Julian Fantino A Fascist in Sheep’s Clothing

Please note that the following comments should not be generalized to apply to all Liberals or NDPers or even Conservatives. I am talking about specific elements in the Liberal, NDP and Conservative parties only.

Our world isn’t straightforward anymore. We have a phenomenon occurring where political stripe has actually become a meaningless label.

Look at Mulcair and Fantino, for example. Both have strong Liberal connections and many policies are Liberal oriented. Today’s Liberal policies are also very conservative compared to the policies of past decades. Mulcair represents a more left Liberal type faction while leading the NDP and Fantino represents a more right Liberal type faction while being a Conservative politician.

That said, we would do well to remember that it has consistently been the Liberals and faux Liberals of the Mulcair/Fantino ilk that have thought nothing of violating and even removing the civil rights of Canadians on a whim. Has anyone forgotten the havoc Bob Rae wreaked in Ontario as leader of the NDP?  Bob Rae is now interim and likely to become leader of the Federal Liberals.

Any excuse will apparently do and these Liberal fascists, who, in most cases, have also been bought by some segment or other of the corporatocracy, have not been above fabricating those excuses and then acting on their own deceptions.

For example, in the 1960s, the FLQ was accused by the Liberal government of the day led by Pierre Elliott Trudeau of burning down barns, bombings, etc. and it was those alleged terrorist acts which led to kidnappings and at least one murder and culminated in the War Measures Act being invoked.

The War Measures Act completely suspended the civil liberties of Canadians from one end of the country to the other allowing the state to arrest and hold anyone on any grounds for any length of time without any legal recourse or protections under the law.

In Canada in October of 1970 we had outright fascism for a period of one month and it was all legally done. To this day our alleged Charter of Rights does not protect us from this treasonous (in my opinion) act of the Liberal Party of undermining our Democracy.

In 1976, we had the McDonald Commission of RCMP Wrongdoing Hearings which finally exposed the fact that the barn burnings and bombings were not only RCMP Red Squad inspired but RCMP Red Squad implemented.

Operation CheckMate, one of the operations which was under investigation at the time, is still secret and this portion of the Hearing has not been declassified despite the fact that declassification is supposed to occur after 20 years (1996).

Now, in the new Millenium, skanks like Fantino, through the Conservatives have reintroduced these types of operations and are trying to make them legal again by removing the few protections (like the requirement for warrants) that exist to protect us from these criminal (in my opinion) violations of the civil rights of Canadians.

In criminal (in my opinion) collusion with the Ontario Liberals draconian and fascist legislation was dusted off and applied during the G8/G20 summit where over 1000 protestors were arrested or detained illegally (in my opinion) over a period of two days. This occurred while Fantino was OPP Commissioner and also on JIG, the group that was responsible for G8/G20 security and each and every policy that was implemented at the time.

Odd how during all of the violence which occurred by a group which had been infiltrated by the OPP (by their own admission) there wasn't a single cop around.

It made for a great reason to walk in and arrest lots of people though.

And as usual, Fantino had someone else to hide behind, Chief Blair took the heat for this one.

Fantino also contributed to the draconian Omnibus Crime Bill and sat in the background while Toews took the heat for it and I don’t doubt for one moment that it was Fantino who advised Toews to pull the “we’re doing it to get the pedophiles” bullshit out of his ass.

This is and has been Fantinos MO all the way down the line.

1. Fabricate an alleged “greater good” reason that people will get behind

2. Use that alleged “greater good” reason to violate everyone’s civil rights.

3. Repeat the lie over and over again through every outlet possible including the traditional media until people start to believe it.

This is the psychology of fascism.

It’s what Hitler did to rationalize many of his fascist laws and ironically it’s being used in democracies today around the world to undermine those very democracies and bring fascism in through the back door.

We can also give due credit to the German Stasi who also developed, introduced and used many of the techniques employed by those who wish to undermine our democratic processes and buy our governments.

Unveiling Stratfor 4: On A Lighter Note

Since I’m still working my way through the reams of emails on Anonymous and letting the information work it’s way through my thought processes, I decided to take a break and show you the humorous side of Stratfor. Sorry, Stratfor guys, I lied when I said I was done having some fun at your expense. :-D

Yep, folks. Stratfor's not all dark and shadowy. Now, I’m not out to embarrass anyone without cause so I’ve removed the names of the analysts who made the comments below and have not included the email references in my release.

In addition, I'm giving Stratfor 1 Brownie point towards their Humor badge. ;-D So, Brownie points are back to 1.

The humor, albeit a little on the dark side, ranges from analyst reactions to things like SHAC’s harassment of Goldman Sachs [CT] list to numerous conspiracy theories which they receive and dutifully place on their [Analytical and Intelligence Comments] list …

(Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I’m against animal cruelty of any kind but frankly SHAC is nuts so I wouldn’t defend them either).

In response to this report:

Goldman Sachs claims it is being harassed by a group of British protesters who accuse one of its executives of "torturing puppies". In papers filed at a Washington court, the U.S. banking giant is seeking to block Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (known as SHAC) and another animal rights group from demonstrating on its property or contacting its staff. It claims that SHAC has targeted the bank over its business links to Huntingdon Life Sciences, the animal testing laboratory in Cambridgeshire, which protesters accuse of "mistreating and killing dogs".

