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Thread: To all journalists: Orwellian police state starts today in Quebec (Nov 1st, 2016)

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    Default To all journalists: Orwellian police state starts today in Quebec (Nov 1st, 2016)

    Added: IF THIS BELOW HAPPEN IN THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC, AND IN MONTREAL, IT IS HAPPENING IN EVERY STATE AS WELL AND ALL OTHER PROVINCES.

    This is important: the chief police was not aware of it. It means that petty regular police officer can tap journalists phones without approval from the hierarchy. This feels like, sounds like, looks like dictatorship where anybody can scoop anybody's else information and snitch on them when needed or desired. On a local, day to day, living environment.


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    I cannot believe that the Orwelian spying on individuals and reporters starts in Quebec. Everyting that Snowden feared is happening now, at a much lower level than the NSA.

    The Montreal police has asked for warrant to spy on a reporter, 23 warrants were granted. Their aim: to find the reporter's sources of information. The reporter was never considered as a threat himself. And this, in a inner police department of policeman leakers (whistleblowers). Incredible

    But it is not the first case in Quebec. There were other ones on a smaller scale where individuals giving information to reporters were spied on to obtain their other contacts numbers.

    My province is quite peaceful usually, the police far from as agressive as in the USA (in fact often helpful to citizens). I cannot believe they are the first one to be caught.

    For the French members, here three articles - you will find the same in most newspapers:

    http://www.journaldemontreal.com/201...olice-espionne

    http://www.journaldemontreal.com/201...-pays-en-parle

    http://www.journaldemontreal.com/201...tes-surveilles

    For the English speaking members, here some articles:

    Huftington post article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/10..._12736202.html

    http://montrealgazette.com/news/loca...patrick-lagace

    Quote
    Paul Cherry, Montreal Gazette

    Published on: November 1, 2016 | Last Updated: November 1, 2016 11:51 AM EDT

    Patrick Lagace's lawyer shocked by police surveillance operation

    Montreal police strongly defended a highly controversial decision to spy on a La Presse columnist by tracking his cellphone calls and texts and monitoring his whereabouts as part of a necessary internal police investigation — while the journalist involved called what they did “indefensible.”

    “Lives were not at stake, this was not a question of national security,” La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé said in an interview Monday. “The leaks made them look bad, that’s why they decided to go after me in the way they did.”

    Opposition politicians are also condemning Montreal police for spying on Lagacé, though Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre stood by police chief Philippe Pichet on Monday, noting that a mayor should not intervene in police operations, but did say he was troubled by the news.

    For several months this year, police were monitoring Lagacé’s iPhone to determine the identity of his sources, La Presse reported. This was confirmed to Lagacé last Thursday by Montreal police.

    At least 24 surveillance warrants were granted by courts in 2016, at the request of the Montreal police department’s special investigations section, which probes crime within the police force. The warrants allowed police to track the telephone numbers of incoming and outgoing calls on Lagacé’s phone, and to monitor the phone’s location, although Pichet denied at a hastily convened press conference Monday that the GPS on his phone was monitored.

    Lagacé said he is sure many judges around the world have been asked by police departments to grant similar warrants, but refused because it was too “vulgar” to spy on a reporter. “It was incredibly aggressive,” he said, questioning the judgment of the judge involved.

    Warrants obtained in relation to internal investigation

    The surveillance warrants were obtained as part of Projet Escouade, which involved allegations that police investigators specializing in street gangs and drug trafficking fabricated evidence. Five police officers were arrested this summer, and two were charged.

    One of the officers targeted by Escouade was Fayçal Djelidi. By monitoring his cellphone, Montreal police detected contact between Djelidi and Lagacé, La Presse reported.

    Djelidi was arrested in July and is charged with nine counts, including perjury, attempting to obstruct justice, breach of trust by a public officer and obtaining sexual services for consideration.

    The controversial outgoing boss of internal affairs at the Montreal police department, Costa Labos, told La Presse that he gave the green light to the surveillance. On Friday it was announced that Labos has been transferred to the telecommunications department, but there is no evidence the move is related to the surveillance controversy.

