Posts Tagged ‘Canada’
September 14th, 2011
Ontario Provincial Police have
charged an activist with two counts of defamatory libel for online comments he made regarding
undercover police officers. Using fake names, Dan Kellar outed two officers who had infiltrated activist networks. Upon learning that one of them was spotted in Toronto, he put out a “community alert’’ on the website of an activist group he was involved with. Police claim the comments were likely to injure the reputation of the officers by exposing them to hatred, contempt or ridicule. Kellar says the charges are an attempt to stifle dissent. He will appear in court in Toronto on 20 September.
September 5th, 2011
The
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC)
overturned a January decision to pull a 1985 song by the popular Dire Straits. The song,
“Money for nothing”, was pulled from airwaves after complaints over the lyrics, which use the word “faggot”. The council reversed the decision after considering the meaning of the lyrics, which were meant to be satirical.
October 25th, 2010
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Britain’s privacy watchdog,
has reopened its investigation into Google Street View after the company admitted it copied personal data. Google is facing similar pressures from privacy watchdogs in other countries, including
Spain,
Germany, and
Canada. In May, the ICO had investigated revelations that Google had gathered unprotected information but it
concluded that no “significant” personal details had been collected. The renewed scrutiny stems from
Google’s admission, following analysis by other privacy bodies, that they had harvested more information than previously thought.
October 21st, 2010
Google has been found in
violation of Canadian privacy law. On Tuesday the Privacy Commissioner of Canada,
Jennifer Stoddart, stated in a
news release on the Commissioner’s website that Google’s Street View mapping cars had unintentionally gathered personal information about Canadian citizens. This collection of citizens information was a “serious violation of Canadians’ privacy rights,” said Stoddart.
October 19th, 2010
A Canadian court has placed
numerous restrictions on an activist as part of his bail release. Alex Hundert may not speak with any member of the press, nor may he plan, attend, or participate in any public event related to a political issue. He was charged with three counts of conspiracy for involvement in violent activities at the G20 summit in Toronto last June. Hundert was released in July on $100,000 bail with around 20 court-imposed restrictions, including a ban on attending public demonstrations. After being rearrested for participating in a panel discussion at Ryerson University, he was released on 13 October on the condition that he adhere to
additional restrictions. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has said the measures are “
only aimed at silencing speech“.
September 21st, 2010
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced on Friday that a blogger in Calvary
faces five charges related to his website. John Kelly, 53, has
long been highly critical of Calgary police officers, using his site to accuse officers of “perjury, corruption and destroying evidence” according to the RCMP. Charges include four counts of publishing libellous statements on the Internet against specific police officers between November 2009 and Sept. 4, 2010. Critics of the Defamatory Libel law
assert that it “violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms”.
May 24th, 2010
Quebec’s legislature has introduced a bill which could ban woman wearing the niqab face veil if they wish to access public services in the province. Public debate on the controversial Bill 94 has been
suspended until August after more than 60 recommendations were received in the first three days of testimony. It is now unlikely that the bill will be voted into law before the end of the current legislative session in June.
May 11th, 2010
The Supreme Court
ruled on Friday that journalists do not have the constitutional right to protect the identity of their sources. The judgment means the question of whether a reporter must reveal their sources should be decided on a case-by-case basis. At issue were a
series of articles written in 2001 by Andrew McIntosh of the National Post newspaper. The pieces claimed that prime-minster, Jean Chrétien, had intervened on behalf of a constituent who was seeking a loan from a government-owned development bank. The bank claimed that documents which McIntosh used in support of his allegations were in fact forgeries, and a search warrant was issued to seize copies. The
court found that the warrant was justified, because the accusations of forgery were “of sufficient seriousness to justify the decision of the police to investigate”.