Source
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8212691/Goldman-Sachs-seeks-injunction-against-anti-Huntingdon-protesters.html

Analyst: “LOL. They're screwed. SHAC is crazy. They will go after the GS execs at their homes.... “

Analyst: “I like their tactics and could easily be an operative. I would leave a python in the exec's toilet bowl, put a rattler in the bed, place a mongoose in the backseat of their Lexus, make anonymous calls to the IRS and place their names on every NAMBLA and hard core porn mailing list w/a typo so their neighbors receive the packages. “

Analyst: “Another good one to pull off is to call a funeral home and tell them your elderly uncle just passed away (the exec) at home. Give them the execs house address. The funeral home will show up at the door to be greeted by the Exec in his Gucci bathrobe and slippers. "Hello, I'm so sorry for your loss, but I'm here to pick up the deceased (the exec.)"

 To the media reports that go on the [Social] list (hilarious):

[Social]

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpps/news/dpgoh-carly-houston-makes-911-call-from-jail-fc-20100324_6724504
Woman Makes 911 Call from Jail
Updated: Wednesday, 24 Mar 2010, 9:13 AM CDT
Published : Wednesday, 24 Mar 2010, 8:43 AM CDT
(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - Here's what not to do with your one jailhouse
call: Dial 911 and report you are trapped a** inside the jail.
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070716/ap_on_fe_st/odd911_abuse;_ylt=AtN60xQ3Qi7e5MMt0gGAVHwDW7oF
Man calls 911 to save him from police
Mon Jul 16, 6:08 PM ET
LARGO, Fla. - A 38-year-old man was arrested after he called 911 and told
a dispatcher he was surrounded by police officers and needed help,
authorities said.

 And to all you conspiracy theorists out there, I did look up 9/11 to see what they had to say about it and I did it just for you ;-D If there was a 9/11 conspiracy or even a hint of one, these are the guys who presumably would have known about it.

Here is the only email I could find on 9/11 (other than the ones sent to them from people outside of Stratfor offering up numerous theories).

Date 2001-09-19 23:59:38
From friedman@infraworks.com
To cartwright@infraworks.com, Social@infraworks.com,Others
MessageId: <2804E3BAEF0EF349B6750F32EF7A93FC37784B@main.infraworks.com>
InReplyTo: 003b01cb0b8a$428b7820$c7a26860$@gibbons@stratfor.com
Text

Mr. O'connor's IQ--11.

Value of Mr. O'connor's time--worthless.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Cartwright
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 4:57 PM
To: Social
Subject: FW: #11

-----Original Message-----
From: dennis O'Connor [mailto:daocop@dashlink.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 5:01 PM
To: John Cartwright
Subject: #11

The #11

Have you seen this??

Not sure how it may or may not play a role in ANYTHING, but sure is odd.

You decide:

The date of the attack: 9/11 and 9+1+1=11
September 11th is the 254th day of the year:2+5+4=11
After September 11th there is 111 days left to the end of the year.
119 is the area code to Iraq/Iran: 1+1+9=11
Twin Towers- standing side by side look like the number 11.
First plane to hit the towers was Flight 11.
State of New York- The 11th State added to the Union.
New York City- 11 Letters
Afghanistan - 11 Letters
The Pentagon- 11 Letters
Ramzi Yousef- 11 Letters (convicted of plotting the WTC bombing in 1993
Flight 11- 92 on board 9+2=11
Flight 77- 65 on board- 6+5=11

You decide!

The Unveiling Stratfor series of articles is being produced as the result of an investigative partnership organised by WikiLeaks, and is based on data obtained and released by WikiLeaks

Julian Assange: A Hero and an Inspiration

Official Statement by Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy

Source of this full text: WikiLeaks

Sunday August 19th, 14:30 BST

(This version has been proofed)

I am here because I cannot be closer to you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for your resolve and your generosity of spirit.

On Wednesday night after a threat was sent to this embassy and the police descended on the building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it and you brought the world’s eyes with you.

Inside the embassy, after dark, I could hear teams of police swarming into the building through the internal fire escape.

But I knew that there would be witnesses.

And that is because of you.

If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Conventions the other night, it is because the world was watching.

And the world was watching because you were watching.

The next time somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend the rights we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark outside the Embassy of Ecuador, and how, in the morning, the sun came up on a different world, and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice.

And so, to those brave people:

I thank President Correa for the courage he has shown in considering and granting me political asylum.

And so I thank the government and the Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patiño, who have upheld the Ecuadorian constitution and its notion of universal rights in their consideration of my case.

And to the Ecuadorian people for supporting and defending their constitution.

And I have a debt of gratitude to the staff of this embassy whose families live in London and who have shown me hospitality and kindness despite the threats that they have received.

This Friday there will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin America in Washington D.C. to address this situation.

And so I am grateful to the people and governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela and to all other Latin American countries who have come to the defence of the right to asylum.

