Since 2002, 141 Canadian soldiers have been killed serving in the Afghanistan mission.
Four Canadian civilians have also been killed, including one diplomat, one journalist and two aid workers.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
The timing is especially curious Farewell Deputy Attorney General John H. Sims
Farewell, soon-to-be-former Deputy Attorney General John H. Sims
March 19, 2010 12:32 PM
By Kady O'Malley
Yes, according to the Department of Justice, earlier this week, Deputy Minister John H. Sims -- a three-plus-decade veteran of the civil service -- gave notice, via widely-distributed letter, that he would be leaving his post, effective April 1. The news apparently provoked mild-to-middling surprise on the mandarin circuit, since generally speaking, the imminent departure of such a senior official would have been telegraphed months in advance, and not announced in a brief note just two weeks before his last day on the job.The timing is especially curious given how deeply enmeshed in the Afghan detainee controversy his soon to be former department has become, particularly given yesterday's Questions of Privilege. During debate, Liberal MP Derek Lee suggested that the letter sent by the assistant deputy minister "breaches the privileges of the House by, in effect, laying for witnesses a false basis for refusing to provide disclosure to the House or its committees after being ordered to do so," and called her words "sad and shocking coming from the Department of Justice and the legal advisers to the Crown." He went on: The problem here is not just the assistant deputy minister of justice's being wrong and fully disregarding any reference to parliamentary law and Parliament's constitutional purpose, but it actually describes that government officials would not be absolved from respecting statutory duties if required to testify before a committee.These are not the words of an ordinary citizen over the counter at Tim Hortons. These are the words and pronouncements, the position, of the Department of Justice over the hand of the assistant deputy minister for the public law sector.These and other words in this letter show no knowledge or regard for the law of this institution and betray on the part of the department a shocking and unprofessional ignorance of parliamentary law, and that law binds our democracy together. If these words were crafted with others and with ministerial approval, in my view it would constitute a conspiracy to undermine Parliament and the ability of the House to carry on its constitutional functions. Either way, in simple ignorance or with subversive intent, this document over the hand of the assistant deputy minister of justice constitutes a contempt and cannot be allowed to stand under our Constitution.In a subsequent intervention Bob Rae went out of his way to endorse his colleague's comments on that letter, which, he said, "could only be interpreted as having a chilling effect on people who are appearing before a parliamentary committee." It's worth noting that Sims himself has, of course, never been cited as a potential target for contempt claims. But it's hard to see how as deputy minister -- and, under the Federal Accountability Act, accounting officer responsible before Parliament and committee -- he wouldn't have wound up played a key role in crafting the department's response to the argument that one of its senior officials may have breached parliamentary privilege. In fact, given that Justice appears to have taken -- or been given -- the lead in the larger, and likely more potentially incendiary dispute over the order to produce those detainee-related documents in their original, unredacted form, he would almost certainly also have been deeply involved in the government's defence against the opposition's attempt to assert privilege. It is, after all, the role of Justice to provide legal counsel to other departments when required. Meanwhile, outside the Commons -- and, as such, outside the scope of parliamentary power and privilege -- justice department lawyers have also been accused of attempting to intimidate potential witnesses before the Military Police Complaints Commission. All told, it seems like less than auspicious timing for such a high-ranking changing of the bureaucratic guard.