    While Projet Montréal called on the police chief to step aside temporarily to permit an independent investigation, Pichet said Monday it was an “exceptional situation,” which warranted the action.

    “I’m saying in an exceptional situation we can use that type of tool,” he said in response to a reporter’s question during a 15-minute press conference at police headquarters Monday.

    He said the journalist was never under investigation, it was the police. “We do have a responsibility to investigate all types of crimes involving officers,” he said.

    He repeated several times how important freedom of the press is, but said the investigation was of a criminal nature and warranted the measures taken.

    “What is important for me is that all regulations were followed,” Pichet said, adding that there are no other similar surveillances to his knowledge.

    The police chief also said that Montreal city hall wasn’t involved in the investigation and Coderre found out about it in Monday’s La Presse.

    Police met with Lagacé to explain the operation, said Pichet, but Lagacé said he is less concerned with such courtesies than with the principles involved.

    “I’m not an investigative journalist and they did this to me,” Lagacé said, adding that after what Pichet said at the press conference “this is now free game and not taboo anymore.”

    Coderre blamed for climate of “paranoia”

    Calling the spying “worrisome,” Quebec Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux said his department is looking into whether police followed proper procedures. He said a free press is important but noted that it’s also “important that there is independence between political power, judicial power and the power of police.”

    Related
    Head of Montreal police department's internal affairs won't face criminal charges
    Head of internal affairs for Montreal police under investigation: report
    Mayor Denis Coderre troubled by news police were tracking journalist
    Editorial: Spying on Montreal reporter an attack on free press
    Government must act to protect journalists’ sources

    At a press conference, Coderre said he spoke to Pichet on Monday morning to tell him he was troubled by the case. He said he did not ask for details about the Lagacé surveillance or whether police are closely monitoring other reporters.

    “There is a process and we have to understand that right now it’s in front of the court and that there’s a judge who signed all the paperwork,” Coderre said.

    However, Lagacé said that while Coderre may never have been directly involved in the operation, he blamed the mayor for creating a climate that enabled it to happen — a climate of “paranoia” regarding leaks about the city and pressure on Pichet to curb such incidents.

    Éric Trottier, vice-president of information at La Presse, denounced the surveillance, saying it “constitutes an attack against the institution of the press and against the journalistic profession.”

    Lawyer Sébastien Pierre-Roy, who is representing La Presse, speaks to reporters at the Montreal Courthouse on Monday, October 31, 2016. Lawyers from La Presse were attempting to obtain documents pertinent to a 24 surveillance warrant on journalist Patrick Lagacé by SPVM police.

    Lawyer Sébastien Pierre-Roy, who is representing La Presse, speaks to reporters at the Montreal Courthouse on Monday, October 31, 2016. Lawyers from La Presse were attempting to obtain documents pertinent to a 24 surveillance warrant on journalist Patrick Lagacé by SPVM police. Dario Ayala / Montreal Gazette

    Sébastien Pierre-Roy, a lawyer representing La Presse, said it may be “the first time in Canada that we’ve learned that a police force has gone so far as to obtain private information from a journalist with the express purpose of identifying one of his sources relevant to that investigation.”

    Lagacé said late Monday afternoon that after a long day of doing interviews on the topic, he was still reeling from the whole thing.

    “This is uncharted territory,” he said. “I didn’t think something like this could be possible.”

    the reporter himself speaking:http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...ying-1.3828832

    Quote
    La Presse columnist says he was put under police surveillance as part of 'attempt to intimidate'

    Police told Patrick Lagacé he was being used as 'tool' in investigation into its own officer, he says

    By Kamila Hinkson, Sabrina Marandola, CBC News Posted: Oct 31, 2016 9:32 AM ET| Last Updated: Oct 31, 2016 6:47 PM ET

    La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé said he was shocked to learn police had him under surveillance.
    La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé said he was shocked to learn police had him under surveillance. (Marie-Ève Soutière/Radio-Canada)

    Related Stories

    ■ Surveillance of Montreal reporter a 'serious attack on freedom of the press in Canada'
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    ■ No grounds for charges against police officer accused of lying to a judge
    ■ Is the Montreal police department in crisis?
    ■ Prime minister calls Mountie surveillance of reporters a mistake
    ■ 'It's a scary thing': Vice reporter ordered to turn information over to RCMP



    A columnist for Montreal's La Presse newspaper says the city's police have been spying on him for months, as part of an attempt to intimidate members of the police force who want to share information with journalists.