To the people of the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia who have supported me in strength while their governments have not. And to those wiser heads in government who are still fighting for justice. Your day will come.

To the staff, supporters and sources of WikiLeaks whose courage, commitment and loyalty have seen no equal.

To my family and to my children who have been denied their father: forgive me. We will be reunited soon.

As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of our societies.

We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America.

Will it return to and reaffirm the values it was founded on?

Or will it lurch off the precipice dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark?

I say that it must turn back.

I ask President Obama to do the right thing.

The United States must renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks.

The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation.

The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters.

The United States must pledge before the world that it will not pursue journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful.

There must be no more foolish talk about prosecuting any media organization, be it WikiLeaks or the New York Times.

The US administration’s war on whistle-blowers must end.

Thomas Drake, William Binney, John Kirakou and the other heroic US whistle-blowers must - they must - be pardoned and compensated for the hardships they have endured as servants of the public record.

And the Army Private who remains in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth Kansas, who was found by the UN to have endured months of torturous detention in Quantico Virginia and who has yet - after two years in prison - to see a trial, must be released.

And if Bradley Manning really did as he is accused, he is a hero, an example to us all and one of the world’s foremost political prisoners.

Bradley Manning must be released.

On Wednesday, Bradley Manning spent his 815th day in detention without trial. The legal maximum is 120 days.

On Thursday, my friend, Nabeel Rajab, was sentenced to 3 years for a tweet.

On Friday, a Russian band was sentenced to 2 years in jail for a political performance.

There is unity in the oppression.

There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.

Unveiling Stratfor 3: Anonymous Defined?

Okay, now that I’ve had my bit of fun at Stratfor’s expense in my previous post …

I’m going through all of the emails related to Anonymous as thoroughly as possible. A bit challenging since the term comes up in thousands of emails, many of which are just using it as a descriptive word and not talking about the Anonymous collective.

Stratfor apparently became interested in Anonymous with the launch of Operation PayBack. An Anon Op in support of Wikileaks.

The very first email I located was dated December 9, 2010 (DocID: 35760):

“2010-12-09 06:29:38

Thanks. I'm getting a kick out of Anon activities related to this whole thing. “

That comment was in response to the following email sent by an external party to the above Stratfor employee:

“Dec 7, 2010, at 11:50 AM

sup man

here's some extra info along these same lines:

http://www.neontommy.com/news/2010/12/war-internet-anonymous-defends-wikileaks-after-cablegate”

I’m sure Anonymous will be pleased to note that Stratfor analysts initially found their antics lulzy. ;-D

The above email exchange is also interesting for another reason. The party that sent the information to Stratfor used a Fark.com email address. Fark is a “news aggregator” site for geeks.

However, I should point out that one really can’t come to any conclusions about that relationship without more information. Companies like Stratfor tend to work very hard on establishing a particular image and building relationships. As a result their sources often aren’t fully aware of who they’re dealing with and what the real agenda is. On the other hand, sometimes the sources are quite aware and paid very well to do what they do.

Either way, the significance of this is simply that it's just more evidence that the intelligence agencies and the private corporations associated with them, (aka the Military Industrial Complex) are using social media as an Intelligence source and have been for at least the last few years.

Both the HBGary leak and this current Stratfor leak confirm this as a fact.

Yet despite this fact, there still appears to be a lot of confusion amongst the analysts where non-traditional organizations like Anonymous are concerned. Of course, the purpose of analyzing groups like Anonymous is so that they can attempt to predict future behavior. If they don’t understand the organization, they can’t intervene, infiltrate, or develop accurate predictions about future behavior easily. 

I put this limitation in understanding down to the simple fact that these agencies and corporations live in a “Cold War” world and have a “Cold War” psychology.

They have yet to clue in that the “Cold War” was over in the 1980s and that world has progressed in ways that appear to be quite incomprehensible to them precisely because of their own psychology and it’s associated limitations.

I would apply the very same comments and critique to the traditional political organizations (left, liberal and right).

It is this inability to comprehend that will result in their eventual downfall and has resulted in their complete exposure.

I would ask the Citizenry to consider this:

Is this the world you want for your future and the future of your children?

A world where corporations like Stratfor can invade your privacy in ways previously unheard of through social media, sometimes with the active collusion of the social media, as well as attempt to manipulate public opinion in favor of the corporations and agencies that hire them?

From the first email I published on the “Threat Assessment” in my previous post:

“What about defining Anonymous in terms of the individual? Instead of

saying Anonymous attacking cartels, Individuals acting under the

Anonymous name.... Yes”

What about defining Anonymous truthfully?

Brownie points = 0.

The Unveiling Stratfor series of articles is being produced as the result of an investigative partnership organised by WikiLeaks, and is based on data obtained and released by WikiLeaks

Unveiling Stratfor 2: Anonymous. A threat assessment?

Forgive me for saying this, Stratfor guys … but does a threat assessment usually consist of a bunch of people talking out of their asses with no real clue about the topic they’re assessing?