March 19, 2010 12:32 PM
By Kady O'Malley
Yes, according to the Department of Justice, earlier this week, Deputy Minister John H. Sims -- a three-plus-decade veteran of the civil service -- gave notice, via widely-distributed letter, that he would be leaving his post, effective April 1. The news apparently provoked mild-to-middling surprise on the mandarin circuit, since generally speaking, the imminent departure of such a senior official would have been telegraphed months in advance, and not announced in a brief note just two weeks before his last day on the job.The timing is especially curious given how deeply enmeshed in the Afghan detainee controversy his soon to be former department has become, particularly given yesterday's Questions of Privilege. During debate, Liberal MP Derek Lee suggested that the letter sent by the assistant deputy minister "breaches the privileges of the House by, in effect, laying for witnesses a false basis for refusing to provide disclosure to the House or its committees after being ordered to do so," and called her words "sad and shocking coming from the Department of Justice and the legal advisers to the Crown." He went on: The problem here is not just the assistant deputy minister of justice's being wrong and fully disregarding any reference to parliamentary law and Parliament's constitutional purpose, but it actually describes that government officials would not be absolved from respecting statutory duties if required to testify before a committee.These are not the words of an ordinary citizen over the counter at Tim Hortons. These are the words and pronouncements, the position, of the Department of Justice over the hand of the assistant deputy minister for the public law sector.These and other words in this letter show no knowledge or regard for the law of this institution and betray on the part of the department a shocking and unprofessional ignorance of parliamentary law, and that law binds our democracy together. If these words were crafted with others and with ministerial approval, in my view it would constitute a conspiracy to undermine Parliament and the ability of the House to carry on its constitutional functions. Either way, in simple ignorance or with subversive intent, this document over the hand of the assistant deputy minister of justice constitutes a contempt and cannot be allowed to stand under our Constitution.In a subsequent intervention Bob Rae went out of his way to endorse his colleague's comments on that letter, which, he said, "could only be interpreted as having a chilling effect on people who are appearing before a parliamentary committee." It's worth noting that Sims himself has, of course, never been cited as a potential target for contempt claims. But it's hard to see how as deputy minister -- and, under the Federal Accountability Act, accounting officer responsible before Parliament and committee -- he wouldn't have wound up played a key role in crafting the department's response to the argument that one of its senior officials may have breached parliamentary privilege. In fact, given that Justice appears to have taken -- or been given -- the lead in the larger, and likely more potentially incendiary dispute over the order to produce those detainee-related documents in their original, unredacted form, he would almost certainly also have been deeply involved in the government's defence against the opposition's attempt to assert privilege. It is, after all, the role of Justice to provide legal counsel to other departments when required. Meanwhile, outside the Commons -- and, as such, outside the scope of parliamentary power and privilege -- justice department lawyers have also been accused of attempting to intimidate potential witnesses before the Military Police Complaints Commission. All told, it seems like less than auspicious timing for such a high-ranking changing of the bureaucratic guard.
Friday, March 19, 2010
the PMO is now in love with Democratic Reform hmmm?
Legislative Initiatives C-6 - Visual Identification of Voters Bill (media)
C-16 - Expanded Voting Opportunities Bill (media)
C-18 - Verification of Residence Bill (media)-->
C-30 - Senate Ethics Bill (media)
C-40 - Expanded Voting Opportunities (media)
S-6 - Accountability with Respect to Political Loans Bill (media)
S-7 - Senate Term Limits (media)
C-16 - Expanded Voting Opportunities Bill (media)
C-18 - Verification of Residence Bill (media)-->
C-30 - Senate Ethics Bill (media)
C-40 - Expanded Voting Opportunities (media)
S-6 - Accountability with Respect to Political Loans Bill (media)
S-7 - Senate Term Limits (media)
RCMP Security Service history.
RCMP Security Service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The RCMP Security Service was once responsible for intelligence and counterintelligence activities for Canada. It was replaced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on the recommendation of the McDonald Commission, which was called in the wake of major scandals in the 1970s.
In 1950, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Special Branch was formally established to conduct its counterintelligence operations.[1] Prior to that, the branch was a component of the RCMP's Criminal Investigation Branch, where political security operations and criminal investigations were not distinct before 1936. The Mounties carried out extensive security service work since the force was reconstituted in 1920, when it merged with the Dominion Police and became the federal police agency solely responsible for national security. Between the wars, this work was overwhelmingly directed at the Communist Party and labour and the left more generally.[2] In 1962, the branch was renamed the Directorate of Security and Intelligence, and in 1970 it became the RCMP Security Service.[3] In the 1960s, it targeted Quebec nationalists, particularly the militant Front de libération du Québec. As a result of illegal tactics used by the Security Service and consequent scandals surrounding the RCMP, intelligence work was transferred to a new agency, CSIS, in 1984. The RCMP has again become involved in intelligence work, however, particularly related to terrorism following the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985 and the 9/11 attacks.[4]
See also
Communications Security Establishment
[edit] References
^ "RCMP: A Brief History". CBC. 22 June 2005. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/rcmp/. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
^ Steven Roy Hewitt (1997) (PDF). Old Myths Die Hard: The Transformation of the Mounted Police in Alberta and Saskatchewan, 1914–1939. PhD thesis. University of Saskatchewan. http://library2.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-10202004-235919/unrestricted/nq23937.pdf. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
^ "RCMP: A Brief History". CBC. 22 June 2005. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/rcmp/. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
^ Brown, Jim (19 September 2006). "Arar case raises ghost of past RCMP follies on security front". Canadian Press. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=21e0deb9-3801-4979-973b-cafa24cae47c. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
This Canadian government-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
v • d • e
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCMP_Security_Service"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The RCMP Security Service was once responsible for intelligence and counterintelligence activities for Canada. It was replaced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on the recommendation of the McDonald Commission, which was called in the wake of major scandals in the 1970s.
