Policing

Tim Naumetz – February 22, 2012

The government’s controversial Bill C-30, which would give police and security agents new surveillance powers over the internet and compel web service providers to assist them, could also lead to a “massive internet sweep” on thousands of political and social activists, warns a leading human rights lawyer.

The scenario is likely if the proposed Bill C-30, which the government has emphasized as legislation to protect children from internet predators, passes through Parliament and its new powers are used in conjunction with a new government counter-terrorism strategy released less than a week before Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (Provencher, Man.) introduced the internet surveillance bill in the Commons, Ottawa lawyer Paul Champ, a director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Union, told The Hill Times on Wednesday.

Henry Aubin – January 18, 2012

City police Chief Marc Parent is seeking to reassure Montrealers. He said on Tuesday that a retired police detective had failed in his attempt to sell to the Mafia a top-secret list of undercover officers and other police informants. As it happens, the ex-detective died the next day.

So, end of story? Hardly. It's a relief to hear that no informants lost their lives. But the larger matter — the police's overall performance against organized crime — is not reassuring at all.

Jim Bronskill – January 10, 2012

The piecemeal nature of current securities oversight in Canada could leave the sector vulnerable to organized crime, a new study warns. The disparate system of market securities and regulatory bodies in Canada also makes it difficult to determine the possible scope of illicit infiltration, says the draft study released under the Access to Information Act.

Still, it identifies several examples of Canadian securities fraud — from illegal market manipulation to so-called Ponzi schemes — and underscores the attractiveness of such activities to sophisticated criminals.

New complaints commissioner finds force progressive and accountable.

Gillian Steward – November 08, 2011

When Shirley Heafey moved from Ottawa to Calgary to stickhandle complaints from the public about the police, she expected the worst.

"Calgary was the only city in the country that I had not visited a lot... but I had heard all the stereotypical stuff about Calgary's redneck attitude so I was expecting a real challenge," says Heafey, who had been twice appointed chair and CEO of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP before taking on her new position.