NJC Aug. 25, 2004 Security, Immigration, Terrorists, SCOC, Book:Cold Terror
Reposting with links added: three lists and links are bold
http://
newsjunkiecanada.blog
spot.com/2004_08_25_newsjunkie
canada_archive.html
"It took three days for Canada's national police force to be told that a suspicious shipping container was missing from a Halifax pier last spring."
Port of Halifax: Container spirited away with a CRANE but RCMP not notified for THREE DAYS
See below for that post. NJC
News Junkie Canada August 25, 2004
August 25, 2004
Another Compilation for Aug. 25, 04
I know, I know. I said I was taking a break -- and then I read some more. Each time, I think, "But this is important!" This time, I am going to relax -- really. The most loved little godchild in the world is coming -- and what else is important? If only all children could be born into such loving homes with extended families who think they're perfect!
List of Articles:
* Who's protecting investors? -- Nortel, Bre-X, Livent — where are our Googles?
* Auditing the auditors: Report cards coming -- Public overseer assesses top firms Wave of problems sparked review -- "We will not be naming particular sins in particular firms . . ." -- Who's protecting investors? Everybody else seems to be protected
* More Corruption? Someone will pay for the toxic mould on native reserves--but who? -- "Dr. Hari Vijay, a mould specialist with Health Canada, set up a field laboratory on the reserve in 2002 and collected blood samples from the population to determine if there were antibodies in the blood as the result of living in mouldy conditions. Before she was finished, her work was abruptly suspended"
* Where's the 'faint hope' for victims? -- if the police cannot get justice for one of their own
* Different codes for different folks -- Jonas on sharia in Canada
* Justice in the Islamic Republic -- Here’s a story about the glory of shari’a.
* MPs return eyeing re-election -- Resentment in Liberal ranks -- Does Quebec MP Helene Chalifour-Scherrer's elevation to the PMO mean she will get to take the Bombardier Challenger jet again?
* Censoring the Bible -- religious freedom and freedom of expression vs gay rights -- Predict which will win in Canada -- The two nominees for the SCOC are pro gay rights.
* The Olympics: three links
* Women are ruining the Olympics
* The Muslim Olympics
* CENSORING THE OLYMPICS
You might have to be from the Maritimes to get a chuckle from this.
How to say "I love you"
English - I love you
French - Je t'aime
Italian - Ti amo
Chinese - Wo ai nin
Newfoundland - Nice arse; now get in the truck.
Thanks G***.
Who's protecting investors? -- Nortel, Bre-X, Livent — where are our Googles?
The wheels of justice grind very slowly in Canada. They're charged, prosecuted and convicted in the US in about half the time it takes them to get going here, if they get going at all. Now, we have fewer experienced RCMP officers and prosecutors. It's an old story. Who benefits? Read a few of the following posts for an idea.
Nortel, Bre-X, Livent — where are our Googles?
http://
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Content
Server?pagename=thestar/Layout/
Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=109312
6209119&call_pageid=968332188
492&col=968793972154
Aug. 22, 2004, Jennifer Wells
So Google Inc. is officially a publicly traded company and Nortel Networks Corp. remains mired in a pongy-smelly swamp.
Is there symmetry here?
Just look. There were plentiful pictures the other day of Google executives launching their stock with triumphant yahoo sorts of looks on their faces. And there were plentiful inches of ink spilled on that latest bad news from Nortel — more executives fired "for cause"; continued opacity around the company's financial performance.
And I'm thinking: Are the Canadian markets caught in a time warp or what?
[. . . . ] Up here, the Canadian Public Accountability Board, whose job it is to ensure public confidence in the integrity of financial statements, says it will release its first report on the country's top accounting firms next month. The board has cautioned that it won't name names, but instead will highlight problem areas in the financial statements of publicly traded companies.
When the board eventually itemizes improper recognition of revenues, or revenue shell games, how surprised will we be? Not very.
Scratch that. Not at all.
And the board appears to be quite concerned that, whatever they say, the country's big accounting firms may get mad at them. Poor baby. [. . . . ]
Wells must realize that there is an "elite" with a network of enablers from the courts to the media to NGO's to those who "live off the avails of" what that "elite" make available to those who go with the flow, that is, those who run things and who have enough power to ruin any person or business which might interfere with "the system", the way things are and have always been done.
If you don't believe this, try to remember the scandals which should have brought down any government, except Canada's. With the media, money and the complicity of the backroom boys of the old Tory party, Canadians were bombarded with a stream of fear-inducing ads, directives on how to vote from the provincial backroom old boys (particularly, it has been reported, in that land of transfer payments and other largesse from TROC with which Maritime votes are bought) who support the leftist agenda, and more. It worked!
Then consider that in the US there is a right and a left-wing body of thought and opinion debated and reported. How much does this happen in Canada? The consequence for us is that the most egregious examples of chicanery are allowed--even not reported--when the perpetrators are part of that network of Canada's "elites" or their supporters. Think of how much ridicule has been heaped on the Byfields, whose civic mindedness and evident decency should be lauded, largely because they question the way things are and have always been. Think of Preston Manning. Think of the scorn heaped upon the independent and innovative Albertans. To adopt some of their ideas might open a Pandora's box and Canadians might demand more -- accountability, transparency -- even democracy.
Auditing the auditors: Report cards coming -- Public overseer assesses top firms Wave of problems sparked review -- "We will not be naming particular sins in particular firms . . ." -- Who's protecting investors? Everybody else seems to be protected.
Auditing the auditors: Report cards coming -- Public overseer assesses top firms Wave of problems sparked review
Aug. 19, 2004, John Spears
http://
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Content
Server?pagename=thestar/Layout/
Article_Type1&call_pageid=9713
58637177&c=Article&cid=1092867011111
Canadian shareholders who are shaken by recent warnings from public companies that their audited statements aren't quite as they seem will get a report card soon on just how well some of Canada's biggest auditors do their job.
The Canadian Public Accountability Board will be issuing its first report next month assessing the performance of Canada's four biggest auditing firms, David Scott, the board's chief executive, said in an interview.
"We will not be naming particular sins in particular firms, but we'll say in general: Here's the sorts of things that we have found," he said.
Re-read that last paragraph and then ask "Why not?" If some local kid robbed the corner store, his name would be in the newspapers. If you're big enough and important enough to be one of "Canada's four biggest auditing firms" which probably means you do work for the big boys, the government, the "elites", there is another standard? No! Is it possible? See my comments above.
[. . . . ] Auditors of public companies are in touch regularly with management through the year, and differences of opinion are often ironed out, Scott said.
If they can't be resolved, the auditor can bring the issue to the audit committee, which is made up of directors who are independent of management.
If the auditor is still unhappy, he or she can tell the company that the audit opinion will be "qualified," with the auditor explaining why he or she isn't happy with the statements.
"If you ask any auditor who's been around for a while in an opinion signing capacity, he'll probably have had to threaten qualification at one time or another," Scott said.