In 1950, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Special Branch was formally established to conduct its counterintelligence operations.[1] Prior to that, the branch was a component of the RCMP's Criminal Investigation Branch, where political security operations and criminal investigations were not distinct before 1936. The Mounties carried out extensive security service work since the force was reconstituted in 1920, when it merged with the Dominion Police and became the federal police agency solely responsible for national security. Between the wars, this work was overwhelmingly directed at the Communist Party and labour and the left more generally.[2] In 1962, the branch was renamed the Directorate of Security and Intelligence, and in 1970 it became the RCMP Security Service.[3] In the 1960s, it targeted Quebec nationalists, particularly the militant Front de libération du Québec. As a result of illegal tactics used by the Security Service and consequent scandals surrounding the RCMP, intelligence work was transferred to a new agency, CSIS, in 1984. The RCMP has again become involved in intelligence work, however, particularly related to terrorism following the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985 and the 9/11 attacks.[4]
See also
Communications Security Establishment
[edit] References
^ "RCMP: A Brief History". CBC. 22 June 2005. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/rcmp/. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
^ Steven Roy Hewitt (1997) (PDF). Old Myths Die Hard: The Transformation of the Mounted Police in Alberta and Saskatchewan, 1914–1939. PhD thesis. University of Saskatchewan. http://library2.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-10202004-235919/unrestricted/nq23937.pdf. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
^ "RCMP: A Brief History". CBC. 22 June 2005. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/rcmp/. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
^ Brown, Jim (19 September 2006). "Arar case raises ghost of past RCMP follies on security front". Canadian Press. http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=21e0deb9-3801-4979-973b-cafa24cae47c. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
This Canadian government-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
v • d • e
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCMP_Security_Service"
RCMP intelligence service / Canadian Security Intelligence Service labelled Rene Levesque "a suspected Communist."
OTTAWA — Newly released documents reveal that RCMP spies once labelled Rene Levesque "a suspected Communist."
The provocative passage appears in RCMP intelligence service records on the late Quebec journalist and politician obtained Wednesday by The Canadian Press after a complaint to the federal information watchdog.
Before entering politics in 1960, Levesque was a prominent host with the CBC's French-language television service, which came under close Mountie scrutiny.
A January 1959 memo to the RCMP commissioner focused on striking CBC producers in Montreal who were supported by several other unions and labour groups, including the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian and Catholic Confederation of Labour.
"It is reported ... that Rene Levesque, a suspected Communist, is the co-ordinator between the strikers and the union bodies mentioned above," says the memo.
The new pages are part of a 2,500-page RCMP dossier on Levesque released by Library and Archives Canada under the Access to Information Act.
Large portions of the file were made public in November 2007, but hundreds of pages were withheld from release. Additional material was disclosed following a complaint by The Canadian Press to the federal information commissioner.
Other pages now public show a source informed the Mounties of future separatist leader Jacques Parizeau's presence at a 1971 Parti Quebecois meeting. However, much of the Levesque file remains secret.
The material released in 2007 revealed the RCMP's security branch closely tracked Levesque from his early career as a globe-trotting broadcaster, through his evolution into stalwart separatist and eventual emergence as Quebec premier in the 1970s.
The records made it clear the Mounties suspected the well-known commentator of being a left-wing subversive during his days with the CBC, but the newly released assertion he may be a Communist punctuates those concerns.
Still, a 1962 memo states the RCMP had "no indication on file" that Levesque is or ever was a member of the Communist Party of Canada.
Personal files compiled by the RCMP's security and intelligence branch can be disclosed through the access law 20 years after a person's death.
