Maybe the RCMP’s use of spyware to track cellphones, laptops and tablets has been perfectly legitimate. Maybe they’ve only used specially trained investigators who know how to walk the exceptionally tricky line between lawful investigation and invasion of privacy.
Maybe they haven’t snooped on ordinary Canadians emails, photos, videos, recorded conversations, bank records and e-documents. Maybe they haven’t turned on your computer’s or phone’s camera and microphone (as the spyware enables them to do), to watch and listen in to what you’re doing.
In the case of most Canadians, I can’t imagine you’d be doing anything they’d want to surreptitiously surveil, anyway. (Except, maybe, that little roleplaying game you and your spouse play on Saturday nights when the kids are out with friends.)
And maybe the Mounties truly have used the anti-encryption software in just 10 cases. And all of those cases were, as they claim, very sophisticated criminal or terrorist suspects, and in every case they sought a warrant from a judge before starting their snooping.
There will still be lots of Canadians how don’t believe the RCMP’s reassurances.
This case is precisely why objectivity, honesty and straightforwardness are essential from our national police force. Unimpeachability from the Mounties is not just some quaint, Dudley Do-Right holdover from a bygone era.
If we can’t trust the Mounties to be above corruptions and political interference, then it becomes very much harder to go along when they say “Trust us. We were only spying on really, really bad guys.”
For instance, if the Mounties show themselves to be so willing to help the Liberal government promote an assault-weapons ban that they jeopardize the investigation into Gabriel Wortman’s 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting, then they blow a lot of credibility. Enough credibility that many Canadians won’t believe them now when they claim they are acting responsibly on spyware.
Useless, burdensome, rights-bashing Liberal gun laws of the past 30 years have done tremendous damage to the image of police – especially the RCMP.
Most Liberal gun controls – the long-gun registry, the High River Gun Grab, the so-called assault-weapons ban and the recent handgun ban – have been completely pointless. To the extent Canada has a gun problem, the problem is almost entirely among drug dealers using guns smuggled in from the U.S.
But in their rush to virtue signal a stance against violent crime, successive Liberal governments have gone after legit gunowners, rather then criminals, confident the Lib voting base is ignorant of and indifferent to where the real gun problem lies.
Time and again, the Liberals have proven that an attack on the rights of law-abiding gunowners is as effective at securing their base as any campaign to root out real gun criminals. Indeed, in the twisted world of “progressive” logic, it might be even more popular, because real crime control might be seen as racist or politically incorrect.
Liberal gun controls of the past three decades were government initiatives, not RCMP. But the goodwill between gunowners and Mounties was shredded because the Mounties were left to enforce these unjust, unwanted, unpopular laws.
Now the RCMP needs ordinary citizens to believe that the force is not using spyware to keep tabs on who is adhering to the Trudeau line, but the force has already chewed through so much credibility enforcing gun laws, or rounding up lawful protestors at international summits, etc., that many, many Canadians don’t have it left in them to give the RCMP the benefit of the doubt.
It also doesn’t help that Marco Mendicino is the cabinet shill for the Mounties’ actions. His recent statements on the justifications for evoking the Emergencies Act were shown to be utter fabrications, so he has no personal credibility to lend to the Mounties, either.
OTTAWA — A former senior intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says it has surveilled politicians at the federal, provincial and municipal levels because of concerns they’re being paid by foreign governments.
Michel Juneau-Katsuya told a House of Commons committee in French that foreign agencies try to recruit elected officials, who may not even be aware they’re being targeted.
That revelation raised eyebrows among committee members, who are studying the RCMP’s use of spyware after the force disclosed in June that it has been using the technology in some investigations for years.
Juneau-Katsuya also said Canadian government agencies are likely using spyware to hack into people’s cellphones without them knowing.
Conservative MP Ryan Williams asked if he knows of groups such as CSIS, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Communications Security Establishment using spyware.
“Other agencies are using it, probably, yes,” Juneau-Katsuya said.
“Probably Yes???” Really???
Maybe they haven’t snooped on ordinary Canadians emails, photos, videos, recorded conversations, bank records and e-documents. Maybe they haven’t turned on your computer’s or phone’s camera and microphone (as the spyware enables them to do), to watch and listen in to what you’re doing.