"It does go on, I can assure you. I personally have had to threaten qualification on more than one occasion to get a large company to make a change in its financial statements." [. . . . ]
More Corruption? Someone will pay for the toxic mould on native reserves--but who? -- "Dr. Hari Vijay, a mould specialist with Health Canada, set up a field laboratory on the reserve in 2002 and collected blood samples from the population to determine if there were antibodies in the blood as the result of living in mouldy conditions. Before she was finished, her work was abruptly suspended"
Someone will pay for the toxic mould on native reserves--but who? 2 August 2004, Candis McLean
http://
www.westernstandard.ca/website/
index.cfm?page=article&article_id=205
This is an example of what I had in mind above; whether there was corruption in this case or not, corruption that can be proven in a court of law, instinctively, we know how the system works. The government body that handles contracts of this nature awards the business to its friends and supporters, short-cuts are taken, the contractor(s) take the money and run (to be fair, not all do, I'm sure), and the rest of us, whether on reserve or elsewhere, are left with the results. There is a complicity involved, I believe. For example, think about the Health Canada whistleblowers who have lost their jobs lately. Then think of the whistleblower legislation which was designed so as to protect government, not the whistleblower. Check my archives.
Why was the study suspended? Who would order the suspension and why? To whose benefit? Do you think Canadian taxpayers will ever learn the whole story? What do you think will happen with Dr. Hari Vijay, mould specialist with Health Canada -- if she embarrasses the department(s) or minister(s) involved? If not eased out of her job, there are other ways of ruining her career. Bureaucrats are practiced at delivering what government wants -- even if it has to be--what would one call it--manufactured over time--the poor perfomance rating, the . . . well, you fill in the rest. The symbiosis is such that orders don't even have to be given and I suspect that bureaucrats do not actually realize what they are doing; they simply start to look more critically and negatively at the individual's work. Few of us could withstand excessive scrutiny of our work; there are always negatives which may be emphasized. And so, reflexively, the process is put in place if the minister involved would be negatively affected -- and so government work and awarding of contracts goes on in the usual manner.
An Ontario native band’s recent quarter-billion dollar class action lawsuit against the federal government may be the first of many across the country. It alleges that Ottawa failed to take reasonable measures to protect Ojibwa band members from the ravages of toxic mould in their houses [. . . . ]
Dr. Hari Vijay, a mould specialist with Health Canada, set up a field laboratory on the reserve in 2002 and collected blood samples from the population to determine if there were antibodies in the blood as the result of living in mouldy conditions. Before she was finished, her work was abruptly suspended. Vijay’s Ottawa laboratory was forced to release the collected blood samples. Band members say no explanations have been forthcoming as to why. When contacted by the Western Standard, Health Canada officials declined comment, due to the fact that the lawsuit over the mishandled sample is before the courts. No defense has been filed and the allegations are not proven.
Confidential documents obtained by the Western Standard indicate that an elders’ committee had been established in 1995 to address the “retrogression in living standards and evidence of corruption in the administration of band finances.”
[. . . .] A member of the emergency crew who spoke on condition of anonymity said the slimy growths had actually been noticed in 1995. “The band called in the contractor and he was mad. He had us just stipple over the green stuff in the ceilings and take the drywall off the walls and put new drywall up. We could see it was all black behind there, but we didn’t know what it was, or that it would grow right back through the new wall.” [. . . . ]
Again, I recommend checking these sites for information glossed over or even omitted from the mainstream press. (How I miss the "Alberta Report"!)
Western Standard
The Shotgun
Canada Free Press
Andrew Coyne
Colby Cosh
Citizens Centre
I have forgotten some, I am sure, but these are worth checking.
Where's the 'faint hope' for victims? -- if the police cannot get justice for one of their own
Where's the 'faint hope' for victims?
http://
www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/
TorontoSun/Editorial/home.html
August 22, 2004
WHEN EVEN the police, who are an integral part of Canada's justice system, complain they can't get justice for their own fallen comrades, it makes us wonder, what hope is there for ordinary crime victims?
Last week's eye-opening articles by the Sun's Alan Cairns on the antics of two cop-killers who have made a mockery of our parole system raise serious questions, for cops and civilians alike.
They also make us wonder how many more Jamie Munros and Jeffrey Breeses are out there.
Jamie Munro and his brother Craig were responsible for one of Toronto's most horrific police murders: Armed and masked, they shot and held hostage Const. Michael Sweet and let him bleed to death as he begged for his life. Craig was convicted of first-degree murder, but Jamie escaped with a second-degree conviction, sentenced in 1982 to "life" in prison with no parole for a minimum of 12 years.
[. . . . ] When people who commit the worst imaginable crimes are given the toughest possible sentences under our law, we expect those sentences to be enforced. We expect a "life" sentence to mean life -- not a life of travel back and forth to Europe; not special privileges to spend time with loved ones (a privilege these killers denied their victims forever).
We applaud the CPPA for making this issue a priority -- and for planning to confront Deputy PM Anne McLellan with it when she addresses them this Friday.
We hope they give her hell. After all, if the feds won't listen to front-line cops when they tell them the system is broken, what hope is there for the rest of us? [. . . . ]
Different codes for different folks -- Jonas on sharia in Canada
http://
www.canada.com/national/
nationalpost/news/story.html?id=99
643f25-f32e-4739-9d28-e73cbe13c3b0
George Jonas, National Post, August 23, 2004
Jonas writes of a delightful character, of earned respect and lack of coercion -- and then he comes to the imposition of sharia.
[. . . . ] The problem begins when proponents of sharia want to elevate an informal agreement among potential litigants into a formal part of Canada's (or at least Ontario's) legal system. They hope to achieve this -- Mr. Ali suggests they already have -- through the Arbitration Act of 1991, a piece of legislation born of Ontario's brief affair with the NDP, which provides for individuals to voluntarily opt in to "alternate dispute resolution." ADF is a streamlined process, with reduced procedural and evidentiary safeguards, whose results are enforceable by the courts. Once you opt in, you can't opt out, apparently; if you select the cheaper and faster track of ADF to resolve your dispute, you're stuck with it. So, if sharia becomes part of ADF, you're stuck with sharia, like it or not.
Here's the rub. Letting disputants turn with their tales of woe to a rabbi, a mullah, a short-order cook or even a Mafioso, instead of a judge, isn't dangerous. It only affirms that Canada is a free country. But extending formal recognition to tribal or religious laws and procedures is dangerous. It suggests that Canada isn't a country. At best, introducing parallel systems of justice fosters the fragmentation of society. At worst, it raises the spectre of theocracy encroaching on the secular state.
[. . . . ] As Barbara Amiel put it in the London Sunday Times yesterday: "Though many communities have used informal conflict resolution through their own tribal and religious arbitrators, only Muslims have sought to formalize such a parallel legal system. It is also noteworthy that only ultra-liberal governments, such as Ontario's, have considered acceding to such demands."
