Chinese diaspora groups are expressing concerns about the Carney government's confidential memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Communisyt China on security and law enforcement, and asking for it to be made public to calm fears in their communities. .
February 13, 2027 - "Ten Hong Kong democracy activist groups are voicing concern about Ottawa’s new deal with Beijing on law enforcement cooperation, saying the federal government’s lack of transparency on the agreement has intensified the fears of Hong Kong diaspora communities. UK-based Hong Kong Watch, [and] nine other Hong Kong diaspora community groups, are expressing 'serious concern' about the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Ottawa and Beijing have signed to enhance cooperation in crime-fighting efforts between the RCMP and China’s ministry of public security.
"The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Jan. 16 that Canada and China will pursue 'pragmatic and constructive engagement' in public safety and security.... The MOU on police cooperation was one of several agreements Ottawa and Beijing signed during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to China in January. Although Ottawa has made other MOUs public, the agreement on public safety cooperation has been kept confidential so far.
"The diaspora community groups said in their statement that because the government has not explained what safeguards, limitations, or oversight mechanisms are in place regarding the agreement, the lack of transparency 'has intensified fears' that cooperation between Ottawa and Beijing’s law enforcement agencies on crime 'could, intentionally or unintentionally, expose individuals or community networks to harm'....
"The groups noted that these fears could lead diaspora communities to withdraw from public life, undermining the public’s trust and safety. They also said trust between law enforcement and diaspora communities is 'essential,' because without it, communities may be hesitant to engage with authorities or report crimes....
"Hong Kong Watch and the other nine organizations are urging Ottawa to provide 'full transparency' on the MOU, including the scope, safeguards, and limitations of the agreement. The groups are also calling on lawmakers and media organizations 'to recognize the fear experienced by Hong Kong diaspora communities worldwide and to treat transnational repression as a serious and growing global concern requiring vigilance, accountability, and clear protections.'”
"The Conservatives have requested that Ottawa provide the party with a copy of the agreement on police cooperation, saying such agreements should be subject to parliamentary scrutiny if they are being kept confidential.... The Tories have also voiced concern about the MOU itself, saying China poses a security threat to Canada. Carney also expressed concern about China during the 2025 election campaign, calling it the top national security threat."
January 16, 2026 - "In a more divided and uncertain world, Canada is ... working with urgency and determination to diversify our trade partnerships and catalyse massive new levels of investment. As the world’s second-largest economy, China presents enormous opportunities for Canada in this mission.
"To forge a new Canada-China partnership, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, visited Beijing, the People’s Republic of China ... the first visit to China by a Canadian Prime Minister since [Justin Trudeau in] 2017. In Beijing, Prime Minister Carney met with the President of China, Xi Jinping, the Premier of China, Li Qiang, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, Zhao Leji. After their meeting, Prime Minister Carney and President Xi released a joint statement outlining the pillars of Canada and China’s new strategic partnership.
"Central to this new partnership is an agreement to collaborate in energy, clean technology, and climate competitiveness.... Canada will allow up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles (EV) into the Canadian market, with the most-favoured-nation tariff rate of 6.1%.... It is expected that within three years, this agreement will drive considerable new Chinese joint-venture investment in Canada with trusted partners to protect and create new auto manufacturing careers for Canadian workers, and ensure a robust build-out of Canada’s EV supply chain. With this agreement, it is also anticipated that, in five years, more than 50% of these vehicles will be affordable EVs with an import price of less than $35,000, creating new lower-cost options for Canadian consumers.
"Agri-food and trade are foundations of the longstanding relationship between Canada and China – and China continues to be our second-largest export market. To renew and strengthen that relationship, Prime Minister Carney and President Xi secured a preliminary agreement-in-principle with landmark measures to remove trade barriers and reduce tariffs:
By March 1, 2026, Canada expects that China will lower tariffs on Canadian canola seed to a combined rate of approximately 15% ... a significant drop from current combined tariff levels of approximately 85%.
Canada expects that Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crabs, and peas will not be subject to relevant anti-discrimination tariffs from March 1, 2026, until at least the end of this year....
"Finally, to build on this momentum, Canada has set an ambitious goal to increase exports to China by 50% by 2030. To achieve this outcome, Prime Minister Carney and President Xi discussed increasing two-way investment in clean energy and technology, agri-food, wood products, and other sectors.
"Canada and China are both strong advocates of multilateralism. As a key pillar of this partnership, we will deepen our engagement on improved global governance. We will collaborate closely in key areas of shared interest, including climate competitiveness and financial and macroeconomic stability. Canada looks forward to contributing to China’s 2026 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Presidency and appreciates China’s support for Canada’s bid to host the 2029 Summit.
"Canada and China will also pursue pragmatic and constructive engagement in public safety and security. Our law enforcement agencies will increase cooperation to better combat narcotics trafficking, transnational and cybercrime, synthetic drugs and money laundering – and create safer communities for people in both of our countries.
"They will also explore further opportunities for cultural exchanges and partnerships, including supporting museums, digital content creators, visual artists – to increase travel exchanges and cultural ties. Prime Minister Carney welcomed the agreement between Destination Canada and China Media Group to facilitate further outbound tourism to Canada, especially as we prepare to co-host the FIFA World Cup 26™. The Prime Minister welcomed President Xi’s commitment to introducing visa-free access for Canadians travelling to China.
"The Prime Minister’s visit to Beijing was the culmination of constructive, pragmatic engagement with the Chinese government over many months by the Prime Minister, members of his cabinet and caucus, and other officials. The Prime Minister looks forward to returning to China for the 2026 APEC Leaders’ Summit."
August 9. 2024 - "The widespread claims that Britain has a problem with ‘two-tier policing’ have clearly touched a nerve with the establishment. Earlier this week, ... Mark Rowley, Britain’s most-senior police officer, ... issued a statement claiming that it is ‘complete nonsense’ that police would treat anyone differently according to their race, religion or political leanings.... Almost every major media outlet has carried an article purporting to ‘fact-check’ and ‘debunk’ the claims around two-tier policing.... In some cases, the very same outlets that, until now, have been running near weekly articles on how the police are institutionally or structurally racist, riddled with some ‘-ism’ or ‘-phobia’, proclaim that any suggestion of unfairness in policing is preposterous....
"It is certainly true that some on the online right are overegging the extent of two-tier policing.... But there are some like-for-like comparisons we can make that really do illustrate the problem.... Just two weeks before the race riot in Southport, riots broke out in Harehills, a diverse suburb of Leeds. This was sparked when social services attempted to take a Roma child into care. Yet while the police were out in force in Southport and in other English towns over the past two weeks, in Harehills, the police simply ran away. Rioters then overturned a police car, set fire to a bus and wreaked havoc for the rest of the evening. The police essentially allowed the rioters to tire themselves out... Strikingly, the day after the Harehills unrest, Leeds City Council issued a joint statement with ‘representatives of the Roma community’ praising that community’s contribution to the ‘diversity and richness’ of the area. Might this be a hint that the identity of those rioters was at the forefront of the minds of the authorities?
