6 ms·

Surveillance of reporter a 'serious attack on freedom of the press in Canada' (2016)

83 points by dmbche 3y ago

dmbche 3y ago
He was under 24 surveillance orders, for an investigation on police planting false evidence. His phone's location was shared, as well as the time and recipient/caller of all calls and texts. Journalists are protected in the canadian law and are not forced to share their sources, unless a court of law decides it's in the public interest (bit more to it than that, but that's the gist). The SPVM didn't care. Horryfing
- kevviiinn 3y ago
  Par for the course in most countries it seems. Including the US
  - pessimizer 3y ago
    It's a recent backslide in norms, pioneered by a Nobel Peace Price winner: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/spying-on-the-associated-press.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/spying-on-the-ass... > The Obama administration, which has a chilling zeal for investigating leaks and prosecuting leakers, has failed to offer a credible justification for secretly combing through the phone records of reporters and editors at The Associated Press in what looks like a fishing expedition for sources and an effort to frighten off whistle-blowers. > On Friday, Justice Department officials revealed that they had been going through The A.P.’s records for months. The dragnet covered work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 people at one of the oldest and most reputable news organizations. James Cole, a deputy attorney general, offered no further explanation on Tuesday, saying only that it was part of a “criminal investigation involving highly classified material” from early 2012.
    - dmbche 3y ago
      Was not aware of that - that's absolutely nuts. Thank you for the link - and on-topic username!
    - MichaelZuo 3y ago
      Did A.P. ever followup? It's hard to believe they just let it slide.
- hulitu 3y ago
  > Journalists are protected in the canadian law But Canada is a democracy so the law applies to fit the rullers. /s And look how good it scores on the Freedom of the press index.
aborsy 3y ago
The location data and call information is available to the cellular service provider and governments for anyone. In that sense, everyone is under surveillance. Anything more than that (like asking Apple for help, or getting into the phone)? He could enable locked down mode and end to end iCloud encryption. If the government still hacks the iPhone (probably using spyware bought from abroad), that’s concerning.
- dmbche 3y ago
  This story was made public in 2016, here's one from a 2022 I believe? They do use malware. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/29/canada-national-police-spyware-phones-00043092 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/29/canada-national-pol... It's just incredibly blatant diregard for canadian's rights that they were able to bug a journalist this way.
  - aborsy 3y ago
    Oh, sorry, I didn’t notice the date! The lockdown mode and e2e encryption were not available back then. I didn’t see mentions of Canadian police hacking into the phone. >> In fact, police obtained warrants to track his whereabouts using the GPS chip in his iPhone and obtain the identities of everyone he has spoken with and messaged. But, yeah, the politico link that you cited clearly mentions that the Canadian government is a user of the phone hacking tools.
    - dmbche 3y ago
      No you're right, they reportedly did not hack his phone to get the data - you're right! My comment was more to mention that if a journalist of that guy's standing (he's basically quebecs top columnist) was not encrypting his stuff, ans that the police got to his sources, basically no source is safe. I personally live with the acceptance that everything on my phone is public, and act accordingly, but I doubt most people reaching out to journalists-or even jouralista for that matter- have the same view. So sadly, in effect, everyone is under surveillance, even if it's supposed to not be the case under the law. It was also mentionned that rogue RCMP officers (FBI equivalent) spyied on a journalist without oversight - which rubs me the wrong way.
AHOHA 3y ago
Well, if you do anything that might piss off some of the big players, especially in Canada where only few families control everything, you should assume you are already under surveillance -directly or indirectly- and act upon it, even if it means to use a dumb phone, no clouds, no home assistance, and other usual measures.
- hammyhavoc 3y ago
  Not Canadian, my step-family are, but that's the first I've heard of that. Can you elaborate further?
throwawaycana 3y ago
[flagged]
- Incipient 3y ago
  If you block a major arterial road in China you'd either get gunned down where you stood, or arrested and never seen again. Incredible difference between the two. On the Canada issue, I personally don't think the truck drivers or the government response was reasonable.
  - coolhand2120 3y ago
    Having one's assets frozen in Canada for protesting is pretty much the economic equalilant of being gunned down. Blocking business as usual is pretty typical for protests. The insidious nature of the government's response is not.
    - fsociety 3y ago
      In one situation you don’t have access to your assets until they are unfrozen. In another you are dead. They don’t seem anywhere near equivalent.
      - coolhand2120 3y ago
        "economic equalilant" In this situation your bank account is dead.
exabrial 3y ago
The reporter was clearly thinking the wrong way. You can’t do that.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
(2016) Something new here? A number of stories about this 7 years ago
- dmbche 3y ago
  Had a hard time finding these when I posted - still have a hard time finding them - if you have any pertinent ones I'd be glad to look at them. Here is RCMP commenting on their use of malware to hack phones and rogue agents spying on journalists without supervision. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/29/canada-national-police-spyware-phones-00043092 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/29/canada-national-pol...