Women will be delighted with this! Now, read on for an example of life under sharia in Iran.
Justice in the Islamic Republic -- Here’s a story about the glory of shari’a.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/
weblog/?entry=12272_Justice_in_the_Islamic_Republic
An Iranian named Mahmoud had an unfaithful wife.
He had her arrested and put on trial for her crime.
Mahmoud worried.
He worried that she might get away with it. His honor was at stake.
So he stabbed his unfaithful wife to death. In the courtroom.
Since Mahmoud was the sole support of his now somewhat diminished family, and his slaughtered, unfaithful wife had no surviving family members on her side to demand vengeance, Mahmoud was allowed to go free.
TEHRAN, Aug 19 (AFP) - Iran’s judiciary ordered a man to be released after he killed his unfaithful wife in the courtroom, because the woman’s immediate forebears are not alive to claim retaliation, press reports said Thursday. [. . . . ]
There is more, along with comments.
Comments #26
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/
weblog/?entry=12272#c0026
I want a bumpersticker that says
QUESTION "DIVERSITY"
MPs return eyeing re-election -- Resentment in Liberal ranks -- Does Quebec MP Helene Chalifour-Scherrer's elevation to the PMO mean she will get to take the Bombardier Challenger jet again?
She flew to Banff to politick pre-election -- then lost -- and now, she has "won" again. This is another example of how the game is played -- how you can win even if you lose -- as long as you have the right network of friends.
MPs return eyeing re-election -- Resentment in Liberal ranks
http://www.canada.com/national/
nationalpost/news/story.html?id=84e5
9a03-c60b-4ef2-adff-e90938550130
Anne Dawson, Chief Political Correspondent, CanWest, August 23, 2004
Some MPs also talk privately about their dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister's choice of Cabinet ministers to carry out the government agenda and their fear that Mr. Martin's staff is continuing its pre-election record of chaos, poor communications and refusal to listen to caucus concerns.
[. . . . ] "They've brought in a bunch of political operatives," said the MP referring to newly appointed deputy chief of staff Karl Littler, who was best known for his organization of Mr. Martin's leadership campaign and the Liberals' Ontario election campaign, and defeated Quebec MP Helene Chalifour-Scherrer, who co-chaired the election campaign.
Many say Ms. Chalifour-Scherrer, a long-time Martin loyalist who was appointed principal secretary in the PMO, is too inexperienced and got the job only because two years ago she was the first MP to publicly call for former prime minister Jean Chretien to quit to make way for Mr. Martin.
"It's all about politics and organization for the next election in the PMO. If they were interested in governing, they would have brought in people with a policy background."
Censoring the Bible -- religious freedom and freedom of expression vs gay rights -- Predict which will win in Canada -- The two nominees for the SCOC are pro gay rights.
Censoring the Bible
http://www.canada.com/national/
nationalpost/news/story.html?id=16d4
6758-ba05-4129-b627-8e62482120e8
National Post, August 23, 2004
In Canada, as in most Western nations, laws prohibiting the wilful incitement to hatred receive strong approval from the general public. Indeed, they are widely seen as a legal codification of our tolerant creed. But a recent Swedish case serves as a timely reminder of the perverse consequences that such laws can produce.
Earlier this summer, a Swedish court invoked that country's hate-speech law to sentence a Pentecostal pastor to one month in prison for preaching a vociferous sermon against homosexuality. The pastor, Ake Green, had labelled homosexuals "perverts whose sexual drive the Devil has used as his strongest weapon against God."
In making his case against the pastor, the public prosecutor explained: "One may have whatever religion one wishes, but [the sermon] is an attack on all fronts against homosexuals. Collecting Bible [verses] on this topic as he does makes this hate speech."
What about the pastor's religious freedom -- not to mention his freedom of speech? For the Swedish court, these considerations were trumped by gay rights. The rock-paper-scissors thinking behind the decision is best summarized by Soren Anderson -- president of a Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights foundation -- who told journalists religious freedom can never provide justification to offend people.
While Mr. Green's prosecution may be unusual, and his religious views extreme, his case highlights a broader conflict already beginning to play out in this country. In 2002, a federal court in Saskatchewan effectively equated Bible passages condemning homosexuality with hate literature.
[. . . . ] The Swedish prosecution should serve as a warning to Canada and other Western nations. While efforts to expand hate-speech censorship are undoubtedly well-meaning, they serve to unduly curtail freedoms of conscience that have formed the centuries-old bedrock of Western societies.
The Olympics
Women are ruining the Olympics [This site is now defunct; there had been an error in the link also.]
http://angry_lobo.blogspot.com/
2004/08/women-are-ruining-olympics.html
which leads to CENSORING THE OLYMPICS
http://www.benadorassociates.com/
article/6578
Amir Taheri who is always worth reading.
Free Speech, Indymedia Style
Free Speech, Indymedia Style
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/
weblog/?entry=12263_Free_Speech_Indymedia_Style
In a topic containing the stolen email addresses of many Protest Warrior mailing list subscribers, a Nazimedia Morlock threatens web attacks against LGF and Instapundit:
Re: Phone numbers, addresses, and e-mails of over 1600 RNC delegates!
by DownWithRNC
(No verified email address)
Current rating: 0
22 Aug 2004
TIME TO SHUT DOWN LGF, INSTAFASCIST AND THE REST...BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
THE DIGITAL BROWNSHIRTS WILL BE STOPPED.
ENJOY YOUR LAST NIGHT OF SAFETY GLEN, CHARLES AND THE REST...TICK, TOCK, THE END IS NEAR FOR YOU FASCISTS.
I’ve alerted everyone possible about this threat, accompanied as it is by the revelation of hundreds of private email addresses. [. . . . ]
Hard to believe, isn't it? Link and read the comments. Actually, link and read everything you have time to read.
# posted by News Junkie Canada at 10:02 AM
Two Compilations Aug. 24-25, 04
Note: This is not the end of all that I wish I had time to post; I hope to have time later. My thanks to the people who lead me to this information. I do appreciate it; it is just that keeping my life on track sometimes interferes.
There are two compilations below.
Added Aug. 25, 04:
* Abella and Charron "appointees" to SCOC -- "The panel is strictly advisory and will issue a non-binding report. A more permanent system of vetting nominees will be devised AFTER the next two judges are appointed. " [my emphasis] -- so it appears to be a done deal -- so much for . . . -- Andrew Coyne comments.
* Ottawa to review security -- And what about hiring the 3500 RCMP and CSIS officers to protect the rest of us Canadians?
* Missing Container Update
* Airport security scandal exposed -- UK -- but do you believe it is much better in our "kinder, gentler" Canada?
