The RCMP Surveilled Thousands of Innocent Canadians for a Decade

grumpydigger

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Written by https://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-rcmp-surveilled-thousands-of-innocent-canadians-for-a-decade#
Jordan Pearson


June 10, 2016 // 09:14 AM EST
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been using mass surveillance devices known as IMSI catchers, in public, for a decade. In that time, the police have indiscriminately surveilled potentially thousands of Canadians without their knowledge, and stored that information for later use.
Motherboard and VICE News obtained more than 3,000 pages of court documents that were produced as part of a case centering around a 2010 RCMP drug bust that unveiled a Montreal mafia slaying, codenamed Project Clemenza. Thanks to these documents, Canadians are finally getting a peek into the RCMP’s use of mobile device identifiers—the police’s term for IMSI catchers. On Friday, some of the men who pleaded guilty in the case that sprang from Clemenza are being sentenced in a Quebec court.
These documents reveal that the RCMP cut corners in training officers on how to use mass surveillance devices, and routinely surpassed even US federal police in their embrace of the technology by retaining surveillance data after an investigation is concluded.
"Clearly, they’ve been planning for some time to use them for day-to-day mass policing"


IMSI catchers essentially act like fake cell phone towers. They force every phone within range—which may be up to two kilometres away—to connect and communicate information such as the handset’s unique ID, the ID of the phone’s SIM card, and its carrier and country of origin. Some IMSI catchers are capable of intercepting texts and phone calls.
IMSI catchers are indiscriminate. They act more like a dragnet than a targeted surveillance tool, and one can imagine how many innocents may be surveilled when an IMSI catcher is deployed in a bustling city centre.
Although the use of IMSI catchers by police in the US is well-known, the RCMP has been remarkably guarded about revealing its capabilities to the public.
“This technology is so privacy-invasive that it is essential we be given enough information to ensure that it is only being used lawfully and with respect for our Charter rights,” said Brenda McPhail, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s surveillance project. “Only then can we have a real debate about whether the benefits to public safety are at all proportionate to the profound privacy risks presented by this technology.”
In the past decade, as the RCMP has expanded its IMSI catcher program and increased its surveillance capabilities, the federal force has not filed a single privacy assessment to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, the nation’s federal privacy watchdog, a spokesperson for the Commissioner told Motherboard.
Despite efforts on the part of the RCMP and the Crown to suppress information relating to the use of IMSI catchers in Project Clemenza, the documents nonetheless paint the picture of a surveillance program that likely grew too fast for its own good, and raise serious questions about how the police subvert Canadians’ privacy.
This story is part of a joint investigation with VICE News. Check them out for more details on the court case that led to the police exposing their secret surveillance program.
 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
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Ah.. the secret police
just like the stazi and the KGB and the geshtapo
yay!
If not the innocent Canadian tax payer
kinda makes you wonder who they actually work for
 

lone wolf

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I've had downloads freeze with a note signed rcmp.gc.ca. Might be peeking at files. Who knows? I have thousands of picture files - planes, trains and automobiles ... but the only porn is some stipped-down Chevies. Love spoiling the surfing fun....
 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
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after all that spying
betcha the rcmp have lots of armature porn on their computers
 

B00Mer

Keep Calm and Carry On
Sep 6, 2008
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I've had downloads freeze with a note signed rcmp.gc.ca. Might be peeking at files. Who knows? I have thousands of picture files - planes, trains and automobiles ... but the only porn is some stipped-down Chevies. Love spoiling the surfing fun....

Maybe you should use a Mac and a VPN with a US IP.. www.StongVPN.com

My cell service is via Cell Phones | 4G Phones | iPhone and Android Phones | T-Mobile out of the USA.. $80/mo Unlimited North American Plan.. Unlimited everything.. great for when I want to watch DirecTV on my phone when I'm not at home.