[LINK] Google's Real Threat to 'the Media'?

Mon Oct 22 11:21:53 AEST 2007

canadianpress.google.com ?

I haven't seen anything like this before.

I saw an article in a Hong Kong newspaper, and went looking in 
news.google.com for the Canadian original.  The search-string I used 
was <terrorism law site:.ca>

I thought I'd found it.

But the URL that came up is Google-hosted.

The full copy is at the bottom of this message.  Note the footer.

I can't quickly turn up any information on this domain, or on this 
legal entity (if there is one), and the local proxy forces me to the 
google.com.hk site.

Does anyone have any insights as to what's going on.
_________________________________________________________________________

Originally picked up for forwarding to the privacy list as:

[A further instalment of 'Pseudo-National Security on the wane':

Activists call for end to 'secret trials' and security certificates
1 day ago [Dorks.  Equals Sat/Sun 20/21 Oct 2007]
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gVgJwTjNzLIKJ-2gnkYJJe5bNKrQ

OTTAWA - Demonstrators in about a dozen Canadian cities Saturday 
demanded an end to "secret trials" and the controversial security 
certificate process after the federal Conservatives signalled in this 
week's throne speech plans to introduce new measures to the country's 
anti-terrorism laws.

Activists in Ottawa accused the government of crafting a "two-tiered" 
justice system after the Conservatives vowed in the throne speech to 
respond to the Supreme Court decision on security certificates 
through new legislation that would also add new measures to the 
Anti-Terrorism Act.

"My concern is that the new legislation will not provide the 
immigrants and the non-status people with a fair trial," Monia Mazigh 
told a crowd of about 60 people gathered at a human rights monument 
in downtown Ottawa. "We never expected something like this.

Mazigh's husband, Maher Arar, was not present at the Ottawa event. 
The Syrian-born Canadian engineer was detained in New York and 
deported to Syria in 2002, where he was imprisoned for almost a year 
and tortured on false allegations of terrorist ties before being 
exonerated by a Canadian inquiry.

The demonstrators called on Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and 
Immigration Minister Diane Finley to immediately withdraw all 
security certificates that have been issued and to release detainees 
currently in jail or under house arrest.

They also demanded an end to deportation proceedings against five men 
being held under security certificates.

In an e-mail to The Canadian Press, Day's communications director, 
Melisa Leclerc, wrote that the Conservatives plan on bringing forward 
legislation next week to "address the particular issues the Supreme 
Court has asked the government to give attention to."

"The only way a person could be subject to a security certificate 
would be a person that is not a Canadian citizen who represents a 
serious threat to Canada," she wrote.

She also took a shot at the Liberals, calling them "soft on terror" 
while insisting the Conservatives "will not waiver when it comes to 
safeguarding the security of Canadians."

In February, the Supreme Court overturned the current system of 
security certificates used by Ottawa to detain and deport 
non-citizens on public safety grounds, saying it violates the Charter 
of Rights.

The country's highest court also suspended the full legal effect of 
the ruling for one year, giving legislators time to rewrite the law 
and comply with constitutional principles that guarantee fundamental 
justice and prohibit arbitrary detention.

At a rally outside a CSIS building in downtown Toronto Saturday, 
organizer Matthew Behrens questioned the credibility of the "secret 
evidence" CSIS has on the security certificate detainees, given the 
revelations that arose out of the Arar and Air India inquiries about 
how CSIS operates.

The protesters say the Conservatives will announce the appointment of 
"special advocates" to represent those detained under security 
certificates. Those advocates would have access to evidence brought 
against their clients, but would not be allowed to share it with them.

The move would not be without precedent, said Martin Rudner, a 
retired Carleton University professor and director of the Canadian 
Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies. He said Britain uses 
special advocates to represent detainees.

However, disclosing all the evidence against a detainee would 
compromise Canada's intelligence-gathering methods by revealing 
sources and means used to collect it, he said.

An intelligence agency typically inserts an informant into a 
terrorist cell or uses technological means to intercept 
communications, he said. Revealing the identities of informants could 
jeopardize their lives, while disclosing means used would force the 
government's hand on its technological capabilities, he said.

"What we're talking about here is the kinds of information which the 
suspect cannot get for very, very good reasons," he said.

Rallies are to be held over the weekend in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, 
Edmonton, Vancouver, Fredericton and Halifax and the Ontario 
communities of Kitchener-Waterloo, London Durham, Orillia, Midland 
and Sudbury.

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW

[LINK] Google's *Real* Threat to 'the Media'?

[LINK] Google's Real Threat to 'the Media'?