* Vancouver Island Grow-op -- Strong indications of a sophisticated organization with access to both money and manpower
* Bus travel: Toronto man caught at border with 3 guns -- Hands over loaded weapons peacefully
* Beat cops showing the flag
* Arson destroys two homes and a boat
* "Canada has nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to Olympic performances." -- Keep Olympians off further dole -- Other policies needed to support athletes
* Former Liberian leader sold conflict diamonds to al-Qaeda -- report
Abella and Charron "appointees" to SCOC -- "The panel is strictly advisory and will issue a non-binding report. A more permanent system of vetting nominees will be devised AFTER the next two judges are appointed. " [my emphasis] -- so it appears to be a done deal -- so much for . . .
2 women nominated to Supreme Court
http://
www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
news/story.html?id=39c585ba-31
6f-48c8-a50e-dfd19fedb4c1
Canadian Press, August 24, 2004
OTTAWA -- Justice Minister Irwin Cotler nominated two women Tuesday to fill Supreme Court vacancies.
Justice Rosalie Abella, a human rights expert, and Justice Louise Charron, a francophone Ontarian raised in Ottawa, will be vetted in a new parliamentary screening process to start Wednesday.
[. . . . ] The Conservatives have long been pushing for parliamentary hearings similar to the congressional grilling prospective Supreme Court judges get in the United States.
But the mechanism to be used this week is a far cry from those politically charged proceedings.
Cotler is expected to field questions about the candidates from a panel of MPs and legal experts. The panel is strictly advisory and will issue a non-binding report.
Note that the justices, themselves, do not have to respond to any queries. We would not want to cause any discomfort to our future Supremes by questioning their philosophical stances or other relevant matters -- nor, of course, would we want to politicize their "appointments". Ah, the horsefeathers by which we are governed -- or is that led around like donkeys?
A more permanent system of vetting nominees will be devised after the next two judges are appointed. [my emphasis]
One justice is 53, the other, 58 and they remain Supremes until age 75 -- so a new system won't matter to us, will it. It will be too late. The damage will have been done. A typical governing party promise made for election, then broken.
In this morning's National Post article, A purely political choice
http://
www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/
story.html?id=fcccf231-1c
61-4dcb-b72f-59705a2458d8
Andrew Coyne gives some background information on Justice Abella. Conservatives will not be amused.
[. . . . ] But ideology until now has been more or less taken for granted: It was expected that any appointee would subscribe to the approved pieties and the expansive view of the state's role that has come to dominate the law schools and the courts in recent decades. The vetting process was to screen for any outriders who might threaten the liberal consensus.
But this is the first time I can recall that a judicial appointment has been used as a political weapon, in the most partisan sense of the word. Ms. Abella is so far out of the mainstream, even among liberal jurists, that her appointment can only be seen as a deliberate provocation. Even allowing for the inability of certain Liberals to conceive that their views might in fact be controversial -- for that presumes the existence of differences of opinion -- the choice of such a polarizing figure, at such a delicate political moment, cannot have been accidental. [. . . . ]
Ottawa to review security -- And what about hiring the 3500 RCMP and CSIS officers to protect the rest of us Canadians?
Ottawa to review security
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/
TorontoSun/News/2004/08/24/599407.html
August 24, 2004
THE FEDERAL government plans a sweeping examination of potential terrorist threats to federal politicians and judges, The Canadian Press has learned. Officials have ordered an independent review to identify security gaps in and around the cluster of Ottawa buildings that house parliamentarians, senior judges and their staffs.
The goal is to produce "threat and risk analyses" that will assess the "levels of vulnerability and protection" at federal sites in the national capital, an overview of the project says.
Missing Container Update
Corrupting entry port workers is done regularly, by putting people on the crooks' payroll; see the auditor-general's last report on ports and airport security. Smuggling drugs or weapons or people makes no difference since it's only the money that matters. Conscience has nothing to do with business while smuggling
RCMP saw red over hushed container theft -- Mounties found out 'through the back door' three days later
http://www.herald.ns.ca/
stories/2004/08/23/f188.raw.html
Murray Brewster, CP, Aug. 23, 04
[. . . . ] The glaring security lapse also came at a time when U.S. security officials were concerned about a possible terrorist attack in the weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention in July.
[. . . . ] Despite the concerns, authorities do not believe the container carried any weapons of mass destruction, such as a radioactive dirty bomb, and did not pose a national security risk for either Canada or the United States.
Though they will not admit it publicly, police sources said they believe the crate was carrying drugs.
Authorities refuse to say where the container came from or what shipping line carried it.
Airport security scandal exposed -- UK -- but do you believe it is much better in our "kinder, gentler" Canada?
Airport security scandal exposed
http://
www.thesun.co.uk/
article/0,,2-2004391268,00.html
via Jack's Newswatch
http://www.jacksnewswatch.info/
AN undercover Sun reporter has exposed chilling security blunders — by smuggling a fake bomb on to a jet carrying more than 220 British holidaymakers.
ANTHONY FRANCE used bogus references to get a job as a baggage handler.
He then took the “bomb” unchallenged into the hold of the Thomas Cook 757-200 at Birmingham International Airport.
This is his story: [. . . . ]
It does not lead one to want to travel does it?
Vancouver Island Grow-op -- Strong indications of a sophisticated organization with access to both money and manpower
RCMP bust grow op: Vancouver Island site a sophisticated operation
http://
www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/
news/story.html?id=172f6e
34-4d82-4cac-824c-0812bd55c40b
Elaine Marshall, CanWest, August 24, 2004
[. . . . ] "It was huge," said Const. Michelle Hallam. "The guys describe it as two football fields ... you couldn't see from one end of the grow operation to the other."
More than 6,700 hundred marijuana plants were discovered growing on the remote bush property located northwest of Port Hardy on the northeast tip of Vancouver Island. After investigating the grow operation for weeks, RCMP officers from all over the north island moved in on the site Sunday morning. Two men were arrested and firearms and three guard dogs were seized.
The logistics of growing the 6,700 plants, moving them to the site and maintaining and protecting them until they were ready for harvest were all strong indications of a sophisticated organization with access to both money and manpower. "The size is definitely consistent with organized crime," Const. Hallam said. [. . . . ]
Bus travel: Toronto man caught at border with 3 guns -- Hands over loaded weapons peacefully
Toronto man caught at border with 3 guns -- Hands over loaded weapons peacefully
http://
www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/
news/story.html?id=374
601ab-98b0-4fec-92d4-c16691a5a61b
Adrian Humphreys, National Post, August 24, 2004
[. . . . ] Niagara police and CBSA officials confirmed that three handguns were seized -- two of them loaded and the third empty -- along with spare ammunition clips and an undisclosed quantity of bullets.
All of the powerful, semi-automatic guns were being carried with him and not packed in his luggage, officials said.
Officers would not speculate on the 25-year-old Scarborough man's motive, but the seizure raises the prospect that criminals in Scarborough may be re-arming after aggressive anti-gang and anti-gun operations by the Toronto Police Service.
[. . . . ] The man had memorized the names and numbers of two Toronto lawyers and instructed agents to call them in succession after his arrest, a source said.