    Police obtained 24 warrants this year to track Patrick Lagacé's whereabouts using the GPS chip in his iPhone, and to obtain the identities of everyone he has spoken and messaged with, La Presse reported.


    'I lived in this fiction that this could not happen in this country.'

    — Patrick Lagacé, La Presse columnist

    ​Lagacé said police told him he was being used as a "tool" in an investigation into one of its own officers.

    "I was flabbergasted because I thought that in this country it takes very, very serious motives to track and spy on a journalist like that — motives that are so serious that's it's never happened before," Lagacé said in an interview with CBC News on Monday.

    "My metadata was transferred to the police. The police had the right to activate the GPS in my phone — to locate me at any time. I lived in this fiction that this could not happen in this country."

    ■MORE: Surveillance of reporter a 'serious attack on freedom of the press in Canada'

    Lagacé added that he questions the judge's decision.

    "What shocks me is that a judge decided this is perfectly normal in a democracy," he said.

    "When we start spying on journalists … there are questions to be asked about who the judges are [who are] authorizing these warrants."

    The revelations have raised concern among journalism advocacy groups and drawn the attention of anti-surveillance advocates, including NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
    Last edited by Flash; 3rd November 2016 at 13:18.
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    Default Re: To all journalists: Orwellian police state starts today in Quebec (Nov 1st, 2016)

    Here part of Snowden take:

    his tweet

    Quote
    Edward Snowden Compte certifié 
    ‏@Snowden
    Are you a journalist? The police spying on you specifically to ID your sources isn't a hypothetical. This is today. http://montrealgazette.com/news/loca...patrick-lagace
    Retweets
    10 038

    J'aime

    Quote The timing couldn’t be better.

    With many Quebecers in an uproar over police spying on La Presse reporter Patrick Lagacé, McGill University on Wednesday will welcome whistleblower Edward Snowden, who is wanted in the United States for giving classified material on U.S. surveillance programs to journalists.

    Speaking via video link, Snowden, a former government contractor at the U.S. National Security Agency, will discuss surveillance in Canada.

    The free public lecture is being organized by Media@McGill, an interdisciplinary hub focused on the study of contemporary media.

    It will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m. in the Leacock Building, 855 Sherbrooke St. W. Seats will be first come, first served, with a lineup starting at 5:30 p.m.



    Snowden’s leaks revealed how the U.S. and other countries monitor global private communications. He is now living in exile in Russia to avoid prosecution in the U.S.

    Last month, Snowden criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not repealing Canada’s anti-terror law.

    On Monday, Snowden tweeted about the Lagacé surveillance, quoting a Montreal Gazette story and warning journalists that police are spying on them to identify sources.
    http://montrealgazette.com/news/loca...sity-wednesday
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    Default Re: To all journalists: Orwellian police state starts today in Quebec (Nov 1st, 2016)

    How to let the desire of your mind become the desire of your heart - Gurdjieff

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    Default Re: To all journalists: Orwellian police state starts today in Quebec (Nov 1st, 2016)

    The Americain influences cross over in small Canada, hmm!, what's next, freedom of the press retaken by the State?, whoua!, what will come may not be in our interest! Corporate World is more and more running the show for profit!, what will come will be in their interest, not for the people unfortunately!

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    Default Re: To all journalists: Orwellian police state starts today in Quebec (Nov 1st, 2016)

    Once again. When the government or individuals at highest enough levels of government are implicated with wrongdoing, the rule of law and criminal and civil procedures invariably apply to protect them. But when it comes to government investigations (often code for coverup and whitewash), the rules and procedures they invoke for themselves are denied to the target (often innocent) of their coverup, excuse me, investigation.