"What the deniers of two-tier policing miss is that differential treatment for different ethnic groups is an unseemly, but inevitable outgrowth of the system of multiculturalism. From the late 1980s onwards, the British state has increasingly related to its ethnic-minority subjects via self-appointed ‘community leaders’ who, in turn, can have a great deal of influence over police and local-authority decision-making. (Some on the right miss the significance of this, too, by mistaking this institutional set-up for police ‘prejudice’ against whites.)
"We saw this system plainly in action in Birmingham earlier this week, when masked Muslim men were allowed to roam around Bordesley Green with weapons. An LBC journalist was chased away with a metal poll. A Sky News broadcast van had its tires stabbed at. A man was badly beaten outside a pub, leaving him with a lacerated liver. The police knew that large crowds were planning to gather here but they decided not to show up.
"The next day, Emlyn Richards of West Midlands Police explained why. Speaking to Sky News, he said that his officers had met with ‘community leaders’ to ‘understand the style of policing we needed to deliver’. The ‘community’ (ie, Birmingham’s Muslims) ‘were trying to make sure that [this gathering] was policed within themselves’. So that’s okay, then? Some communities are free to ‘police themselves’ and can decide how certain men with weapons should be policed? That sounds an awful lot like two-tier policing to me.
"Perhaps the most egregious examples of two-tier policing relate to the ‘pro-Palestine’ marches that have been held almost weekly since 7 October last year. The Metropolitan Police – usually keen to bundle Londoners into a van for using offensive language – haven’t just been turning a blind eye to much of the rank anti-Semitism on the streets.... Back in October, members of Hizb ut-Tahrir – now a proscribed terror organisation – gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in London screaming ‘jihad, jihad, jihad’ and calling for ‘Muslim armies’ to invade Israel. In response, the Met put out an extraordinary tweet trying to reassure the public that jihad ‘has multiple meanings’, while chiding those who associate it ‘with terrorism’. In this instance, the police didn’t just turn a blind eye to this call for terroristic violence and war, they were effectively doing the Islamists’ PR for them.
"Meanwhile, the Met seem to have a zero-tolerance approach towards anything that might cause offence to Islamists and anti-Semites. Niyak Ghorbani, an exiled Iranian dissident, has been arrested on multiple occasions for holding up a sign that accurately describes Hamas – the anti-Semitic terror group behind the 7 October massacre – as ‘terrorists’.... Similarly, last year, volunteers for the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism were threatened with arrest for a ‘breach of the peace’ over a mobile billboard displaying images of the children who had been kidnapped by Hamas. Police officers have even been photographed tearing down posters of Israeli hostages. The excuse for this anti-Semitic vandalism? To calm ‘community tensions’....
"[N]one of these obvious and unambiguous examples of policing double standards feature in the many media ‘debunkings’ of the ‘two-tier-policing myth’. Not for the first time, the ‘fact-checkers’ are less interested in establishing the truth than in defending the establishment narrative. Let’s be frank, two-tier policing is not only real – it is also impossible for any honest person to ignore."
Protest organizers have accused Toronto police of trying "to criminalize and intimidate pro-Palestinian protesters off the streets," calling for an independent civilian investigation and for the police to be defunded.
April 1, 2024 - "Organizers of a pro-Palestinian rally in Toronto are calling for an 'independent civilian investigation' into what they allege was police brutality at a demonstration this past weekend. The demonstration, which occurred downtown on Saturday evening, led to three protesters being charged.... [P]olice alleged that ... protesters 'became aggressive and assaultive' toward officers.... But at a news conference on Monday morning, the organizers of the rally accused the officers of using excessive force in their interactions with protesters.
"'In the last two weeks we have seen dramatic escalations and violence at the hands of the Toronto Police Service. These escalations are in an attempt to criminalize and intimidate pro-Palestinian protesters off the streets,' Dalia Awwad, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement – Toronto, told reporters. 'We are here today reaffirming our calls to defund the police because the police do not keep us safe… We are also calling for an independent civilian investigation of what took place and what’s more, we are affirming that these are the people’s streets and we will continue to come out and we will continue to mobilize.' The Palestinian Youth Movement – Toronto also shared videos of the demonstration on social media, where officers can be seen pushing protesters.
"In a statement released over the weekend, the Toronto Police Service said ... that their presence this weekend is consistent with what they have done with past demonstrations, adding the Mounted Unit was on standby for crowd control. 'The fundamental difference lies in demonstrators’ refusal to adhere to police directives despite clear forewarning,' Const. Stephanie Sayer wrote. A spokesperson for Toronto police told CP24 on Sunday that they did not receive any reports of injuries at the demonstration but added that formal complaints can be made through the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD)."
April 10, 2024 - "Mayor Olivia Chow says she won’t condemn six councillors who criticized the Toronto Police Service’s handling of a recent pro-Hamas rally. Neither will the six councillors who signed the letter answer questions put to them by The Toronto Sun, detailing the links between the groups organizing the protests and support for terrorism.... On Monday, I wrote to Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik, and Councillors Gord Perks, Aljandro Bravo, Paula Fletcher, Amber Morley and Lily Cheng, and presented them with information about Samidoun and the Palestinian Youth Movement, two of the main organizers of the rallies ... presenting the six councillors with details of the ties between these groups and banned terrorist groups in Canada....
"Samidoun is a group which shows up at protests across Toronto with a large banner reading 'Long Live the Resistance.' The banner features an image of an AK-47 rifle firing bullets, with the butt of the rifle painted as the Palestinian flag.... The group’s Canadian-based international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, states explicitly that she supports Palestinian armed resistance in all forms and encourages everyone else to do the same. Samidoun has direct ties, visible on their website, to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group listed as a terrorist entity by the Government of Canada since 2003....
"The Palestinian Youth Movement has spent years promoting members of Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other terrorist groups as heroes. Immediately after the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas, the PYM began organizing rallies in support of 'the resistance,' including here in Toronto. Shatha Mahmoud, an organizer with PYM Toronto, gave an interview saying resistance is justified days after the brutal attack Hamas launched on Israel.
"After presenting the information to the councillors, I asked them if they supported Samidoun or the Palestinian Youth Movement, or if allowing groups that endorse banned terrorist groups to march through our streets is a good idea. I asked the councillors if they would denounce the groups for their support of terrorist organizations.... No response....
"We should be into condemning and distancing ourselves from groups that support, embrace and rejoice in terrorist attacks like Samidoun and the Palestinian Youth Movement have done. These are not groups that councillors or any elected official should be supporting in any way or be seen next to. Nor should these groups be given free rein on our streets."
April 5, 2024 - " Toronto Police have warned pro-Palestinian protesters to behave, saying agitators are escalating tensions on Toronto streets in the wake of multiple arrests at a downtown demonstration last Saturday.