How very prepared to know in advance that he might need lawyers -- a gang member, it appears. What lawyers are on call for this type of criminal? Are lawyers forced to take their business?
Beat cops showing the flag
http://
www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
news/story.html?id=78c7
a40f-ecee-4979-8fae-149180774a52
Last week, Canada's police chiefs warned street gangs were the next generation of organized crime. Two weeks earlier, Montreal police admitted that Ste. Catherine St. and St. Laurent Blvd. had become battlegrounds in a turf war between street gangs over drugs. Meanwhile, a series of late-night shootings and stabbings left Montrealers wondering whether they're in the midst of a crime wave. Gazette columnist James Mennie explored downtown with those who work after midnight. This is what he saw. [. . . . ]
Why are so many young people even willing to try drugs? What is being done to prevent children from starting? I had never heard of drugs until I was a young adult. Was it because communication was comparatively unsophisticated and we didn't know about so much going on in the world? Was it because a parent monitored everywhere we went and most of what we did? There was no TV and we had work to do. Poverty has its blessings. Whatever it was, it saved so many of us.
Arson destroys two homes and a boat
http://
www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
news/story.html?id=c32c1
cd0-cbcb-42f9-86a5-bc0041284a2d
Canadian Press, August 24, 2004
ST-CONSTANT, Que. - Two homes and a boat were destroyed by fire early Tuesday after police said Molotov cocktails were thrown in the boat. [. . . . ]
"Canada has nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to Olympic performances."
Keep Olympians off further dole -- Other policies needed to support athletes
http://
www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/
news/story.html?id=0b9183de-21
40-4a44-9e6b-bb31ace6e538
Diane Francis, Financial Post, August 24, 2004
[. . . . ] For instance, why shouldn't anyone, parent or otherwise, be able to deduct from their income taxes their financial support for an officially recognized, world-class athlete?
Likewise, corporations willing to subsidize such athletes directly should be allowed to do so. [. . . . ]
Former Liberian leader sold conflict diamonds to al-Qaeda -- report
http://
www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/
news/story.html?id=8ec670
d5-6731-442a-aecd-44aa54b4faf1
Lauren Gelfand, Agence France-Presse, August 24, 2004
DAKAR - Former Liberian president Charles Taylor sold conflict diamonds to known al-Qaeda operatives that may have been used to finance the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, according to a confidential report from the UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone.
"It is clear that al-Qaeda had been in West Africa since September, 1998, and maintained a continuous presence in the area through 2002," says the document, produced by the office of prosecutor David Crane.
[. . . . ] Mr. Taylor, who has so far eluded trial on charges he aided a rebellion against the government of Sierra Leone in 1991, is at the centre of the intricate relationship between al-Qaeda and Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front rebels.
According to U.S. officials quoted this month in the Boston Globe, Mr. Taylor extorted protection money from al-Qaeda operatives, among them Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national who was arrested last month in Pakistan. [. . . . ]
List of Articles:
* Bud: The threat to Canada stares us in the face, but we are wilfully blinded to it
* 'Dirty' Bomb's Impact Studied -- There are lots of holes to plug
* Nuclear materials pose terror risk, expert says -- "Saudi al Qaeda activist Adnan al Shukrijumah suspected of Mexican connections is subject of search. DEBKA-Net-Weekly first exposed al Shukrijumah on Nov. 7, 2003 as sought by US and Canadian authorities of filching radioactive material from McMaster University for assembling a dirty bomb."
* Terrorists: Saudi Canadian al Qaeda activist Adnan al Shukrijumah, Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed who took part in the deadly assault on an El Al passenger plane in Athens in 1968 -- and those who expedite their efforts
* Adnan al Shukrijumah
* Link: FBI Seeking Information -- Adnan G. El Shukrijumah -- $5 MILLION reward! -- may be using a Canadian, Guyanese, Trinidadian or Saudi passport
* Link: Transcript of Adnan G. El Shukrijumah Video -- He gives a university presentation in English
* Then, there is this classic! Note that his lawyer (then), Marlys Edwardh, is one of the lawyers whose name is being mentioned as a potential Supreme Court of Canada Justice -- Stay tuned! (From what I have read, she seems to be of a lib/Lib bent -- a terrorist's dream SCOC justice, one who will protect "rights" -- theirs? or ours?)
* Title: From Far and Wide, Oh Canada, Terrorist Killers Come to Thee: A Review of Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism Around the World, by Stewart Bell -- Note mention of Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed -- and Jean Chretien's contribution to Canada's security -- to which I may have alluded previously
* Al Qaida said to recruit in Latin America -- mention of Honduras, Shukrijumah and Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed wading into the US from Mexico with a South African passport
* All is well in Canada, this "best of all possible worlds"? RCMP left in the dark about missing container -- Halifax, in Canada's Maritimes
* Highlights: Organized Crime at Marine Ports, Airports and Land Border Areas
* Ah, the "business investors" Canada needs! -- " It was a Chinese gentleman that I had met … (who) told me very early on nobody in Chinese culture does anything for nothing. " -- "according to former Royal Hong Kong Police Chief Detective Inspector Sandy Boucher, Canada was also gaining a reputation in organized crime circles as a haven for those mixed up in shady dealings. -- “We knew that many of our organized crime figures -- people with records, people without records but serious criminals – were looking to move to Canada,”
* Videos:
W-FIVE: Corruption and cover up, part one 10:46 min.
http://
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/
story/CTVNews/1080323626556_1/?hub=WFive#
W-FIVE: Corruption and cover up, part two 9:55 min.
http://
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/
CTVNews/1080323626556_1/?hub=WFive#
* ASIAN ORGANIZED CRIME AND TERRORIST ACTIVITY IN CANADA, 1999-2002, A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with the United States Government, July 2003
http://
www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/
AsianOrgCrime_Canada.pdf
Bud: The threat to Canada stares us in the face, but we are wilfully blinded to it
Evidence continues to mount that we are harbouring deadly Islamic terrorists in our midst, but the government's response to it is beyond weak-kneed. The Americans have a $5 million reward--yes, that is $5 MILLION--on one of our Muslim students from McMaster University for stealing radio-active material from its research labs. The response from Canadian media has been almost non-existent, but the Canadian Islamic Congress and their leftist sympathizers are adament that this is a witchhunt. This is the same crowd who refused--month after month--after the Sept. 11th atrocity to even admit that the perpetrators were Muslims, Islamist terrorists. Even after Ressam, Khadr and Jabarah were exposed, the vast number of Canadians have been led to believe that these were aberrations. The Liberal government and the NDP have formed a pact to obscure the real threat to Canada from these sleeper cells. With our government's policy of allowing people from terrorist-supporting countries to enter Canada -- to walk off a plane with no concrete proof of who they really are or where they came from, we are defenseless. Already, we have almost 40,000 deportees who have skipped being deported and the government won't even give the police their descriptions and names, because it might offend their privacy rights. Well, excuse me, but what rights of any kind do deportees--now fugitives--have? Chr***! Even our own bad guys don't have these 'rights'.