You guys appear to be quite intelligent, and can be pretty amusing, but this particular email, dated 24/10/2011 20:54 (DocID: 156506),  just made me laugh (at you, not with you). 

“I agree. I haven't seen any defining attributes of Anonymous as a group.

They may not even know the identities of each other. There are several

facebook / twitter Anonymous pages, which seem to be run by different

individuals.”

“But we don't know what information Anonymous' adherents have access to,

and doubt they have such information that provides any sort of

existential threat to the cartels as a whole or their networks.

This is a problem with the threat assessment.”

The problem with the threat assessment, apparently, and according to the analysts, is the fact that Stratfor has no clue who or what Anonymous is, how to define Anonymous, or even what Anonymous capabilities are.

So, they realize that they don’t have what they need to do a threat assessment and then proceed to do a threat assessment? Okay, well they get one brownie point towards their honesty badge. I’ll give them that.

“Yes, it's not exactly a 'threat assessment'. just say we don't know. And we can say

we doubt they have it because they haven't shown much capabilities to

get at insider/confidential/classified information, rather mostly DDOS

attacks. However, there are people that have demonstrated such

capabilities, and its possible they also joined an 'anonymous'

campaign--like whoever got the recent personal data out of the Sony

PSN.”

Speculative and baseless at the time it was written, but no doubt later proven to be true given that Stratfor themselves later got hacked. Lol.

I just have to wonder why the focus of this “threat assessment” is Anonymous? Isn’t bringing down organized crime considered to be a good thing by Stratfor?

This series of articles is being produced as the result of an investigative partnership organised by WikiLeaks, and is based on data obtained and released by WikiLeaks.

Unveiling Stratfor 1: WikiLeaks

I’m amazed, excited and looking forward to the writing opportunity that I’ve recently been entrusted with.

It seems that WikiLeaks has expanded their base into Bloggerland and is allowing me and presumably other bloggers access to the GI (Global Intelligence) File archives consisting of the Stratfor data obtained by Wikileaks, and, for the purpose of researching them and writing articles based on the information in them.

Of course, my first search was “Anonymous” and “Lulzsec”…

What a fascinating look into the minds of the analysts and the company, apparently known as the “Shadow CIA”.

So far, they don’t appear to be too evil but I suspect I’ve just scratched the surface in the last few hours.

More to come over the next week ….


The Unveiling Stratfor series of articles is being produced as the result of an investigative partnership organised by WikiLeaks, based on data obtained and released by WikiLeaks.

Julian Assange: An Icon Of Our Times.

Every era has it’s icons.

They are those people who represent the very essence of the era and the region.

When we think about that particular era, it’s those people, those icons who immediately come to mind.

In the 1960s, they were J. F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Daniel Ellsberg amongst others.

The Age of Reason brought us Voltaire, Paine, Jefferson, among other greats.

These are people who represent the best of us and the best of what that particular era represented at the time.

Julian Assange has become such an icon for this current new era.

WikiLeaks, led and inspired by Julian Assange, along with Occupy, inspired by AdBusters and Anonymous, inspired by the denizens and “bad boys” of the Internet are the icons of this era.

When we look back 10, 20 years from now they will be the ones that we will remember as representing the essence of what and who we were.

While we all come from disparate backgrounds, ideologies, philosophies the one common thread in this new mass social movement for change is a deep desire to end this social, economic and political corruption and injustice which infests our society and to inject a new humanity, a new standard of ethics which respects both individual and social civil liberties and rights as well as demands standards of humanitarianism and egalitarianism.

These concepts aren't new, and they are one's which have been fought for repeatedly over the years. They've just never had the chance to become entrenched. 

The greatest strength of democracy is also it’s greatest weakness. It’s openness and transparency can be taken advantage of and undermined by the unscrupulous and has been repeatedly over the years.

The naivete and blind trust placed in politicians by the citizenry also enables this abuse.

And this is where people like Julian Assange and the WikiLeakers, Occupiers and Anonymous come in. They are the balancing force. The force which pushes to maintain the transparency necessary for an open and democratic society to function on behalf of it’s citizens.

They are both our conscience and our inspiration.

Without them how easy it would be for fascism to walk in and simply take over. Are our politicians responsive to our demands? No. They call us terrorists for engaging in legitimate dissent. They call us terrorists for exposing corruption and forcing the transparency to which every citizen is entitled to from the state. A state which is supposed to be representing us and not a few corporations.

And this is why we need people like Julian Assange to be free. So that he can continue to inspire this very important transformation which is occurring today thanks to him, the WikiLeaks, Occupy and Anonymous movements.

I hope that Ecuador opens it’s doors to Julian Assange so that he can be free to continue this very important contribution he is making to our world. He doesn't deserve to be imprisoned in the US. He deserves to be honored for what he has done. A Nobel Peace Prize would be perfectly in order.

I’d like to thank Mr. Assange for making this beautiful contribution towards the transformation of our world into a better and more humane place for all of the citizenry.

Happy Birthday, Julian Assange and may you have many, many more birthdays living in freedom.

Much love.

I Am Canadian!

I love my country but I hate what has been happening to it. 