83 points by dmbche 3y ago

He was under 24 surveillance orders, for an investigation on police planting false evidence. His phone's location was shared, as well as the time and recipient/caller of all calls and texts. Journalists are protected in the canadian law and are not forced to share their sources, unless a court of law decides it's in the public interest (bit more to it than that, but that's the gist). The SPVM didn't care. Horryfing

kevviiinn 3y ago
Par for the course in most countries it seems. Including the US
- pessimizer 3y ago
  It's a recent backslide in norms, pioneered by a Nobel Peace Price winner: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/spying-on-the-associated-press.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/spying-on-the-ass... > The Obama administration, which has a chilling zeal for investigating leaks and prosecuting leakers, has failed to offer a credible justification for secretly combing through the phone records of reporters and editors at The Associated Press in what looks like a fishing expedition for sources and an effort to frighten off whistle-blowers. > On Friday, Justice Department officials revealed that they had been going through The A.P.’s records for months. The dragnet covered work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 people at one of the oldest and most reputable news organizations. James Cole, a deputy attorney general, offered no further explanation on Tuesday, saying only that it was part of a “criminal investigation involving highly classified material” from early 2012.
  - dmbche 3y ago
    Was not aware of that - that's absolutely nuts. Thank you for the link - and on-topic username!
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    Did A.P. ever followup? It's hard to believe they just let it slide.
hulitu 3y ago
> Journalists are protected in the canadian law But Canada is a democracy so the law applies to fit the rullers. /s And look how good it scores on the Freedom of the press index.

aborsy 3y ago

The location data and call information is available to the cellular service provider and governments for anyone. In that sense, everyone is under surveillance. Anything more than that (like asking Apple for help, or getting into the phone)? He could enable locked down mode and end to end iCloud encryption. If the government still hacks the iPhone (probably using spyware bought from abroad), that’s concerning.

dmbche 3y ago
This story was made public in 2016, here's one from a 2022 I believe? They do use malware. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/29/canada-national-police-spyware-phones-00043092 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/29/canada-national-pol... It's just incredibly blatant diregard for canadian's rights that they were able to bug a journalist this way.
- aborsy 3y ago
  Oh, sorry, I didn’t notice the date! The lockdown mode and e2e encryption were not available back then. I didn’t see mentions of Canadian police hacking into the phone. >> In fact, police obtained warrants to track his whereabouts using the GPS chip in his iPhone and obtain the identities of everyone he has spoken with and messaged. But, yeah, the politico link that you cited clearly mentions that the Canadian government is a user of the phone hacking tools.
  - dmbche 3y ago
    No you're right, they reportedly did not hack his phone to get the data - you're right! My comment was more to mention that if a journalist of that guy's standing (he's basically quebecs top columnist) was not encrypting his stuff, ans that the police got to his sources, basically no source is safe. I personally live with the acceptance that everything on my phone is public, and act accordingly, but I doubt most people reaching out to journalists-or even jouralista for that matter- have the same view. So sadly, in effect, everyone is under surveillance, even if it's supposed to not be the case under the law. It was also mentionned that rogue RCMP officers (FBI equivalent) spyied on a journalist without oversight - which rubs me the wrong way.

AHOHA 3y ago

Well, if you do anything that might piss off some of the big players, especially in Canada where only few families control everything, you should assume you are already under surveillance -directly or indirectly- and act upon it, even if it means to use a dumb phone, no clouds, no home assistance, and other usual measures.

hammyhavoc 3y ago
Not Canadian, my step-family are, but that's the first I've heard of that. Can you elaborate further?

throwawaycana 3y ago

[flagged]

Incipient 3y ago
If you block a major arterial road in China you'd either get gunned down where you stood, or arrested and never seen again. Incredible difference between the two. On the Canada issue, I personally don't think the truck drivers or the government response was reasonable.
- coolhand2120 3y ago
  Having one's assets frozen in Canada for protesting is pretty much the economic equalilant of being gunned down. Blocking business as usual is pretty typical for protests. The insidious nature of the government's response is not.
  - fsociety 3y ago
    In one situation you don’t have access to your assets until they are unfrozen. In another you are dead. They don’t seem anywhere near equivalent.
    - coolhand2120 3y ago
      "economic equalilant" In this situation your bank account is dead.

exabrial 3y ago

The reporter was clearly thinking the wrong way. You can’t do that.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

(2016) Something new here? A number of stories about this 7 years ago

dmbche 3y ago
Had a hard time finding these when I posted - still have a hard time finding them - if you have any pertinent ones I'd be glad to look at them. Here is RCMP commenting on their use of malware to hack phones and rogue agents spying on journalists without supervision. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/29/canada-national-police-spyware-phones-00043092 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/29/canada-national-pol...