 January 25, 2005: The
Federal government released the first
national examination of the reasons for so many wrongful convictions
in Canada.
This should be required reading for every prosecutor, cop and
criminal defence lawyer in the country. If any of the obvious
warnings had been heeded in Darren Koehn's case, he would not
have been charged. News reports of the gov't report
Law lets police monitor
Internet
Court approval may not be needed for police to obtain information
Tim Naumetz, CanWest
News Service, Friday, August 19, 2005
OTTAWA -- The federal cabinet
will review new legislation this fall that would give police
and security agencies vast powers to begin surveillance of the
Internet without court authority.
The new measures would allow
law-enforcement agents to intercept personal e-mails, text messages
and possibly password- secure websites used for purchasing and
financial transactions.
A law professor and privacy
expert involved in consultations over the bill said a draft version
of the legislation circulated earlier this year did not require
court authority for police to intercept communications or demand
information from Internet servers.
"I think it's the kind
of legislation that is literally going to shock millions of Canadians,"
said University of Ottawa Prof. Michael Geist.
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler
disclosed the plan during a speech to a conference of police
boards from across the country. He told reporters he and Public
Safety Minister Anne McLellan are preparing a memorandum to cabinet
following months of discussions with police, privacy experts
and the Internet industry.
Cotler said law-enforcement
agencies have lagged behind as use of the World Wide Web exploded
over the past decade.
An internal briefing note for
the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service last February
said it has become increasingly difficult for the agency to intercept
communications for surveillance purposes and supported legislation
to give law agencies more powers.
Cotler says the government
wants to put police and security forces on a "level playing
field."
"Criminals and terrorists
are making use of the most sophisticated technology," said
Cotler. "They have become experts, frankly, in transborder
communications and transportation technology."
Cotler said the government
is aware of objections around the impact on privacy as well as
the effect the surveillance could have on the legal rights of
citizens. Under current law, it is illegal to intercept and open
letter mail, but it is unclear whether e-mails are in the same
legal category.
The Defence Department's Communications
Security Establishment has the ability to intercept all telephone
communications within Canada and calls across the border, but
must obtain ministerial permission to intercept and record telephone
calls in which at least one Canadian citizen is involved.
And police need court permission
to eavesdrop on telephone conversations.
"I hope we will come up
with a memorandum to cabinet that can protect human security
in the sense that we will put law enforcement people on the same
level playing field as criminals and terrorists in the matter
of using technology and accessing that technology, and at the
same time we will protect the civil libertarian concerns that
are involved," said Cotler.
Geist said the version of the
legislation that was circulated by the government failed to protect
the privacy and legal rights of citizens. It also placed a severe
requirement on Internet service providers to hold data and records
of Internet and e-mail use by their clients.
NEW SURVEILLANCE POWERS
"It really reshapes what
Canada's Internet looks like, creating a real surveillance network,"
said Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and
e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa. "The provisions
we've seen extend as far out as the Competition Bureau. This
will create a significant basket of new rights for all manner
of law-enforcement authorities.
"It envisions a dramatically
new Internet, new kinds of surveillance powers for law enforcement,
new kinds of surveillance capabilities for network providers
and requirements for network providers to disclose information
about Canadian Internet users, often with little or no judicial
oversight," said Geist.
He said the draft version allowed
police the right to telephone Internet service providers around
the clock and require them to provide records and data on client
files within 30 minutes.
NDP MP Joe Comartin, a lawyer
and the party's justice critic, said MPs on the Commons justice
committee who heard testimony about child pornography over the
Internet concluded police do not have enough power to adequately
investigate and prosecute offenders.
"Generally, members of
the committee from all parties are concerned about the limitations
police are operating under," said Comartin. "Our police
forces always seem to be lagging behind."
Comartin said the biggest obstacle
police face is obtaining records and information about client
web use from Internet service providers. He said the new law
would likely allow police to intercept transactions on secure
sites used for bank transactions and purchasing a range of merchandise.
Conservative MP Vic Toews,
while supporting expanded powers for police surveillance of the
Internet, said collection and storage of information and records
should not be allowed unless the agents are able to prove to
a judge there is justifiable reason to intercept the communications
and gather the data.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
Truth suppress'd, whether
by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com
If you hold the mouth
of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
Got something
to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!
- injusticebusters
court advice :
- How to walk yourself through the justice system
-
- Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)
-
- Sermonette:
The
Naked Truth -- (You
will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this
page
Another target
of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway
Our activism
contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the
civil trial.
