This article just came out a few days ago. It talks about the fact that Canada, US, UK, are setting up a network of Citizen Informants. Similar to what the Stasi of East Germany did. We are also using secret data bases, some with very irronious data that could affect people getting security clearances, crossing the boarder amoungst other things.
I found the article very interesting. There is also a lenght report by Jennifer Stoddard, the privacy commisioner of Canada.
I wonder what your feedback is on the subject. Are we becoming a nation of citizen informants?
Here is a link to the article and a quote from one of the articles.
http://www.corbettreport.com/articles/20080214_snitch_state.htm
The articles also links to the report and the original article which came out on the cbc. Good reading, and I look forward to some good feedback.
I found the article very interesting. There is also a lenght report by Jennifer Stoddard, the privacy commisioner of Canada.
I wonder what your feedback is on the subject. Are we becoming a nation of citizen informants?
Here is a link to the article and a quote from one of the articles.
http://www.corbettreport.com/articles/20080214_snitch_state.htm
Jennifer Stoddart, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has given her own Valentine to Canadian citizens: a 48-page report warning them that the RCMP (Canada's national police force) is keeping thousands of files on regular citizens in secret databases which cannot be seen by the accused. The news is perhaps unsurprising, given that the McDonald Commission reported in 1981 that the RCMP had been involved in all manner of illegal activity in their attempts to spy on Canadian citizens, including breaking into citizens' homes without warrants and even conducting electronic surveillance of a member of Parliament.
One of the many disturbing facets of Stoddart's report are the examples she cites of information for these secret files coming from citizen informants. In one case a man was put into the secret database because a resident of his daughter's school neighborhood saw him entering a rooming house and—believing drugs were involved—called the police. The police investigation concluded that the man had only stepped out of his car to have a cigarette, but the file was still in the national security databank seven years later.
Another incident cited in the Stoddart report involved a neighbour who saw two men carrying "something that resembled a large drum, wrapped in canvas" into their house. Police were called to investigate but found nothing resembling the reported item, yet the data was still sitting in a top secret databank five years later. As Stoddart points out in the CBC story on the report, this is potentially disastrous for the individuals named in the files, because it "could potentially affect someone trying to obtain an employment security clearance, or impede an individual's ability to cross the border."
This report follows on the heels of news from London that a man was arrested, fingerprinted and had his DNA stored in the British DNA database because a passer-by mistook his mp3 player for a gun.
What these seemingly disparate reports point to is a growing movement to turn the citizens of so-called free, democratic nations into a self-regulating secret police, saving the government the hassle of keeping tabs on everyone by delegating the duty to an unwitting public duped by a phoney war on terror. That this is a part of a concerted effort on the part of the authorities to inculcate paranoia in the public is suggested by this ridiculous police training video from Michigan, teaching people how to be good informants: report on everyone, everywhere for doing anything.
The articles also links to the report and the original article which came out on the cbc. Good reading, and I look forward to some good feedback.