"Police have said that, during Saturday’s protest, they seized a truck to lay a charge of stunt driving, and that protesters then 'became aggressive and assaultive' toward officers. They said one woman threw horse manure at officers while another 'intentionally used a flagpole to "spear" at an officer.' Organizers of the rally later accused the officers of using excessive force.
"Lauren Pogue, deputy chief of Community Safety Command, told a news conference at police headquarters on Friday that two people were arrested Saturday for assaulting police officers with weapons, and a third arrest was made this week for spitting on an officer, while a fourth person was being sought for striking a police horse.
"Pogue said police have not changed the way they are responding to protests, but that they will not hesitate to respond to violence directed against their officers.
"'If they’re going to break the law, if they’re going to assault our police officers or assault our police horses, there will be consequences and people will be arrested,' she said.
"She also said police were aware of a number of 'agitators' who were present at multiple demonstrations in Toronto and who were stirring up violence."
Pennsylvania state police have reached a settlement with a woman who says she underwent an unnecessary and humiliating strip-search after she was pulled over for a minor traffic violation.
February 28, 2024 - "Pennsylvania police officers have reached a settlement with a woman who says she underwent an unnecessary and humiliating strip-search after she was pulled over for a minor traffic violation.
"According to a lawsuit filed in 2021, Holly Elish was traveling through Bentlyville, Pennsylvania, on her way home from work when she was pulled over by [state trooper] Brian Rousseau. When Rousseau pulled Elish over, he quickly asked for consent to search her vehicle, which Elish denied. According to the lawsuit, Rousseau responded that 'he had the right to search her vehicle.' Soon after, a second police officer arrived on the scene. The two men again asked to search Elish's vehicle, telling her that even more officers would soon arrive.
"'Fearing for her safety and knowing that the police did not have justification to search her vehicle yet were insistent and intimidating in attempting to do so, Ms. Elish allowed the vehicle search to occur under duress and coercion,' the complaint states. The officers searched Elish's car but found no sign of drugs, illegal weapons, or other contraband. However, that wasn't enough for the officers to let Elish go.
"A female police officer — unnamed in the suit — had arrived on the scene, and after having a brief conversation with the other officers began to strip-search Elish. The officer 'began the strip search by physically and visually inspecting Ms. Elish's breasts,' according to the complaint. Elish then had 'to remove her pants and underwear to her ankles and "squat" to the ground, during which [the officer] bent down to the ground with one knee and performed a visual cavity inspection'....
"[T]he female police officer 'began to put gloves on her hands stating to Ms. Elish, "I'm sorry. This is the worst part of my job."' However, the suit states that, just before physically searching Elish, she asked her 'Do you know why they want me to do this?' Elish responded that she didn't know and that she was 'simply on her way home from work to pick up her child.' Following this interaction, the female officer refused to search Elish....
"Rousseau did later write Elish a citation for driving five miles per hour over the speed limit. That citation was dropped, though, when Rousseau failed to appear at the hearing. Elish filed a lawsuit against the two male officers in November 2021. After a more than three-year legal battle, including a civil trial, a settlement was reached in the case, though the exact terms of the settlement have not yet been revealed."
Rebel News reporter David Menzies was arrested, but not charged, yesterday in Richmond Hill while trying to question Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on a public sidewalk.
January 8, 2024 - "Rebel News journalist David Menzies was arrested on Monday ... in Richmond Hill ... for attempting to question Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on a public street. The police officer who arrested Menzies said it was for assaulting a police officer, which he accused Menzies of doing while walking alongside Freeland....
"Menzies was physically obstructed by an unidentified plainclothes police officer who appears to be with the RCMP. Video footage captures the moment when the situation escalates, with Menzies surrounded by officers and eventually escorted away in a police car. Menzies asks the police officer on two occasions for his name and badge number, but the officer does not provide it. Menzies told True North he was released later without charges."
January 8, 2028: "Ezra Levant’s Rebel News is familiar to Canadians. Some never watch it.... Others watch it every day.... But whatever your view, what is now happening to Rebel News reporters is just wrong.... [O]n Monday, January 8, 2024, Rebel News reporter David Menzies was thuggishly assaulted, handcuffed and shoved into a police cruiser by police officers, in a scene that is usually reserved for the worst autocracies on this planet.
"Menzies was questioning Minister Chrystia Freeland as she walked down the street. He is entitled to do that. It is called 'scrumming'. A cabinet minister is expected to respond to questions from Canadian reporters — even ones she doesn’t like. It is part of the job.
A burly officer approaches, and very deliberately bumps into Menzies. The police then accuse Menzies of assaulting Freeland, or unspecified others — something Menzies clearly didn’t do. From that point on they treat Menzies as they would a dangerous criminal, or terrorist. He is handcuffed and stuffed into a police cruiser.
"What we see on this video clip is something that would have been inconceivable in Stephen Harper’s Canada. But it would have been equally inconceivable in Jean Chretien’s Canada. Or Paul Martin’s, Brian Mulroney’s, and on down the line.... A scene like this in downtown Moscow or Tehran would probably not be uncommon. But to see it playing out in plain sight in Canada is truly frightening. And deeply wrong."
Brian Giesbrecht is a retired Manitoba Provincial Court Judge.
Ottawa Police Services (OPS) detective Helen Grus has been suspended and charged with discreditable conduct for independently investigating whether an increase in sudden infant deaths correlates with mRNA vaccination.
October 11, 2023 - "While Covid isn't typically my area of focus, I felt a duty to write this story because it takes place in my hometown of Ottawa, so I reached out to The Dossier because I know that they cover Covid extensively. I am willing to bet that 99% of American readers have not heard of this Canadian case, and it deserves a wider audience.... [T]he most comprehensive coverage of this story has come from an independent journalist, Donald Best, who has written 11 articles about it.... Best is a former Detective Sergeant with the Toronto Police who has spent his life investigating organized crime. He's attended all of Helen Gru’s court hearings in person, and shared his notes with me, which I have attempted to summarize and disseminate in a digestible, self-contained format....
"Helen Grus ...[is] a 20-year veteran detective with the sexual assault and child abuse unit of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) — her two recent performance reviews in 2019 and 2021 were,'Meets and exceeds expectations; exceeds all expectations'.... According to the Ottawa Citizen: Grus allegedly accessed case files of newborn and infant death investigations to which she wasn't assigned and inquired with the coroner about whether the parents of babies who had died unexpectedly during the pandemic were vaccinated against COVID-19. Investigators also alleged Grus contacted the father of a deceased baby directly on Jan. 30, 2022, to inquire about the mother’s COVID-19 vaccination status. Yes, you read that right: in Canada, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law if you are a detective who 'contacted the father of a deceased baby to inquire about the mother’s COVID-19 vaccination status.' During the Covid era, a waiter or grocery store clerk could inquire about a parent's vaccination status, but a detective couldn't.