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    Default Re: To all journalists: Orwellian police state starts today in Quebec (Nov 1st, 2016)

    Now another police force has done the same, spying on 6 more journalists Now, the provincial police force has tapped 6 journalists as well to find their sources - FIRST STEPS TO DICTATORSHIP -

    IF THIS BELOW HAPPEN IN THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC, AND IN MONTREAL, IT IS HAPPENING IN EVERY STATE AS WELL AND ALL OTHER PROVINCES.

    This is important: the chief police was not aware of it. It means that petty regular police officer can tap journalists phones without approval from the hierarchy. This feels like, sounds like, looks like dictatorship where anybody can scoop anybody's else information and snitch on them when needed or desired. On a local, day to day, living environment.

    How can a judge ever grant such warrant? Within 2 hours after the start of the inquest? How come justifications are not checked? Are the judges even reading the request before signing?

    When is the next taping of a police officer wife or husband because he/she just asked for divorce? Or tapping this neighbour because the neighbour's dog is barking?

    Quote QUEBEC — The police spying crisis has gone from bad to worse, with Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux ordering an administrative investigation into the practises of the Sûreté du Québec dating back to 2013.

    Coiteux made the announcement within hours of the provincial police force revealing it had tracked the calls and movements of six journalists that year after news reports based on leaks revealed Michel Arsenault, then president of Quebec’s largest labour federation, had his phone tapped.

    The controversy began Monday after Montreal media outlet La Presse reported that police had tracked columnist Patrick Lagacé’s cellphone to find out if he was being leaked information from police officers.

    The new investigation — to be captained by officials in the Public Security department — is over and above internal investigations Coiteux has already ordered into the work of the province’s police forces in the wake of the Lagacé scandal.

    Coiteux said that to his knowledge, it is the first time in 20 years such a case has emerged involving the provincial police.

    This specific one, however, took on a political dimension because the man at the centre of it and now in the hot seat is Stéphane Bergeron, who was the Public Security minister at the time, in 2013 in the Parti Québécois government of Pauline Marois.

    The surveillance of the six reporters was part of an internal probe ordered by then-SQ director Mario Laprise to find out which officers had leaked information to journalists about the investigation into Arsenault, who was being probed as part of an investigation into organized crime infiltrating the construction industry.

    Arsenault wrote to complain about the leaks to Bergeron, and Laprise ordered the investigation soon afterward.

    “What happened then was pretty unusual,” Coiteux said. “A letter arrived in his (Bergeron’s) office in the morning and by the evening an investigation was launched. And now we learned that under that investigation, journalists were targeted.

    “It’s curious, to say the least. I was surprised and I was shocked and this is why we acted promptly and swiftly.”

    Meeting reporters earlier, Bergeron, today the PQ’s critic for Public Security, appeared as perplexed as everyone about the chain of events leading to the tracking of journalists under his watch.
    http://montrealgazette.com/news/loca...d-closed-doors
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    Default Re: To all journalists: Orwellian police state starts today in Quebec (Nov 1st, 2016)

    Snowden talk (in parts) at McGill University yesterday (Montreal)

    Quote He addressed the matter again during his talk at McGill on Wednesday night.

    "This story about the Montreal police spying on journalists through their phone in an intense way for the particular reason, a specified reason of uncovering sources behind their journalism, is a radical attack on journalism of the free press," Snowden told the packed auditorium and overflow room. ....

    "We are all being watched, regardless of whether we are doing anything right or wrong, and this is what drove me forward," he told the audience of about 600 people.

    "Now surveillance technologies have outpaced the growth of democratic control."

    "We don't see the mayor calling for that. We don't see the local premier calling for that and it's this question, this dynamic, where our governments invested with extraordinary capabilities to peer into all of our private lives, whereas we the public can know almost nothing about how they operate," said Snowden.http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/edward-sn...ters-1.3143820
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