In the case of most Canadians, I can’t imagine you’d be doing anything they’d want to surreptitiously surveil, anyway. (Except, maybe, that little roleplaying game you and your spouse play on Saturday nights when the kids are out with friends.)
And maybe the Mounties truly have used the anti-encryption software in just 10 cases. And all of those cases were, as they claim, very sophisticated criminal or terrorist suspects, and in every case they sought a warrant from a judge before starting their snooping.
There will still be lots of Canadians how don’t believe the RCMP’s reassurances.
GUNTER: Liberals miss target with ridiculous online surveillance — Toronto Sun
Maybe the RCMP’s use of spyware to track cellphones, laptops and tablets has been perfectly legitimate. Maybe they’ve only used specially trained investigators who know how to walk the exceptionally tricky line between lawful investigation and invasion of privacy. Maybe they haven’t snooped on...
apple.news
This case is precisely why objectivity, honesty and straightforwardness are essential from our national police force. Unimpeachability from the Mounties is not just some quaint, Dudley Do-Right holdover from a bygone era.
If we can’t trust the Mounties to be above corruptions and political interference, then it becomes very much harder to go along when they say “Trust us. We were only spying on really, really bad guys.”
For instance, if the Mounties show themselves to be so willing to help the Liberal government promote an assault-weapons ban that they jeopardize the investigation into Gabriel Wortman’s 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting, then they blow a lot of credibility. Enough credibility that many Canadians won’t believe them now when they claim they are acting responsibly on spyware.
Useless, burdensome, rights-bashing Liberal gun laws of the past 30 years have done tremendous damage to the image of police – especially the RCMP.
Most Liberal gun controls – the long-gun registry, the High River Gun Grab, the so-called assault-weapons ban and the recent handgun ban – have been completely pointless. To the extent Canada has a gun problem, the problem is almost entirely among drug dealers using guns smuggled in from the U.S.
But in their rush to virtue signal a stance against violent crime, successive Liberal governments have gone after legit gunowners, rather then criminals, confident the Lib voting base is ignorant of and indifferent to where the real gun problem lies.
Time and again, the Liberals have proven that an attack on the rights of law-abiding gunowners is as effective at securing their base as any campaign to root out real gun criminals. Indeed, in the twisted world of “progressive” logic, it might be even more popular, because real crime control might be seen as racist or politically incorrect.
Liberal gun controls of the past three decades were government initiatives, not RCMP. But the goodwill between gunowners and Mounties was shredded because the Mounties were left to enforce these unjust, unwanted, unpopular laws.
Now the RCMP needs ordinary citizens to believe that the force is not using spyware to keep tabs on who is adhering to the Trudeau line, but the force has already chewed through so much credibility enforcing gun laws, or rounding up lawful protestors at international summits, etc., that many, many Canadians don’t have it left in them to give the RCMP the benefit of the doubt.
It also doesn’t help that Marco Mendicino is the cabinet shill for the Mounties’ actions. His recent statements on the justifications for evoking the Emergencies Act were shown to be utter fabrications, so he has no personal credibility to lend to the Mounties, either.
Privacy experts disagree with RCMP assertion that spyware is similar to wiretapping
One witness told the privacy committee that spyware is 'like a wiretap on steroids,' and requires more oversight and a much higher threshold for use
nationalpost.com
OTTAWA — A former senior intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says it has surveilled politicians at the federal, provincial and municipal levels because of concerns they’re being paid by foreign governments.
Michel Juneau-Katsuya told a House of Commons committee in French that foreign agencies try to recruit elected officials, who may not even be aware they’re being targeted.
That revelation raised eyebrows among committee members, who are studying the RCMP’s use of spyware after the force disclosed in June that it has been using the technology in some investigations for years.
Juneau-Katsuya also said Canadian government agencies are likely using spyware to hack into people’s cellphones without them knowing.
Conservative MP Ryan Williams asked if he knows of groups such as CSIS, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Communications Security Establishment using spyware.
“Other agencies are using it, probably, yes,” Juneau-Katsuya said.
“Probably Yes???” Really???