"The investigation by Ottawa Police into potential links between mRNA vaccines and Sudden Infant Deaths in pregnant and breastfeeding mothers was halted due to Grus's suspension and subsequent charges.... Formally, Grus is charged with 'discreditable conduct' under section 2(1) of Ontario’s Police Services Act, plus, the prosecution has served her with a notice of increased penalty, which allows the OPS to seek her dismissal, demote her, or ask for a forfeiture of pay or vacation....
"On March 28, 2022, although Grus's suspension was not yet public knowledge, CBC Ottawa published a story sourced from anonymous leaks within the Ottawa police, initiating a trial by media. Before publishing the story, CBC gave the OPS a 24-hour deadline to respond, thus commandeering the direction and timeline of the internal investigation.... Following the CBC leak, OPS’ Professional Services Unit launched an investigation into who leaked it, but this investigation was abandoned. During Grus’ trial in August 2023, her defence team argued that the leak is what resulted in formal charges, requested disclosure of evidence regarding why this investigation was abandoned and attempted to subpoena and cross-examine the CBC News reporter, but their request was denied. Both Best and Grus’ lawyer contend this was an illegal leak....
"The CBC scoop smugly states that 'Coroners examine medical facts, not detectives,' insinuating that Detective Grus acted improperly by taking initiative without explicit instructions.... To underscore just how wrong this 'she didn’t have the authority to dig on her own agency' argument is, the August 2023 trial heard that in 2018 Grus had combed through OPS records without permission to crack a cold case, which ended in apprehension and prosecution of a violent child rapist. If she is being persecuted now, logic dictates that she should be retroactively prosecuted for that violent child rapist arrest, as well....
"Grus' legal team contended that she wasn't pursuing an 'unauthorized investigation.' Instead, she was gathering evidence to present higher up the chain of command. She repeatedly tried to bring her investigation to the attention of her supervisors — for example, [t]here is a letter she sent to the Chief of Police in September 2021, asking him, 'Will Ottawa Police take full legal and financial liability for any injuries, adverse effects and/or death occurring to members following the receipt of any EUA vaccine potentially mandated?'....
"Grus’ trial is set to continue on Oct. 30. With eight police witnesses yet to be cross-examined, and at least five expert witnesses, the tribunal is anticipated to extend well into 2024. Detective Grus has already personally covered over $40,000 in legal fees, a figure that could easily exceed $100,000 depending on how long this drags on. Let's help her. Here is a link to the Helen Grus Legal Defense Fund: https://givesendgo.com/helengrus. Should she win and have her legal costs covered, Grus has committed to refunding the donations or offering donors the option to redirect their contributions to a charitable organization. Please donate, and please share this article."
October 5, 2023 - "Another convoy protest to Parliament Hill and another strong use-of-force response by Ottawa Police. This time it was a 'Save the Children' event in protest of gender ideology in schools. This time there were no trucks, honking horns, police horses or Emergencies Act declaration. But there was what witnesses described as a 'Taser' — technically referred to as a Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) — not used to subdue just one person under arrest, but also pointed at the crowd ... late in the afternoon on Oct. 4, 2023....
"This was a man described as a 54-year-old man, in shorts and a T-shirt, among a couple of dozen protesters. He was arrested and taken to the ground being struck with the CEW wire and then, while face down on the road, the device was put to his back, and you can hear the electrical charge coming from the hand-held device that has the appearance of a gun. Soon after, the officer lifted the CEW, trained on those nearby, and pointed it at horrified witnesses – one of whom was the man’s wife.
"'Back up, back up,' you can hear the angered officer saying as he pointed the use-of-force option from one person to another. It had a frantic, surreal and out-of-control situation feel to it just below the Prime Minister’s Office on Wellington Street – 19-months removed from the Freedom Convoy protest on this same spot.
"There is video showing the officer’s knee on the man’s side and back while administering the CEW as they were handcuffing him. A second officer at one point put his hands on his neck. 'He can’t breathe!' you can hear the man’s wife screaming. 'He had a heart attack twice. Don’t do that.'
"Social media posts later indicated he was back home and, despite showing marks the CEW allegedly left on his skin, he did not seem to be severely hurt — even though while on the escort to the car the officer and man slipped and fell on what appeared to be wet pavement. Another officer was seen to take out his CEW device while encouraging people to retreat. A second person, who does not appear to have been involved in the slipping incident, is seen to have been handcuffed....
"It is not clear from the video what precipitated the original arrest, or the others which earlier included an older female. But ... no one was held in custody. On X (formerly Twitter), Ottawa Police posted they 'were on scene in the area of Parliament Hill to ensure public safety was maintained during a demonstration' and 'some protesters were using large speakers and loud hailers in contravention of bylaws.' Ottawa Police said that 'after various interactions with police, three people were arrested for obstruction and later released on conditions'....
"Ottawa Police have yet to comment further. It is important to hear their perspective. There is nothing easy about being a police officer in general and especially in a situation like that. It’s also appropriate for police to review responses to ensure something can be learned. The best strategy is always de-escalation, and the best outcome is no one harmed....
"In Ottawa during the [Freedom Convoy], Rebel News reporter Alexa Lavoie was struck with a cannister from a crowd-controlling tear–gas gun and 4-foot-10, 78-year-old great-grandfather and retired school custodian Gerry Charlebois was physically arrested following an incident where an officer felt he had violated Ottawa’s no-honking bylaw. Now 80, Charlebois, who had his charges recently withdrawn by the Crown, was not protesting but offering support for a trucker.
"But protesting is a Charter right. Demonstrators are taxpayers and human beings just as vital to the country as elected officials or authority figures. With Canadians finding themselves shot, taken down violently or hit with an electrical charge, sometimes government needs to be reminded of that."
Kansas highway police have "waged war on motorists" for years, a federal judge says, in a ruling which draws back the veil on routine police practices that victimize innocent drivers.
July 24, 2023 - "A cop pulls you over for a minor traffic violation. After giving you a warning or a ticket, he says, 'Drive safe!' and starts walking away. But he immediately turns around and walks toward your car again, saying, 'Hey, can I ask you something?' That maneuver, known as the 'Kansas Two-Step,' is aimed at evading the Fourth Amendment's constraints on searches and seizures. Police are not supposed to continue detaining you after the ostensible purpose of the stop has been accomplished unless they reasonably suspect you are involved in criminal activity. The two-step is designed to extend the encounter by making it notionally voluntary....That trick, which Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) troopers commonly use based on training that recommends it, is undeniably convenient for cops who hope to find contraband or seizable cash. According to a federal judge in Kansas, it is also unconstitutional.