Levesque, often seen with a signature cigarette dangling from his lips, died of a heart attack at 65 in November 1987.
Levesque apparently became ensnared in the RCMP's hunt for leftist radicals in the CBC, as suggested by a 1958 memo, "CBC Montreal -- Collaboration of Officials with Known Communists."
In 1959 the Mounties dissected one of his reports on Cold War politics. The following year Levesque joined the mainstream politic fray as a Liberal member of the Quebec legislature. He served in ministerial posts before quitting the Liberals and founding what would become the Parti Quebecois.
By 1972, the Mounties determined Levesque was "not considered a subversive revolutionary. He is a strong Quebec nationalist who advocates separation of that province through peaceful and democratic means."
But as late as June 1980, shortly after Levesque led a failed referendum bid for sovereignty, an RCMP Security Service officer recommended continuing to monitor his activities, "because of the key position he occupies at this time." He added cryptically that "the protection of the man could justify it."
Notations show Levesque's file was viewed in the late 1970s by the McDonald Commission, which looked into misdeeds by the RCMP's security service -- an inquiry that led to creation of the civilian Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 1984.
The final entries in the Levesque file are press clippings from 1985.
Extensive RCMP files on other politicians, including NDP chiefs David Lewis and Tommy Douglas, have also been declassified in recent years -- though many pages remain under wraps.
The provocative passage appears in RCMP intelligence service records on the late Quebec journalist and politician obtained Wednesday by The Canadian Press after a complaint to the federal information watchdog.
Before entering politics in 1960, Levesque was a prominent host with the CBC's French-language television service, which came under close Mountie scrutiny.
A January 1959 memo to the RCMP commissioner focused on striking CBC producers in Montreal who were supported by several other unions and labour groups, including the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian and Catholic Confederation of Labour.
"It is reported ... that Rene Levesque, a suspected Communist, is the co-ordinator between the strikers and the union bodies mentioned above," says the memo.
The new pages are part of a 2,500-page RCMP dossier on Levesque released by Library and Archives Canada under the Access to Information Act.
Large portions of the file were made public in November 2007, but hundreds of pages were withheld from release. Additional material was disclosed following a complaint by The Canadian Press to the federal information commissioner.
Other pages now public show a source informed the Mounties of future separatist leader Jacques Parizeau's presence at a 1971 Parti Quebecois meeting. However, much of the Levesque file remains secret.
The material released in 2007 revealed the RCMP's security branch closely tracked Levesque from his early career as a globe-trotting broadcaster, through his evolution into stalwart separatist and eventual emergence as Quebec premier in the 1970s.
The records made it clear the Mounties suspected the well-known commentator of being a left-wing subversive during his days with the CBC, but the newly released assertion he may be a Communist punctuates those concerns.
Still, a 1962 memo states the RCMP had "no indication on file" that Levesque is or ever was a member of the Communist Party of Canada.
Personal files compiled by the RCMP's security and intelligence branch can be disclosed through the access law 20 years after a person's death.
Levesque, often seen with a signature cigarette dangling from his lips, died of a heart attack at 65 in November 1987.
Levesque apparently became ensnared in the RCMP's hunt for leftist radicals in the CBC, as suggested by a 1958 memo, "CBC Montreal -- Collaboration of Officials with Known Communists."
In 1959 the Mounties dissected one of his reports on Cold War politics. The following year Levesque joined the mainstream politic fray as a Liberal member of the Quebec legislature. He served in ministerial posts before quitting the Liberals and founding what would become the Parti Quebecois.
By 1972, the Mounties determined Levesque was "not considered a subversive revolutionary. He is a strong Quebec nationalist who advocates separation of that province through peaceful and democratic means."
But as late as June 1980, shortly after Levesque led a failed referendum bid for sovereignty, an RCMP Security Service officer recommended continuing to monitor his activities, "because of the key position he occupies at this time." He added cryptically that "the protection of the man could justify it."
Notations show Levesque's file was viewed in the late 1970s by the McDonald Commission, which looked into misdeeds by the RCMP's security service -- an inquiry that led to creation of the civilian Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 1984.
The final entries in the Levesque file are press clippings from 1985.
Extensive RCMP files on other politicians, including NDP chiefs David Lewis and Tommy Douglas, have also been declassified in recent years -- though many pages remain under wraps.
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