The only light at the end of this tunnel of criminal stupidity will come when Joe Canadian is attacked in a stunning manner. Then, their lamentations will reach the sky: "How did our supposed leaders allow this treachery?" No matter how the Liberals try to spin this, they are going down to total defeat. Unfortunately, their years of neglect ensure it will be too late to stop the inflitration that their years of loonie-left policies have inculcated. Police sources with massive amounts of supporting evidence of these dangers have alerted many of us to the growing threat and the government's lassitude in the face of it. Wouldn't want to lose that solid Muslim vote now, would we? Well, you folks just go on amusing yourselves to death. Go on buying into the fallacy that all cultures are benign and equal. Who wants to think about these gathering storms while "Canadian Idol" is starting a new season?
Bud -- A.K.A. Cassandra
Eds' comment: It is our government's leaders--with all their tentacles--that are wilfully blinded to the threats, Bud, not a goodly number of the rest of us. Our government is criminal in its negligence in funding our security. They will be sorry!
Lots of holes to plug: 'Dirty' Bomb's Impact Studied
The 9/11 Commission on intelligence is just a start. There's lots to do where the rubber meets the road. Taken separately, these are just scenarios; together, they could add up to the ingredients needed for an attack. Much of the material that follows is from a few months ago but assembled here, for effect. I believe these paint a picture that it would be wise for Canadians to study -- a North American version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream", stolen by masked gunmen in the last day or so from the major Vienna--or is it Munich?--art gallery.
'Dirty' Bomb's Impact Studied
http://
www.latimes.com/news/local/
la-me-terrorism22aug22,1,4561433,print.story
David Pierson, L A Times, August 22, 2004
A radioactive "dirty" bomb detonated at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach could cause a $34-billion loss to the nation's economy, according to researchers at a two-day symposium that focused on the economic impact of terrorism.
The scenario was one of many discussed by experts Saturday at the conference, which was hosted by USC's new Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events.
Researchers from about a dozen universities and think tanks debated the potential costs, including the effect a radiological attack would have on the nation's power grid, the impact on transportation if bridges in Seattle were destroyed and the progress of U.S. efforts to upgrade port security. [. . . . ]
"The Coast Guard has to learn new things it has never learned, like a live boarding of a hostile ship," Shatz said.
Clark Abt, who runs a social and economic policy research and consulting firm, said it was imperative that the United States pay for overseas scanners to detect nuclear weapons before they reach the U.S. coastline.
"The Coast Guard and Customs are used to drugs, . . . .
"Containers are missing [connecting with] sailings to be inspected," said White, who studied inspections at Singapore's port. "Ships don't wait for containers."
Nuclear materials pose terror risk, expert says -- "Saudi al Qaeda activist Adnan al Shukrijumah suspected of Mexican connections is subject of search. DEBKA-Net-Weekly first exposed al Shukrijumah on Nov. 7, 2003 as sought by US and Canadian authorities of filching radioactive material from McMaster University for assembling a dirty bomb."
Nuclear materials pose terror risk, expert says
http://
www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFree
Press/News/2004/08/21/594603.html
Aug. 21, 04, London Free Press/CP
TORONTO -- Terrorists would have easy pickings at hundreds of Ontario university labs and businesses with radioactive materials on hand, the Radiation Safety Institute of Canada says. The danger is materials could be placed on subways and in malls to spook the public, Fergal Nolan, chief executive of the Toronto-based institute, told a legislative committee updating Ontario's Emergency Management Act.
[. . . . ] Nolan said Ontario companies are among the world's biggest manufacturers of radioactive materials for medical use -- chemicals, gases and devices that in the wrong hands, could cause harm.
[. . . . ] The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is doing safety audits at 40 universities because "there is a lot of concern," Nolan added.
Terrorists: Saudi Canadian al Qaeda activist Adnan al Shukrijumah, Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed who took part in the deadly assault on an El Al passenger plane in Athens in 1968 -- and those who expedite their efforts
Adnan al Shukrijumah
Saudi al Qaeda activist Adnan al Shukrijumah suspected of Mexican connections is the subject of an FBI search. Debka-Net-Weekly
http://debka.com/
first exposed al Shukrijumah on Nov. 7, 2003 as sought by US and Canadian authorities of filching radioactive material from McMaster University for assembling a dirty bomb. There is more on Adnan G. El Shukrijumah if you scroll down further, along with others.
"Saudi al Qaeda activist Adnan al Shukrijumah suspected of Mexican connections is subject of search. DEBKA-Net-Weekly first exposed al Shukrijumah on Nov. 7, 2003 as sought by US and Canadian authorities of filching radioactive material from McMaster University for assembling a dirty bomb."
There is much more information but I am simply pressed for time. Please look up these links and read carefully.
FBI: Seeking Information: Adnan G. El Shukrijumah -- $5 MILLION reward! -- may be using a Canadian, Guyanese, Trinidadian or Saudi passport
http://www.fbi.gov/terrorinfo/adnan.htm
Transcript of Adnan G. El Shukrijumah Video -- He gives a university presentation in English
http://
www.fbi.gov/terrorinfo/adnan-text.htm
Then, there is this classic! Note that his lawyer (then), Marlys Edwardh, is one of the lawyers whose name is being mentioned as a potential Supreme Court of Canada Justice -- Stay tuned!
Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed who took part in the deadly assault on an El Al passenger plane in Athens in 1968
http://www.google.ca/
search?q=cache:6CHZNo4oik8J:www.global-econ
omics.ca/coldterror.htm+Mo
hammed+issa+mohammed&hl=en
This came from a Toronto Star article, Toronto, Ont., Jan 23, 1988. pg. A.12
This guy's been in Canada since 1987 and they can't get him out. That's why Canada is deemed a safe haven for terrorists and crooks. He was last living in the Hamilton area. His lawyer at the time in 1988 is the same one representing Arar at the Arar inquiry. What a coincidence! -- WHO IS PAYING FOR EXPENSIVE LAWYERS anyway? Follow the money!
Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed who took part in the deadly assault on an El Al passenger plane in Athens in 1968; . . . .
Mohammad was convicted in Greece in 1970 for the 1968 attack on an El Al jetliner in Athens, in which an Israeli man was killed. He was released and deported to Lebanon a year later as part of a hostage exchange.
Using a false name, Mohammad gained landed immigrant status in Canada a year ago, and although immigration officials were alerted to his true identity before he arrived, on Feb. 26, 1987, he slipped through security at Pearson International Airport in Toronto.