"'Troopers occupy a position of power and authority during a traffic stop,' U.S. District Kathryn Vratil observes in a decision published on Friday, 'and when a trooper quickly reapproaches a driver after a traffic stop and continues to ask questions, the authority that a trooper wields — combined with the fact that most motorists do not know that they are free to leave and KHP troopers deliberately decline to tell them that they are free to leave — communicates a strong message that the driver is not free to leave'.... 'In such circumstances,' Vratil says, "the theory that a driver who remains on the scene gives knowing and voluntary consent to further questioning is nothing but a convenient fiction; in the circumstances present in this case, troopers unlawfully detained drivers, without reasonable suspicion, for further questioning.'
"The case, Shaw v. Jones, involves several drivers represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kansas who objected to stops that they argued were illegally extended after they had received warnings or citations. In addition to agreeing with the plaintiffs on that point, Vratil found that KHP troopers improperly considered drivers' destinations or starting points as a significant reason to detain or search them. Her strongly worded rebuke pulls back the veil on pretextual traffic stops, which police routinely use to harass, detain, and search innocent motorists in the name of enforcing drug prohibition....
"The KHP 'has waged war on motorists — especially out-of-state residents traveling between Colorado and Missouri on federal highway I-70 in Kansas,' Vratil, a George H.W. Bush appointee, writes. 'As wars go, this one is relatively easy; it's simple and cheap, and for motorists, it's not a fair fight. The war is basically a question of numbers: stop enough cars and you're bound to discover drugs. And what's the harm if a few constitutional rights are trampled along the way?'... 'Kansas has hundreds or thousands of traffic laws on the books,' Vratil observes. 'These traffic laws give KHP troopers innumerable reasons to stop motorists for violations which may involve public safety, but the stops [are] actually intended to investigate drug crimes for which they have little or no evidence'....
"Interstate 70 connects Colorado and Missouri, where marijuana is legal, through Kansas, where it is not.... 'Now that both states have legalized recreational marijuana,' Vratil notes, 'any traveler on I-70 between Colorado and Missouri — that is, anywhere on I-70 in Kansas, traveling in either direction—is by definition traveling both to and from a "drug source" state. And it doesn't stop there: according to KHP troopers, all major cities are also drug sources. As a result, all drivers on I-70 have moving targets on their backs'.... In the 2016 case Vasquez v. Lewis, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which includes Kansas, ruled that a KHP trooper had 'impermissibly relied' on a driver's 'status as a resident of Colorado' to justify a search of his car....
"Based on the training received by KHP troopers and the details of the traffic stops experienced by the plaintiffs, Vratil concludes that the KHP has flouted Vasquez.... In some of those stops, she notes, troopers relied on 'an absurd and tenuous combination of factors,' such as driving on Interstate 70, driving a rental car, driving a car with out-of-state plates, 'seeming nervous while interacting with law enforcement,' 'going on a trip with one's nephew,' 'having fingerprints on the trunk lid,' and 'having a bag in the passenger seat.' In one case, a trooper deemed it 'extremely suspicious' that a woman with an autoimmune disorder 'chose to drive instead of fly during the COVID-19 pandemic.' He also thought it was suspicious that she was driving a Mercedes....
"In several cases, troopers who suspected drivers for such tenuous reasons used drug-detecting dogs to justify fruitless vehicle searches. The Supreme Court has approved the use of such dogs during routine traffic stops, provided it does not 'unreasonably' prolong the driver's detention. And the Court has said an alert by a properly trained dog is enough to provide probable cause for a search, notwithstanding substantial evidence that such alerts are often erroneous, imagined, invented, or triggered by the handler's subconscious cues.... Based on the KHP's account of what an alert actually signifies, that assumption seems unjustified, even when a dog is properly trained, actually reacts to a car, and is not responding to the handler's cues.
"For the plaintiffs in Shaw v. Jones, this confluence of factors — broad police power to stop cars, the fiction that interrogation during those stops is consensual, frivolous rationales for 'reasonable suspicion,' and excessive faith in canine narcs — turned alleged traffic violations that could have been addressed in 10 minutes or so into ordeals lasting 40 minutes or more. Those encounters included unjustified grilling, baseless accusations of wrongdoing, and humiliating searches that turned up nothing incriminating. They left a lasting impression on the plaintiffs, who report that they are now wary of the police, highly anxious about being pulled over, and disinclined to report crimes or otherwise seek police assistance....
"The abuses documented in this case are by no means limited to the Kansas Highway Patrol. Based on the leeway that the Supreme Court has given them, police officers across the country routinely use alleged traffic violations as an excuse to conduct criminal investigations that otherwise would not be permitted. Assuming that the Court is not prepared to revisit the precedents that created this situation, the best remedy may be public education about Fourth Amendment rights and the importance of asserting them even when it is psychologically difficult."
May 21, 2023 - "A Quebec charity suspected of hosting two secret Chinese 'overseas police stations' has received more than $4.45 million (£2.65 million) from the Canadian government over the last three years. According to the Montreal Gazette, the Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montréal (SFCGM), which purports to provide support to the Chinese community, is really used by Beijing to monitor and intimidate its citizens in Canada.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) believe this is one of two secret police stations in Quebec, which has nearly 92,000 people of Chinese origin. There has been growing anxiety about the network of secret Chinese police stations across the world, which are accused of routinely harassing exiles on behalf of Beijing’s authoritarian regime....
"Most of the cash came from Quebec’s Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration.... The ministry has since halted all remaining contracts with the group. Official records in Canada also show there were five contributions from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) to the group. An ESDC spokesman said it had given $25,000 to the New Horizons project, which helped elderly Chinese people to use the internet to keep in touch with their families. Other donations included cash from the government’s Canada Summer Jobs programme, which provided employment for students.
"Benjamin Fung, spokesman for the pro-democracy group Action Free Hong Kong Montreal, said these schemes were typical of those used by Beijing to keep an eye on its citizens overseas. 'If this is really a police station from China, they can use the funds to expand their network and their connections,' he said. 'This is also one way to monitor the many international Chinese students that are here.'
"Tasha Adams, a police spokesman, said the RCMP was investigating the SFCGM as part of a larger investigation intended to 'detect and perturb criminal activities supported by a foreign state that can threaten the safety of people living in Canada'. However, SFCGM criticised the Canadian police in a statement on its website, warning that the inquiry could cause 'serious and potentially irreparable harm to the community'.
"Last month, it emerged that RuiYou Lin, a 40-year-old businessman who was allegedly connected to a secret Chinese police station in Croydon, south London, was also a prominent fundraiser for the [UK] Conservative Party. Mr RuiYou is vice-chairman of the Chinese Group for the local Conservative association in the Cities of London and Westminster constituency. He has been pictured with Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Sajid David.... When asked about his involvement, Mr RuiYou said he had been 'set up' by a rival company.
"Last month in the US, the FBI arrested two Chinese Communist Party agents who were allegedly operating two such stations in the heart of New York City. According to New York prosecutors, the Chinese National Police directed one of those arrested, who was a US citizen, to locate a pro-democracy activist living in California. The two men have been charged with obstruction of justice and accused of destroying evidence, as well as conspiring to act as agents of the People’s Republic of China."