I have no problem with wealthy Canadians being wealthy but I have a problem with the wealthy (Canadian or otherwise) buying my government and undermining my democracy.

I have no problem with capitalism, government, corporations, police, intelligence, defense or other components of the state but I have a problem when individuals in those segments of our society engage in graft, corruption and abuse of power.

I am a Canadian who doesn't like hockey or beer but who loves Canada and wants Canada to be a better place for ALL Canadians not just the few with the money, resources and connections to engage in  bribery, influence-peddling, graft and corruption in order to place themselves above our justice system and engage in these criminal acts with impunity.

Occupy Canada

Let's put an end to allowing the wealthy to place themselves above the Canadian Justice system.

Let's put an end to allowing the wealthy to buy our governments and undermine our democracy with impunity. This is a crime and those who do this belong in jail.

Let's put an end to allowing the wealthy to destroy our Civil Rights so that they can continue to engage in these criminal acts with impunity.

Civil disobedience is not a crime no matter how many fascist laws are passed to make it appear to be one.

Occupiers, Anons, and WikiLeakers are not terrorists nor are they engaging in sedition or treason.

They are Patriots who love their countries and want to make our world a kinder more humane place to live.

In order to accomplish this, the graft, corruption and abuse of power and those engaging in it has to be exposed to the light of day.

Exposing graft, corruption and abuse of power is the act of a Patriot not the act of a terrorist.

The Real Terrorists, who are engaging in sedition and treason, are those who are buying our governments in order to ensure that they implement policies favorable to them and often against the best interests of the Canadian people as a whole.

The Real Terrorists, who are engaging in sedition and treason, are those who are engaging in graft, corruption and abuse of power within our state and government agencies.

Occupy, Anonymous and WikiLeaks are Anti-Terrorist Organizations.

It's time that CSIS, the RCMP and other police forces did their jobs.

Arrest the Real Terrorists. 

Arrest those who are undermining our democracy and buying our government.

The wealthy should not be above the law.

And stop violating the Civil Rights of Canadians to engage in legitimate dissent.

Happy Canada Day!

"Only Love can build us a bridge of light,
That's what turns the wrong so right
That's when you can't give up the fight"
Pink

HRC: Section 13. Hate Speech

"Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say Fuck the Government" 

--Lenny Bruce

I'm not a white supremacist. I'm not even white.

I object to Section 13 because it amounts to convicting people of thought crimes.

I would rather deal with racist name calling than having my civil right to free speech curtailed on specious and possibly baseless grounds.

Section 13 put us on the slippery slope of where and how to define "hate" speech. A definition which could mean anything to anyone depending on their social and political perspective.

It's time it was removed and I'm glad the Canadian Harper Conservatives made it go away.

It's a good day for Civil Rights and Liberties in Canada. We won something for a change.

Now, if they would stop being such hypocrites and repeal the fascist laws they're trying to have implemented today ....

Montreal Student Strike: The Little Red Patch

An Open Letter to the Mainstream English Media: ... 
"This is what Quebec looks like right now. Every night is teargas and riot cops, but it is also joy, laughter, kindness, togetherness, and beautiful music. Our hearts are bursting. We are so proud of each other; of the spirit of Quebec and its people; of our ability to resist, and our ability to collaborate.

Why aren’t you writing about this? Does joy not sell as well as violence? Does collaboration not sell as well as confrontation? You can have your cynicism; our revolution is sincere."
An Open Letter To The Mainstream Englsh Media

Hacktivist Byron Sonne Free At Long Last!

I'm not going to repeat the comments that everyone is making about the injustice that Byron Sonne was subjected to. So let's just say that the Judge at his trial ruled that he was innocent.

Here are links to some articles with excerpts from  one that provide details of the history of this case and good commentary and analysis of what occurred.

Congratulations, Byron!

The Verdict Is In ~ Byron Sonne is free by Laurel Russwurm

"Now that there isn’t a publication ban . . .

It’s safe to talk about things I learned at Byron’s preliminary hearing.

CSIS has what they call the “Open Source” program, which doesn’t mean software which allows users to access the source code (the usual meaning) but rather this is a program to spy on Canadians online.  The officer testifying about this program stressed that they only spy on citizens in the “public” parts of the internet, so while they may be reading your Facebook status, he claimed they don’t delve into our “private messages” without a warrant, although he gave the impression that they could if they wanted to.

Still, I find this warrantless invasion of the privacy of private citizens in a democracy more than a little bit creepy.  When they pass C-30 they will be legally allowed to take the next step into our private communications, also without a warrant.

Something else bothered me even more, something said by one of the law enforcement witnesses.  I’m not sure if he was from CSIS or had just worked with them to find information about Byron,  but he testified that CSIS had been unable to crack the TrueCrypt encryption on one of Byron’s computers.  Because of this, he testified, Byron would always be a person of interest to CSIS — even if Byron was acquitted.

I couldn’t write anything about that then, because of the publication ban, but that attitude makes a mockery of our  justice system.   After facing everything that law enforcement could throw at him, Byron has been cleared.  The Crown spent nearly two years trying to prove Byron guilty, spending untold tax dollars trying to transform speculation into evidence, and failed.