Title: From Far and Wide, Oh Canada, Terrorist Killers Come to Thee: A Review of Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism Around the World, by Stewart Bell -- Note mention of Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed -- and Jean Chretien's contribution to Canada's security -- to which I may have alluded previously
Google cache of Title: From Far and Wide, Oh Canada, Terrorist Killers Come to Thee: A Review of Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism Around the World, by Stewart Bell
http://
www.global-economics.ca/coldterror.htm
The Globe and Mail Book Review, April 10, 2004. To link to or bookmark this page, use this url
http://
www.google.com/search?q=cache:6CHZNo4oik8J:www.global-economics.ca/coldterrohttp://www.goog
le.car.htm+Mohammed+issa+mohammed&hl=en
Canadians will be madder than hell after they read Stewart Bell's shocking account of how the Canadian Government has allowed Sihk, Tamil and Islamic terrorists to come into our home and turn it into a safe house for international terror.
Bell, who writes for the National Post and is Canada's leading reporter on national security and terrorism, has taken on the courageous task of warning Canadians about the terrorists living amongst us. This has stirred up a real hornets' nest. He has been threatened by many who don't like his message and has been branded as anti-Islamic by the Canadian Islamic Congress. Such is the fate of those who say what others are afraid to say.
Note, I have mentioned CIC and its President, Mr. El Masry of the University of Waterloo Computer Science department, before. Check my archives for his views of interest to Canadians and the direction of his influence.
Bell's litany of terrorist incidents around the world involving Canadian terrorists is long enough to qualify Canada for membership in the Axis of Evil. The most infamous are: the 1985 Air India bombing; the 1991 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi; the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing in New York; the 1993 assassination of Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa; the 1995 blast at the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad; the murder of 58 tourists in Egypt in 1997; the 1997 truck explosion in Sri Lanka that killed 100; the bloody Bali night club bombings in 2002; and the 2003 attack on the housing compound in Riyadh.
Bell provides many examples of terrorists who took advantage of liberal immigration and refugee policies to enter Canada. A few of the most notorious bogus refugees include: Manickavasagam Suresh, the Canadian leader of the Tamil Tigers; Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed who took part in the deadly assault on an El Al passenger plane in Athens in 1968; Essam Marzouk, who trained the bombers of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; and Ahmed Ressam, the wannabe Millennium LA airport bomber, who was caught at the Port Angeles border trying to sneak into the U.S. with a carload of explosives.
[. . . . ] According to Bell's diagnosis of the problem, "CSIS and the RCMP have been effective at monitoring the activities of terrorist groups operating in Canada, but they have been unable to put them out of business, in large part because their political masters have not given them the tools they need to do so." . . . .
Bell names the prominent politicians who he feels have contributed to the terrorist problem. He contends that former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien never really recognized the seriousness of the terrorist threat. The best evidence of Prime Minister Chrétien naivety was the way he was so easily manipulated into putting in a good word with Pakistan Prime Minister Bhutto to get Ahmed Khadr released from prison in Pakistan.
While the Sikh and Tamil homeland wars are troubling enough, Bell worries most about al-Qaeda-style radical Islam because it preaches and practices "violence without limits" and "serves not only a strategic purpose, but fulfills the will of God." To Islamic terrorists, chemical, nuclear and biological weapons are "the bigger, the better." He observes that "their hatred arises from centuries-old grievances and their aim is long term: a world under the rule of Islam, the one true faith." Scary!
Al Qaida said to recruit in Latin America -- mention of Honduras, Shukrijumah and Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed who was caught wading into the US from Mexico carrying a South African passport
AL-QAIDA SAID TO RECRUIT IN LATIN AMERICA
http://
www.kfmb.com/topstory28454.html
(08-21-2004) - Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert as evidence grows that al-Qaida members are traveling in the region and looking for recruits to carry out attacks in Latin America - the potential last frontier for international terrorism.
The territory could be a perfect staging ground for Osama bin Laden's militants, with homegrown rebel groups, drug and people smugglers, and corrupt governments. U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border, and they have been paying closer attention as the number of terror-related incidents has increased since last year.
The strongest possible al-Qaida link is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a 29-year-old Saudi pilot suspected of being a terrorist cell leader. The FBI issued a border-wide alert earlier this month for Shukrijumah, saying he may try to cross into Arizona or Texas.
In June, Honduran officials said Shukrijumah was spotted earlier this year at an Internet cafe in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Panamanian officials say the pilot and alleged bombmaker passed through their country before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in May singled out Shukrijumah as one of seven especially dangerous al-Qaida-linked terror figures wanted by the government, which fears a new al-Qaida attack. A $5 million reward is posted for information leading to his capture.
[. . . . ] Officials worry the Panama Canal could be a likely target. In 2003, boats making more than 13,000 trips through the waterway carried about 188 million tons of cargo.
It might be useful to check who controls security for all the ships that pass through the portals at either end of the Panama Canal. The use of these ports has been won by one of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing's companies, as I have mentioned before. (Check Mar. 1, 04 post.)
Earlier this month, the United States and seven Latin American countries - including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru and Panama - carried out a weeklong anti-terror exercise aimed at protecting the canal.
In South America, U.S. officials have long suspected Paraguay's border with Brazil and Argentina as an area for Islamic terrorist fund-raising. Much of the focus has fallen on the Muslim community that sprouted during the 1970s, and authorities believe as much as $100 million a year flows out of the region, with large portions diverted to Islamic militants linked to Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The more immediate concern is Mexico, which shares a porous, 2,000-mile border with the United States and is the home to widespread organized crime.
[. . . . ] Concerns increased this summer about whether Mexico was doing enough to screen international visitors after a 48-year-old South African woman arrived in Mexico with a passport that was missing several pages and then waded across the Rio Grande into Texas.
Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed was arrested July 19 while trying to board a flight in McAllen, Texas. She pleaded innocent Friday to immigration violations and was under investigation for links to terrorist activities or groups. Court testimony indicated she traveled from Johannesburg on July 8, via Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to London, then to Mexico City on or about July 14. The countries she traveled through do not require South Africans to have visas.
All is well in this "best of all possible worlds"? RCMP left in the dark about missing container -- Halifax, in Canada's Maritimes
RCMP left in the dark about missing container
http://
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/
2004/08/22/597521-cp.html
HALIFAX (CP) - It took three days for Canada's national police force to be told that a suspicious shipping container was missing from a Halifax pier last spring.
The theft of the boxcar-size crate in mid-April and the delay in reporting it initially sent shivers through senior ranks of the RCMP, Canada's lead federal agency in the war on terrorism.
The delay "was more than enough time" for a potential terrorist to drive the container up to -and possibly over -the U.S. border, said a senior RCMP source, who spoke to The Canadian Press on the condition of anonymity.
Compounding the problem, customs officers with the Canada Border Services Agency couldn't say exactly when the huge, metal container was stolen -only that the theft happened some time between April 10 and April 20.
The glaring security lapse also came at a time when U.S. security officials were concerned about a possible terrorist attack in the weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention in July.
The container has yet to be found. [. . . . ]
"We found out about it through the back door," the source said. Given the heightened state of security at Canada's ports, "we would have expected (customs) to notify us the moment it was (reported) missing."