Canada's state-funded news outlet, CBC, has decided to turn an internal RCMP investigation into a Mountie's offline website and erased YouTube channel into a national news story.
January 11, 2023 - "RCMP are investigating after a police officer in Trail, B.C., launched a satirical, political website called the Church of Trudeau mocking the Prime Minister and funding of Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities. (churchoftrudeau.org)
A B.C. Mountie's anti-Trudeau website is causing waves in a small West Kootenay community and raising concerns about political bias among the ranks of the RCMP. The Church of Trudeau website was online last November and early December and featured theatrical performances by a man dressed up as multiple characters in what appears to be satirical political commentary about the Prime Minister and what the site referred to as 'left-wing Liberal ideologies.' CBC News has confirmed the identity of the man in photos and videos on the website as Trail, B.C., RCMP officer Brent Lord through a source familiar with the website and its contents. The RCMP says it is aware of the site and the matter is under review.
"In one of four videos CBC News has obtained, Lord plays the role of a character he calls Father B, and professes to be 'the High Prophet of the Church of Trudeau" as he explains what the website is about, stating, "our religion teaches the importance of socialism, of cancelling everyone that offends anyone, of being woke and highly emotional.' A YouTube channel associated with the site that was scrubbed of content in December once stated, 'our goal is to convert sinful conservatives who belong to a fringe minority with unacceptable views into entitled socialist liberals just like us.' Lord does not mention his job as a Mountie....
"The website's contents and the views expressed by the officer are concerning, according to Trail Mayor Colleen Jones, who said she has had 'multiple conversations with the Trail RCMP detachment commander about it. 'It's definitely not anything a community wants,' Jones said....
"To Kash Heed, a former West Vancouver police chief and former solicitor general and minister of public safety, the political nature of the website is not in line with the standard of conduct expected of a police officer. 'The RCMP should be investigating this as a code of conduct breach for this particular member,' he said.... Heed likened the officer's political statements in the videos to cases last year of police officers expressing support for the Freedom Convoy movement and donating money to the organizers, which resulted in the officers being charged with misconduct and in one case demoted for their actions."
January 12, 2023 - "If you needed more reasons to stop funding the CBC to the tune of $1.6 billion a year, look no further than how the state media covered the story of the RCMP member from Trail, B.C. who was running an anti-Trudeau website in his spare time. The line between opinion and news is not just blurred at Mother CBC, it is invisible.
"The website isn’t even active anymore but you can find it on the Internet Archive. 'His gospel explains why belonging to a fringe minority with unacceptable views is not tolerable and how Conservatives are always trying to deceive Canadians with silly words such as government debt, scandals, inflation, and other such nonsense,' reads the website. Do we have a problem here? Well, the CBC does. It ran a 'news' story under the headline of “B.C. Mountie's anti-Trudeau website raises concerns about discriminatory views within the RCMP.”
"So now it’s discriminatory to oppose Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his policies? This is a satirical website to boot. But Liberals and progressives never have any sense of humour when they're the target of the jokes....
"Lord also cites Trudeau’s latest LGBTQ initiative, noting '$35 million in new project funding support aimed at addressing specific barriers to 2SLGBTQ+ equality. Now I'm not as smart as Justin Trudeau so I don't really understand what that means, but it sounds really good and if Justin Trudeau has implemented it then it really makes sense.... I trust you Justin, I trust.' This must be one of the 'marginalized communities' the CBC fears is being maligned by the website. It really is time to stop pretending LGBTQ people are in anyway marginalized in a society where the gay lifestyle is celebrated in print, television and film. Homosexual men and lesbian women on average make more money than their heterosexual counterparts and I have never been able to locate the 'gay community' on the map anyway. They don’t all vote Liberal and most would tell the federal government they don’t need to be funded as some kind of needy group.
"CBC also found a former BC solicitor general/public safety minister and West Vancouver police chief to comment on the story. Kash Heed must also be a member of Thought Police because his words are truly Orwellian. 'We need to make sure we're hiring the right people and we have the policies, discipline and supervision in place to detect these types of behaviours and deal with them in a swift fashion.' Uh huh. We can’t have people thinking for themselves.
"Do you think for a moment if this RCMP officer were sponsoring a pro-Trudeau website that lauded the government's immigration "policies and identity politics that the CBC would be fretting so? No, of course not."
December 21, 2022 - "After three years behind bars awaiting trial, Cameron Ortis, the RCMP official accused of breaching Canada's secrecy law, has been released on bail.Justice Robert Maranger presided over the bail review and delivered his decision in Ontario Superior Court on Wednesday. The reasons behind his decision and the evidence and testimony heard in court during the review hearing are all covered by a publication ban.
"Ortis, who served as director general of the RCMP's national intelligence co-ordination centre, is charged with violating the Security of Information Act. He is accused of trying to share sensitive information with a foreign entity or terrorist organization and also has been charged with sharing operational information in 2015. Ortis was briefly released on bail and ordered to live with his parents in Abbotsford, B.C., in October [2019; see Background - gd], before his bail was revoked. He's been in custody ever since.
"Ortis is scheduled to go to trial in October 2023."
November 8, 2019 - "Today, Ontario Superior Court Justice Marc Labrosse revoked the 47-year-old's bail, ordering the head of RCMP's national intelligence co-ordination centre back into custody. Labrosse's reasons and the details of the Crown's review application are covered by a publication ban, along with the evidence and submissions heard during the bail hearing.
"Ortis was released on bail to his parents' care in Abbotsford, B.C. on Oct. 22. He was forbidden from using any device that connects to the internet and told to report to an RCMP detachment every week. The court heard the Crown's application for a bail review last week. It was granted."
December 7, 2020 - "A high-stakes American gambler who is an FBI informant and goes by the nickname Robin Hood 702 played a key role in a series of events that eventually led the RCMP to charge their head of intelligence, Cameron Ortis, with leaking secrets. R.J. Cipriani, whose nickname incorporates the 702 Las Vegas area code, built his reputation by winning money in casinos and donating much of it to worthy causes.
"But in 2011, he was asked to gamble money in Australia by former U.S. college football player Owen Hanson.... [F]earing he was being drawn into criminal activity, he went to the FBI. That led to Hanson being charged and convicted of drug trafficking.... Police discovered six encrypted cellphones Hanson had purchased from Richmond, B.C.- based Phantom Secure, a company the RCMP had been investigating for allegedly supplying encrypted technology to organized crime. The FBI then joined with the RCMP and Australian police in an investigation of Phantom Secure. Ortis is alleged to have offered Phantom Secure secret information.
"In March 2018, the FBI arrested Phantom Secure CEO and founder Vincent Ramos in Washington state. Federal police in Australia also raided several locations and seized more than 1,000 Phantom Secure cellphones. In Canada, the RCMP executed search warrants on Ramos's home and business addresses in British Columbia, but it is still unclear what they seized. It appears the RCMP information to obtain the warrants has been sealed.