Index
to the stories on this website
This is not
regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story
and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at
the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated
Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
-
The
Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing.
Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.
-
-
- 2005: In
the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming
at us!
-
- Brandon Morin:
- Convicted in Oregon
- of rapes which did not happen
- This website has good information
about Measure 11 -- Oregon's Mandatory Sentencing requirements
which have been in place since 1994. In this case we see how
the combination of a flawed grand jury system and prosecutors
who seek not justice but convictions is a recipe for wrongful
convictions.
-
Canadians who
have been wrongfully convicted because of improper investigations
combined with zealous Crown
A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada
- Robert
Baltovich
- Michael Burns
- Sebastian Burns
- Rodney
Cain
- Wilbert
Coffin
(hanged, 1953)
- Jason
Dix
- Jim
Driskell
- Jody
Druken
- Randy
Druken
- Hugues
Duguay
- Michel Dumont
- Peter
Frumusa
- Walter
Gillespie and Robert Mailman
- Clayton Johnson
- Yvonne Johnson
- Herman
Kaglik
- Darren
Koehn
- Kulaveeringsam
"Kulam" Karthiresu
- Stephen Leadbeater
- Donald Marshall
- Chris McCullough
- Michael
McTaggart
- Felix
Michaud
- David Milgaard
- Guy
Paul Morin
- Shannon
Murrin
- Jamie
Nelson
- Greg
Parsons
- Benoit Proulx
- Atif Rafay
- Louise
Reynolds
- Thomas
Sophonow
- Gary
Staples
- Billy
Taillefer
- Steven
Truscott
- Joe
Warren
- Leon
Walchuk
-
- AIDWYC
- Innocence Project (Canada)
- Innocence Project (U.S.)
- Northwest Law Center on Wrongful Convictions
-
- Kirstin Lobato
- Jeffrey
Scott Hornoff
- Willie
Upshaw
- Hurricane
Carter
- Guildford
4
- Birmingham
6
- Amirault
- Houston
- U.S. wrongful convictions:
Exonerateed
- Kirk
Bloodsworth
- Laurence
Adams
- Ludrate
Burton
- Stephen
Cowans
- Wilton
Dedge
- Albert
Johnson
- Kenneth
Marsh
- Dwayne
McKinney
- James Bernard Parker
- Peter
Reilly
- Peter
Rose
- Sylvester
Smith
- Clifford
St. Joseph
- John
Stoll
- Marty
Tankleff
- Wilton
Dedge
- Ray
Krone
-
- Still working on it:
- Dennis Deschaine
- Dennis
Perry
- Tim
Sandfort
-
-
|
Revitalizing the
archives
From 1998 until
2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis.
What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy
at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building
and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had
full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard
Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did
not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two
We posted our
earliest and later actions.
Early versions
of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine.
I began following
other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct
and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping
scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in
print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully
convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over
700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories
going.
It was the
story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan
government which grabbed the attention of The
Fifth Estate.
The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned
briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000.
When Richard
Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to
court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking
the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet.
- MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all)
- The Thompson Papers
- Carol
Bunko-Ruys reports
This claim
was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown
out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall
to sever all ties with the website.
The court fights:
- Les
Perreaux report
- QB271
These pages have links which
lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled,
I have been going back through the material we had posted in
the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive,
I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material
remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our
struggle is useful to you.
The identity
crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March
28, 2005
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-
Blogging
Blogging has been in the news.
It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created
each day. I established a blog for this website last September
and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the
pages with ongoing discussions.
- Tasering Mary Lutz
- Saskatchewan Centenary
- Quint Blog discussion
- Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police
- Blogging for choice
- Michael Cardamone witch hunt
- Implement recommendations of public
inquiries
- Stealing from the poor
- Vancouver's killer cops
- Tisdale rapists appeal
- Winnipeg police misdeeds
- Milgaard Inquiry
- Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?
- The Old Boys' Club Must Go!
- Vancouver activists
- John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie
- City of intolerance
- Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!
- Eric Cline
This is a great way for like-minded
people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than
making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.
People who want to contribute
simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will
be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their
comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment
to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine,
I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.
Please, please give it a try.
The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is
really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express
your viewpoint even if you don't have a computer. You can go
to the library or a friend's place or an internet cafe. Once
you've mastered the basics (and believe me, if I can do it, you
can do it) you will be participating in one of the most democratic
-- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it
has ever seen.
Come on. Don't be shy. Join
the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005
Toronto
Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved claims over last five
years
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