Senior Mounties were furious because a special task force that included the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency, military police and Halifax Regional Police was set up at the port in 2003 to prevent this kind of oversight.
How could anyone commandeer a CRANE which would be necessary for this -- unless some people working at or allowed to enter the environs of the port were in cahoots? Answer that, our lax government. And Anne McLellan still thinks we have no terrorist problem here? It may not be terrorist-related, but, this is just a sample of what is possible, Anne.
Organized Crime at Marine Ports, Airports and Land Border Areas
http://
www.cisc.gc.ca/AnnualReport
2004/Cisc2004/ports2004.html
Highlights
* Organized crime exploits marine ports, airports and land border areas to smuggle contraband and people into Canada.
* In some instances, the exploitation of marine ports and airports by organized crime involves either the corruption of existing employees or the placement of criminal associates into the port work forces to facilitate criminal activities.
[. . . . ] In the Atlantic provinces, the Ports of Saint John and Halifax have been connected in the past to smuggling attempts.
[. . . . ] Outlook
* Due to the large volume of commercial traffic, the major container ports of Canada remain vulnerable as conduits for contraband entering Canada; in some instances criminal elements influencing or operating within the ports will aid in the smuggling.
* Canada’s airports will continue to remain vulnerable to criminal exploitation and infiltration particularly at the major international airports that receive frequent flights from either source or transit countries for various types of contraband, such as illicit drugs.
* Organized crime will continue to exploit both the large volume of land commercial and traveler movement between the U.S. and Canada to smuggle commodities, currency and people in both directions. As well, organized crime will exploit the less-monitored areas between the designated customs ports of entry.
You are careless of your own safety if you do not familiarize yourself with all of these reports. See posts Aug. 22 and 23, 04 for the links.
Ah, the "business investors" Canada needs! -- " It was a Chinese gentleman that I had met … (who) told me very early on nobody in Chinese culture does anything for nothing. " -- "according to former Royal Hong Kong Police Chief Detective Inspector Sandy Boucher, Canada was also gaining a reputation in organized crime circles as a haven for those mixed up in shady dealings. -- “We knew that many of our organized crime figures -- people with records, people without records but serious criminals – were looking to move to Canada,”
Since RCMP Cpl Read was sacked, what's been done to protect Canadians--besides writing reports year after year? Look at the background to his story and events in Hong Kong.
Corruption and cover up
http://
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/
story/CTVNews/1080323626556_1/?hub=WFive
CTV.ca News Staff, March 27, 2004
In the 1990s, before Hong Kong was reverted from British to Chinese control, millions of residents were looking to relocate. . . .
One such immigrant was Lee Chau Ping, a notorious drug trafficker who is known as the Ice Queen. In 1992, after police raided her labs and one of her safe houses, the Ice Queen got on a plane headed for Canada. Not thinking that the Canadian government would let her stay, [former Royal Hong Kong Police Chief Detective Inspector Sandy Boucher] assumed the Ice Queen had headed oversees to wait for the heat on her gang to die down a little. So he was shocked when an RCMP officer told him she had been granted landed immigrant status.
“I said, ‘It can’t be – she’s got a criminal record. I know she’s known to Canadian authorities.’”
But apparently, Lee Chau Ping – who posed as a businesswoman ready to invest $170,000 in a Chicken Delight franchise in a tiny town in northern Saskatchewan – had slipped under the radar. And Brian McAdam, the immigration control officer at the High Commission in Hong Kong, soon learned that other criminals had too.
“I discovered that these Triad people (members of secret Chinese organized crime fraternities that have ties to members of the Hong Kong business community) were regulars at getting visas to visit their families or go on holidays as the case may be, and yet clearly on the file was intelligence information identifying who they were.”
McAdam was puzzled as to how known criminals were able to get into Canada, but a little bit of digging turned up connections between the Triad members and officials working inside the Canadian embassy. In fact, according to McAdam, High Commission staff was on the receiving end of expensive gifts, cocktail parties, yacht trips and visits to the casinos in Macau. [well known for gambling--sorry, that's "gaming", isn't it?]
[. . . . ] The man told W-FIVE that the corruption at the High Commission was a “fairly open secret” among Hong Kong’s middle class. He said Triad members, including “famous businessmen, solicitors, legislators (and) accountants” used to invite embassy staff to the races and lavish parties.
[. . . . ] The source told W-FIVE he was never aware of the exact price for a Canadian visa, but he estimated the entry cost for a Triad member’s family would be in the neighbourhood of $500,000 HK. And he said the corruption was far and wide within the embassy. “Without help from insiders it won’t work. … It takes more than one person in the High Commission to get the job done, not just one single person – there must be big, big scandal behind it all.”
[. . . . several names mentioned here, including RCMP Cpl. Robert Read -- check Google for him; you'll learn much more. ]
And Read wasn’t the only member of the RCMP to be shut down by the force. In 1993, Staff Sergeant Jim Puchniak requested permission to go to Hong Kong to conduct a full investigation, but he was told by the RCMP liason officer at the mission, Inspector Gary Lagamodiere, that doing so would upset the High Commissioner.
[. . . . ] But [RCMP Cpl.] Read appealed his dismissal, and in 2003, the RCMP’s External Review Committee issued a scathing indictment over the handling of the Hong Kong affair. In its decision the committee wrote the “the RCMP was walking on eggshells whenever it conducted an investigation into activities at a Canadian mission abroad and basically restricted to what the Department of Foreign Affairs was willing to allow it to investigate.
[. . . . ] While the report clearly vindicated Read, the RCMP has refused to reinstate him – a decision he is fighting in Federal Court. But because he never got the investigation he wanted into the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong, questions about the depth of the corruption and political interference there will probably never be answered. Both John Higgenbotham, the Canadian High Commissioner in Hong Kong from 1989 to 1994, and RCMP Superintendent Giuliano Zaccardelli – people who may be able to lend some perspective to the unanswered questions -- refused to be interviewed by W-FIVE. . . .
A Canadian High Commissioner and the head of our RCMP -- now, who did/do these people report to? Who had/has more clout? Who is/are their superior(s) in the chain of command? Who could/can shut down the needed investigation? Why won't the questions ever be answered? Would it get too close to "the top"? -- the top of what?
Videos:
W-FIVE: Corruption and cover up, part one 10:46 min.
http://
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/
story/CTVNews/1080323626556_1/?hub=WFive#
W-FIVE: Corruption and cover up, part two 9:55 min.
http://
www.ctv.ca/servlet/
ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/
1080323626556_1/?hub=WFive#
See this lengthy and informative US report, ASIAN ORGANIZED CRIME AND TERRORIST ACTIVITY IN CANADA, 1999-2002, A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with theUnited States Government, July 2003
http://
www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/
AsianOrgCrime_Canada.pdf
-- Researcher: Neil S. Helfand, Project Manager: David L. Osborne, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
If you start researching, you will find much more. It just takes time.
posted by News Junkie Canada at Tuesday, November 29, 2005