"At the time of the Ramos arrest and raids, the RCMP said little about the case and it received scant media attention in Canada. But that changed 18 months later when the RCMP arrested their own intelligence chief, Cameron Ortis, in part for allegedly leaking operational information to Ramos."
December 8, 2022 - "A Spanish NGO says it’s identified two more Chinese police service stations operating in Canada, one of which is in an unspecified Vancouver location while the other’s city is not disclosed. Safeguard Defenders, a self-proclaimed human rights advocacy group based out of Madrid released a new report this week identifying another 48 overseas Chinese police stations in addition to the 54 unveiled in a previous report. The group claims to have identified 102 stations in 53 countries, all of which are operated out of four Chinese jurisdictions: Nantong, Wenzhou, Qingtian, and Fuzhou.
"The Vancouver station's precise location is not known and it is said to be operated out of Wenzhou, a port city in China's Zhejiang province. Three previously identified Toronto stations are now being investigated by the RCMP, bringing the total number of stations reportedly operating in Canada to five. The city where the fifth station resides is not yet detailed.
"Chinese officials previously claimed the stations were used for administrative services, such as assisting with driver’s license renewals, but Safeguard says new information shows at least one 'illegal persuasion to return' operation run through a Wenzhou-controlled station in Paris. Persuasion tactics allegedly include imposing restrictions on family members and denying the target’s children in China education.
"Safeguard also claims to have identified at least 80 cases where the Nantong police system has assisted in capture or persuasion to return operations. 'This is in addition to already exposed operations in Spain and Serbia,' said Safeguard. 'This contradicts PRC authorities’ statements that the stations are merely providing administrative services.'
"At least 230,000 Chinese nationals suspected of fraud and telecommunications fraud returned to China as a result of persuade to return operations between April 2021 and July 2022. Safeguard further notes that China claims the returns were voluntary and that not all targets had committed crimes.
"The NGO has been viciously criticized by Chinese state-affiliated media for being 'entirely based on ideology,' while others within the Chinese media sphere suggest it is used by those with capital to satiate the West’s appetite for China smearing and, as a result, provide fertile ground for the execution of Washington’s regime change priorities. Safeguard's director, Swedish activist Peter Dahlin, founded the NGO's previous incarnation in 2009, which operated out of Beijing as the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group (China Action) until 2016 when Chinese authorities shut down the operation, forcing Dahlin to relocate to Madrid."
October 25, 2022 - "Documents tabled at the Emergencies Act inquiry reveal a discrepancy between RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s public defence of the sweeping legislation and her private advice to the government that the police had 'not yet exhausted all available tools' when the act was invoked. Commissioner Lucki delivered that assessment to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office just after midnight on Feb. 14 – only hours before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the act.
"The e-mail adds to a growing body of evidence from police forces, presented to the inquiry, that challenges the federal government’s argument that the act was needed to end more than three weeks of protests that threw the country’s capital into chaos.... The Ottawa police and the Ontario Provincial Police have already told the inquiry that they did not need the act to get the protests under control....
"Mr. Mendicino played down the significance of Commissioner Lucki’s comments on Tuesday and dismissed the suggestion he ignored her advice, saying the government listened to an 'array of advice' at the time. He added that her advice to the government before invoking the act doesn’t change subsequent testimony to a parliamentary committee on Feb. 25, after the protests ended, where she said it gave police 'the tools that we needed to get the job done quickly.' Mr. Mendicino told reporters in Ottawa that the government also consulted the provinces on its decision to invoke the act....
"Commissioner Lucki sent her Feb. 14 e-mail to Mr. Mendicino’s chief of staff, Mike Jones. In it, she said her team was in discussions with the Justice Department to give input on the act. She also gave examples of additional policing powers that could be 'useful' if the act was invoked. But at the end of her e-mail she said 'we have not yet exhausted all available tools that are already available through the existing legislation.' Charges could be laid under existing powers, she said, and the province had just enacted its emergency powers which would 'help in providing additional deterrent tools to our existing toolbox.'
"The RCMP did not provide a statement on Tuesday addressing the discrepancy between Commissioner Lucki’s public comments after the protests ended and private advice to government in advance of the emergency declaration.... But other police agencies have said it was not crucial and despite early dysfunction within the Ottawa police service, a plan to end the protests had been developed just before Mr. Trudeau made the emergency declaration.
"The Ontario Provincial Police told the commission at the beginning of the public hearings two weeks ago that the act was not needed. In testimony on Friday, retired OPP officer Carson Pardy, who was chief superintendent during the February protests, said the act helped but was not necessary. For example, he said officers already had the authority to tow and seize vehicles and prevent people from going into the protest zone.
"And this week, interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell said while the Emergencies Act was very helpful, it wasn’t needed. 'In the absence of the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the OPS, the OPP and the RCMP, as part of a unified command, were going to clear the protests,' he said. For example, separate evidence presented through an interview summary of Ottawa police Superintendent Robert Bernier said he told commission lawyers that police had secured tow trucks before the act was invoked....
"On Tuesday the commission was also told that the OPP, RCMP and the top civil servant in Mr. Mendicino’s department had struck a potential deal but the government backed out just before the act was invoked.... According to evidence tabled Tuesday, on Feb. 10 then-deputy minister of public safety Rob Stewart asked OPP Inspector Marcel Beaudin for an urgent meeting to talk about the possibility of 'federal-level engagement with the protesters.' By the next day, a proposal was developed. The document, tabled at the commission, suggested a police liaison would provide protest leaders with a written commitment to a meeting with government at a later date. By Feb. 13, the deal had fallen apart. That day, Mr. Stewart told the inspector he was unable to secure a commitment from the government to meet with protesters, according to a summary of an interview Insp. Beaudin gave to the commission."
The Ontario Provincial Police has told the Rouleau Commission investigating the Trudeau government's use of the Emergencies Act that "there was sufficient legal authority" without the Act "to deal with the protest activities".
October 13, 2022 - "The sweeping powers triggered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quell February’s convoy protests were not needed, the Ontario Provincial Police said at the first day of hearings in a public inquiry to determine whether the federal government contravened the law in its use of the powers.
"The provincial police force’s brief opening statement on Thursday focused on the legal requirements the government had to meet before it could invoke the federal Emergencies Act. OPP lawyer Christopher Diana said Thursday in Ottawa that while the emergencies legislation provided useful tools, 'there was sufficient legal authority in their absence to deal with the protest activities that took place over this period of time.'
"The federal government, which initially said invoking the act was done on the advice of law enforcement, later clarified that they had asked for the powers in the act, not for the law directly. OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique told a parliamentary committee in March that the tools available through the act 'made our operation very effective, and in the absence of having those tools, we could have not have been as effective.'