I am happy that Byron is now free to rebuild his life.  It was great to hear that his CISSP certification was restored in record time.  And I’m happy that this is the last time I need to write about Byron, so that I can spend more time writing about fictional characters.   I expect I won’t need to write about Byron again until it’s time to plug the book about this mess he plans to co-author with Denise Balkissoon."

*   *   *

"It was the only reasonable legal outcome, but the idea that CSIS or the police might continue to harass Byron Sonne is of serious concern.   Byron Sonne is no longer only presumed innocent, he is now legally innocent.  And innocent Canadians should not have to worry that Big Brother is looking over their shoulder.

MacLeans “Byron Sonne cleared of all charges” by Jesse Brown
Open File: “Byron Sonne, found not guilty on all charges, has plans for the future” by Denise Balkissoon
Chris Olah’s Trial Notes: Byron’s Trial, Verdict
Toronto Star: Byron Sonne not guilty on G20 explosives charges
The Grid: Judgement day for Byron Sonne ~ Nearly two years after he was first arrested on G20-related explosives charges, the Forest Hill resident was freed today following a tense, two-hour hearing.
Security Memetics: Parody song (to the tune of “Sesame Street) “In celebration of #freebyron”"

Creative Commons licence

Anonymous: CommanderX

"Anonymous is the art of indignation"

"Anonymous is the art of being one and yet being nothing"

"Anonymous is what happens when governments and corporations screw up too badly".

--Commander X of Anonymous

If a terrorist is someone who objects to corruption and abuse of power and who engages in civil disobedience in order to expose that corruption and abuse of power then we live in a world which considers legitimate dissent and telling the truth a terrorist act.

Was Daniel Ellsberg, a terrorist? By the standards being applied by the US government today, he would have been considered one.

What terrorist act did Daniel Ellsberg commit? He released the Pentagon Papers. An act which exposed deception and corruption at the highest levels of the US government.

What terrorist act did Julian Assange of WikiLeaks commit? He has released numerous documents resulting in the exposure of deception and corruption at the highest levels of many governments.

What terrorist act did Commander X commit?

According to Jølly Anøn:
”Earlier tonight Commander X, founder of the PLF and Anonymous hacktivist, gave an interview on AnonPlus Radio. 

Commander X was indicted in September on federal charges of conspiracy to cause intentional damage to a protected computer, causing intentional damage to a protected computer and aiding and abetting. 

He’s accused of hacking into Santa Cruz County computers in 2010 as retribution for the breakup of a lengthy protest over the city of Santa Cruz’s controversial camping ban. 

He recently escaped custody and is currently evading arrest outside of U.S. jurisdiction. 

We were able to secure a recording of the interview thanks to phaded; a fellow anon. We strongly encourage you to listen to the interview. 

A recording of the interview should be made available on http://anonsource.org/ in the coming days. 

Many thanks to phaded and, of course, AnonPlus.”

YouTube version of the interview.

Click here to listen to AnonPlus Radio Shows listed on AnonSource

Interview with the Gazette from April:

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

--George Orwell

Hactivist Byron Sonne: Comment by a friend

Kevin Brown, posted the following response to my previous blog, Hactivist Byron Sonne: Justice Delayed, on the Facebook page set up by friends of Byron Sonne: Free Byron Sonne. 

It was so good that I asked and received permission to copy and publish it to my blog. 

Thanks Kevin for your very insightful comments.

Kevin Brown:

"Regarding the incredible issue of bail being denied for 330 days, I would add, as an example of just how unprecedented this is, the case of Vakhtang Makhniashvili (Mariam's father).

Vakhtang stabbed his neighbor with a kitchen knife (came very close to killing him) on a Friday and was released on bail the following Monday! Bail amount for the attempted murderer was $50,000 (compare that to the $250,000 Bail Byron had to post ! for his crime of uploading video's of the convention centre to YouTube!)

There can be absolutely no justification or basis in law for a judge to deny Byron bail within day's of his arrest. The judge who denied bail request was corrupt - plain and simple! She was just doing favors for the police and crown without any regard for the rule of law. The judge has no integrity and she should not be sitting on the bench but she doesn't have to worry, judges are never held to account in Canada. Unlike the U.S. where the media are not afraid to criticize judges, in Canada the media consider judges to be above reproach.

In the attempted murder case above where the suspect received bail within days - his Lawyer was the former top crown prosecutor - Calvin Berry. Berry has many friends on the police force, the crown and the bench and you can see how his cozy connections ensured that his client was given as smooth a ride as possible! (he would go on to stab two more people while out on bail awaiting trial!).

If the judges involved were doing their jobs why wasn't the entire case thrown out after the preliminary hearing? Most of the charges were thrown out but the judge left in a few bogus charges , again doing a favor to the police and prosecutors, a face-saving measure so that they are not left with egg in on their face.

