Conservatives’ Canada First Defence Strategy was quietly released Thursday night on the Internet. . . .”
(Link no longer valid) http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=c3fcf7c4-0f60-41e1-89f8-0c95a2640229
Text from this Canadian military strategy document (Canada and the U.S.), as it was then:
“.. the two nations’ armed forces will pursue their effective collaboration on operations in North America and abroad. To remain interoperable, we must ensure that key aspects of our equipment and doctrine are compatible. . . . ”
8. New American, March 2011 – The U.S. has invested heavily in the development of biometrics
“…The Department of Homeland Security has been using iris scans at some airports to verify the identity of travelers who have passed background checks and who want to move through lines quickly. The department is also looking to apply iris- and face-recognition techniques to other programs. The DHS already has a database of millions of sets of fingerprints, . . .
“It’s going to be an essential component of tracking,” warned Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s enabling the Always On Surveillance Society.”
If the preceding can be helpful in some way, I will be happy.
I am conversant with these matters because I run an email network. And because I was on trial for 5 years, in and out of Court, over the question of Lockheed Martin’s involvement in the StatsCan data base on citizens.
Surveillance is characteristic of a police state. The evidence when accumulated is clear: Canadians are on a precipice. The time is well past when we all need to fight with every means at our disposal to reverse the slide into a fascist (corporate) state. Once again – – many thanks for your contribution.
Best wishes,
Sandra Finley
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APPENDED
The preceding was sent, with minor variations, to:
1. Chantal Bernier, Federal Privacy Commissioner (a special thank-you)
Anne-Marie.Hayden AT priv.gc.ca
Dear Anne-Marie,
I will be very appreciative if you will forward this to Chantal Bernier:
Bless you, Chantal Bernier, . . .
2. The “specialist” Christopher Parsons.
I’m a postdoctoral fellow at Citizen Lab (U of T, Munk School) focusing on ubiquitous digital surveillance and its accompanying privacy issues. Toronto, ON.
christopher AT christopher-parsons.com
3. Panelist Bill Robson, President and CEO of the C D Howe Institute (Strange bed-fellow for me!)
Bill_robson AT cdhowe.org
4. Panelist Goldy Hyder, President, Hill & Knowlton
Hello Jackie,
I will be appreciative if you can forward this to Mr. Hyder.
jackie.king AT hkstrategies.ca