As for the latest charade, where the police made a huge spectacle out of recovering a harmless chemical buried in a back yard - if the judge was doing her job she would have cited the participants for contempt of court. This was not only a harmless chemical (used in high school chemistry labs) we have PROOF that the Police KNEW it was harmless because we can see (in videos) that the officers that lowered the canister into their special "hopper" wore NO protective equipment whatsoever (save for Oakley sunglasses).

Despite the FACT that police KNEW this material was completely harmless they went to great lengths to stage this elaborate theater in an effort to influence the decision of a judge.

If this happened in the U.S. , where they take the law more seriously, I have no doubt that senior police officials (Tam Bui?) would be facing contempt of court charges!

Cases like this remind me why we need to get camera's in our courtrooms. Somehow I think that if the actions of the players inside our courtrooms were to be held up to scrutiny we would see far less corrupt conduct.

Hopefully in making her decision this judge will follow the rule of the law and will not be swayed to find some wrongdoing (however minor) just so the police and crown are not left with egg on their face."

Hactivist, Byron Sonne: Justice Delayed

Will it also be Justice Denied? We won't know until sometime in May. The trial ended in March.

The entire case of Byron Sonne has been an injustice from start to finish.

However, that’s not what I find shocking. We know injustices like this occur. What shocks me is that there is very little moral outrage that it occurred.

Have we become so desensitized to corruption, abuse of process and abuse of power that we either no longer recognize it or simply don’t care? Is it really okay with our government, the media and the public at large to have our Justice system undermined in this way?

Let’s look at the facts:

1. Byron Sonne was the only person arrested during the G8/G20 Summit who was held without bail for over 300 days despite the fact that he committed no violent crime.

This includes people who actually committed violent acts like the fire-bombings of the Royal Bank of Canada and the vandalism in downtown Toronto.

Clement, one of the firebombers, and the only one of the three arrested who was held without bail, went to trial in December, 2010, less than 6 months after his June arrest. Pflug-Back was alleged to have committed thousands of dollars worth of vandalism and was released on bail.

Why was Byron treated in this discriminatory manner? What exactly did he do to deserve this “special” treatment?

2. The case against Sonne consisted of:

a. “guilt by association” claims based on his reading material and email lists he was following;

b. speculation about legal chemicals and other materials he had on his property, some of which were for geek experiments that he was able to demonstrate he was working on;

c. his open and public admission of blackbox testing G8/G20 security.

None of which are criminal acts as far as I know.

In contrast. The cases against Clement, Pflug-Back and some others included video evidence of what appeared to be them actually committing the crimes. 

And yet they weren't held without bail for over 300 days.

Where is the actual evidence against Sonne to support the charges? If there was none, why were the charges not dropped in their entirety? What is the standard required to legitimately arrest and charge someone? Was this standard actually met here or was it ignored by both the Detective Tam Bui, the lead investigator, and the Crown?

3. An appearance of extreme bias on the part of Detective Tam Bui occurred both in the interview tapes and with the dramatic street theatre associated with the potassium chlorate recently dug up in Byron's yard. The dig occurred based on information that wasn't a secret and the police presumably should have known long before this. Although they claim that they found out from the Defense Closing remarks. Whether that is true or not doesn't really matter. 

What matters is that the drama was quite unnecessary.

Perhaps I'm wrong but it seems patently obvious to me that the police and the HazMat team knew the compound wasn’t explosive otherwise why would they have burned it in an open fire? They did this immediately after they created a huge drama by stopping traffic all over the city as the truck took the compound to the dump to be disposed of. 

In other words, publicly treating it as though it was an explosive even though they had determined that it wasn't and didn't treat it as an explosive when they disposed of it.

The Judge was initially writing her decision based on the fact that Sonne didn’t make a bomb. Now, with what appear to be deceptive tactics, the Judge has presumably been left with the false impression that he did. An impression which could have an impact on the outcome of the case if the Judge doesn’t research this new issue carefully or register the nuances.

Whether Mr. Sonne is declared Guilty or not when this Judgement is handed in, I certainly hope that not just for his sake but for the sake of all Torontonians he will sue everyone involved in meting out this injustice.

There is no Justice without Accountability and those who engage in corruption, abuse of process or abuse of power to further agendas of personal bias must be held accountable. Especially those in positions of special trust like civil servants.

If they're not held accountable, they'll do it over and over again and every citizen will be placed at risk of becoming vulnerable to this abuse.

And I'm not assuming that this kind of abuse hasn't already occurred to others.

It has.

Book Review: Pilgrim Process by Matthew Spencer

How do I describe this book? Dystopian? Revealing? Insightful? A wake-up call?

All of those descriptions would fit it quite well.

Reading Pilgrim Process was like sitting by the side of a bubbling stream on a warm, sunny spring day; tossing a fishing line into the foaming current; feeling a tug on the line; reeling it slowly in; and then suddenly have the fish leap out of the water into your waiting hands.

Could it be describing our world 5, 10, 20 years into our future?

Everything that Mr. Spencer portrays in revealing detail is easily within the realm of possibility given the current technologies combined with the high level corruption, abuse of power, and power plays by today’s corporocrats.

He offers an intense, if not detailed insight into the potentially dangerous and stormy waters that could develop if we, the people, do not pay attention and do not assert ourselves and he does it through the eyes of people with faith, belief, and religion.

It’s a timely and relevant story we should pay attention to.

All in all, a great read and I look forward to reading more of his work.

 Matthew Spencer's Writing Showcase.

April 1st: #OpLulzDay

From the #OpLulzDay Wiki:

Welcome to the OPLulzday Wiki

Greetings citizens of the world

We are Anonymous

April 1st is traditionaly known as April fools day. Anonymous is declaring it an Anon Holiday and we will begin with Operation LulzDay.

A combined global paperstorm and Hacktivist day of information, public relations and Lulz.

Be artistic, create posters and flyers, business cards. Dress up as your favoutite game or comic charcaters, ponies and Nyan cats. Deface websites and post images.

Anonymous will embrace the troll within and celebrate their roots. Most importantly get the message out that we are not going away we are here for the lulz.

Let our brothers and sisters who have been arrested know that we are thinking of them, let dictators know we have not forgiven them. let the corrupt know we have not forgotten them, Let the Occupiers in every city know we support them.

Let the people of the world know that it is time to wake up and smell the Lulz.

Create this as an Event on Facebook and other social networks, tweet it to everyone u know.

April 1st is your day stand up and be counted and don't forget the lulz.

We are Anonymous

We are Legion

We do not forgive

We do not forget

OpLulzDay Initiated, Expect Us

Sista Trance, High Priestess of the Virtual Temple of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, wishes the Pirates of LulzSec calm seas and clear skies on their new mission. 
 
May the Lulz be with them and may the IPU, on her holiest of holydays, guide them safely through the maze of routers and nodes and battle the evil forces lurking in dark corners, to keep them safe.

Book Review: Unorthodox

Unorthodox, the scandalous rejection of my Hasidic roots: a memoir by Deborah Feldman is an intimate portrayal of a young woman growing up in an environment of religious constraint and slowly freeing herself from that environment.

That is her story, on the surface. If you read it from that perspective it will enlighten and provide you with an insight into her particular religious environment and beliefs. Her personal journey will also stand as an inspiration and testament to anyone else who wishes to move out of the confines of their particular religious constraints.

However, I recognize Deborah. In my opinion, she is much more than that and her story involves much more than that, in reality. So I’m not surprised that there is some controversy over her book and challenges to it.

She is one of us. She is the rebel, the square peg who can’t fit into the round hole, the person who is never satisfied and cannot be satisfied with the status quo, whatever it is. Whether that status quo be the constraints of creed (religious or otherwise), culture, gender, etc.

Her drive to be free, that hunger for freedom runs deep and it is firmly founded in her strong natural curiosity about everything.

That is what makes Deborah different. It’s what makes me and numerous others different. People like us exist across all cultures, creeds, genders, etc. And no matter what our environment is we do not and cannot fit into the status quo of that environment.

I can’t explain why. I don’t understand it myself. I only know that we exist and that we can identify and empathize with each other. Once we understand that we can’t fit in and don’t try to fit in, we can begin the process of accepting and appreciating ourselves for who we are. When we can do that, others will accept and appreciate us for who we are. Well, at least some will.

It’s okay not to fit in.  It’s okay to be different. We can’t be any other way no matter how much humiliation and abuse is heaped on us; no matter how many constraints are placed on us in our respective environments; no matter how much we are smeared for speaking our truths.

We don’t understand the sheeple and their passive acceptance of the status quo.

We are the innovators, the artists, the creative thinkers, the one’s that can think outside of the box. We are the ethicists, the one’s who consider social injustice an outrage and we can’t be silent about it. We have a driving need to change the status quo to better our world for ourselves and those around us.

We produce what we love to produce whether we get paid to produce or not. Our lives are driven by our passions and not by personal gain. Once we accept our difference and don’t allow it to stand in the way of our self-confidence (“faith in ourselves”) personal gain almost always comes along with the ride at some point because we are good at whatever it is that we choose to do.

If we didn’t exist, society would never advance because there would be no driving force for change.

Welcome to the club, Deborah. I look forward to reading more of what you have to offer.

Deborah Feldman dot com

 

 

STOP SOPA in Canada!

The following is the content of an online Petition located at the Petition Site:

Don't let the U.S. Send SOPA to Canada.

With SOPA and PIPA dead in the U.S., lobbyists may be working behind the scenes to pass similar legislation in Canada.

Because of the music industry's proposed changes to copyright reform bill C-11, Canada could be "a prime target for SOPA style rules," warns Ottawa law professor Michael Geist.

The main point of contention is the industry's push to expand and add statutory damages to an "enabler provision" that would target a wider range of websites and run liability into the millions of dollars for a target website. Other groups are pushing for language that some fear could be used to shut down sites like YouTube.

The massive public protest over the SOPA and PIPA provisions was due to their threat to the Internet and freedom of speech. The same protest is needed to stop SOPA-like changes to Canada's C-11 bill.

Don't let the U.S. Send SOPA to Canada.

STOP ACTA!

Etta James: Classic.

Very sad she's gone but she'll live on in her music. Such a beautiful singer.