"Mr. Diana’s comments followed introductory remarks from inquiry commissioner Justice Paul Rouleau, who said the focus of the Public Order Emergency Commission will be on the federal government’s decision-making. According to the Emergencies Act, a public order emergency can be declared only when threats to the security of Canada are so serious that they constitute a national crisis that cannot be effectively dealt with under any other existing law....
"Nearly 20 parties with standing in the commission also spoke briefly, outlining arguments they will advance as the commission determines whether the government’s use of the act – in response to the convoy protests in Ottawa over pandemic restrictions and blockades at border crossings – was legitimate.... On one side, a lawyer representing the federal government said invoking the act was a 'reasonable and necessary' decision, while lawyers on the other – including those representing convoy protesters – argued that it was ... unnecessary, lacked justification, and could pave the way for further inappropriate use of the act....
"Robert MacKinnon, one of the lawyers for the federal government, told the commission the act’s invocation was 'a reasonable and necessary decision given the escalating volatile and urgent circumstances across the country.' The government will present evidence that there were “countrywide threats to the security of Canada,” Mr. MacKinnon said. The federal approach was 'proportional, effective and time limited,' he said.
"However, Lakehead University law professor Ryan Alford, who has joint standing with The Canadian Constitution Foundation, challenged Mr. MacKinnon’s assessment. The government’s claim to a 'reasonable basis' for declaring the public order emergency does not mean it had a legal or constitutional basis for 'assuming unprecedented and destructive emergency powers,' he said.
September 30, 2022 - "China has opened dozens of 'overseas police service stations' around the globe to monitor its citizens living abroad, including one location in New York City and three in Toronto. These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods,' reads a report by Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog, released earlier this month.
"The report, titled '110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild,' details China’s extensive efforts to combat 'fraud' by its citizens living overseas, in part by opening several police stations on five continents.... Europe is home to most of the police stations, with locations spread across the continent in places such as London, Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, Athens, Paris, Madrid and Frankfurt. North America is also home to four of the stations, with three locations in Toronto and one in New York City. In all, there are 54 such stations in 30 different countries.
"The report details how China has attempted to 'combat the growing issue of fraud and telecommunication fraud by Chinese nationals living abroad,' running operations that have resulted in 230,000 Chinese nationals being 'persuaded to return' to China 'voluntarily' over the last year to face criminal prosecution.
"The Chinese government has claimed that the stations provide vital services to its citizens living abroad, though the report notes that many of the services are those that would be traditionally carried out by an overseas embassy. Instead, the report argues that the stations have been used to enhance China’s overseas law enforcement capabilities in possible violation of international law.
"The report also outlines the potential human rights abuses associated with the stations, including using harassment and intimidation methods, such as threatening the family members of the overseas citizens. The stations have also served as centers to spread Chinese government propaganda and monitor the behavior and opinions of Chinese nationals."
September 16, 2022 - "An Ottawa police officer has been charged with misconduct for allegedly donating money to the Freedom Convoy occupation last February. Const. Kristina Neilson made her first disciplinary appearance on Thursday morning to face a single count of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act.
"Professional standards investigators — detectives who investigate officer misconduct internally — allege Neilson discredited the service's reputation 'by donating money to the "Freedom Convoy Fund" on a website called GiveSendGo." Police further allege that she 'knew, or reasonably ought to have known, that the money was being raised for the illegal occupation known as the "Freedom Convoy" which took place in the City of Ottawa during the months of January and February 2022.
"According to the notice of hearing, which lays out the charges against her, Neilson allegedly made a donation on Feb. 5, which was three days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the occupation was 'becoming illegal' and the day before the city declared a state of emergency.
"According to sources with knowledge of the investigation, and to a leaked list of donors, Neilson allegedly made a $50 donation in her son's name.... A CBC analysis of the [leaked] GiveSendGo donor data found that at least two dozen names of current and former members of the Ottawa Police Service and Ontario Provincial Police matched the names of people who had donated to the cause.
September 17, 2022 - "The Freedom Convoy began its fundraising effort on GoFundMe, raising millions of dollars before being shut down at the behest of the Ontario government. The convoy organizers opened another fundraising campaign on the American fundraising website GiveSendGo, raising millions more....
"Neilson allegedly donated to the 'Freedom Convoy Fund' on GiveSendGo on February 5th. At the time ... the Freedom Convoy was entering the second week of rolling protests at Parliament Hill, with convoy organizers co-operating with an Ontario Provincial Police liaison on a daily basis. Neilson’s donation was made before an Ontario judge placed a nationwide ban on Freedom Convoy funds from GiveSendGo and before the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act to stop the truckers.
"OPS [Ottawa Police Services] interim police chief made clear in March that there is no place in the force for officers who have donated to the Freedom Convoy and that officers who did donate to the convoy were being investigated. 'We need to deal with the people who supported it, because there’s no room for them,' said Bell in a March comment.
"After the list of donors who contributed to the Freedom Convoy’s crowdfunding page was illegally leaked via a hack, CBC journalists doxxed Canadians by identifying several officers who contributed to the GiveSendGo page. In total, six Ottawa officers were identified, with Nielson being one of them." Read more: https://tnc.news/2022/09/17/ottawa-police-convoy/
On Feb. 14, 2022, the RCMP arrested 14 Freedom Convoy protesters in Coutts, AB, charging 4 with conspiracy to murder police - which the Trudeau government used to justify invoking the Emergencies Act that day. But some who know the men aren't buying the official narrative.
September 24, 2022 - ""So pervasive is the belief here that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a dictator-in-the-making that ... many residents of the village, Coutts, Alberta, think the biggest event that occurred here in recent memory — when the police raided a local home in February and revealed a frightening cache of weapons — was a hoax perpetrated by the police to silence an antigovernment protest.... 'It may have been a conspiracy,' said Bill Emerson, who for four decades has lived across the street from the home the police raided....
"The police raid came during the time of Canada’s Freedom Convoy, which began as a movement by truckers to challenge a government vaccination mandate but spread to include a wide array of antigovernment grievances. The stark contrast between the mainstream account of what happened — the police disarming a small group of protesters with violent intentions — and the conspiracy-fueled one — a government attempt to demonize the protesters — reflects a burgeoning polarization of Canadian society....
"The Freedom Convoy movement — that aimed at one point to replace the federal government with a ruling committee including protesters, [not true - gd] and which Mr. Trudeau dismissed as a 'fringe minority' with 'unacceptable views' — is hardly a fringe. Months later, it garners the support of one in four Canadians, according to a recent poll, and some of its beliefs have entered mainstream politics. 'We have crossed a Rubicon, and there ain’t no going back,' said Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. 'Canada hasn’t faced something like this, especially not in a long time. How do we deal with a movement that wants to dismantle democracy?'
"Coutts is a small border village 185 miles southeast of Calgary.... Before last winter, the village’s faint claim to fame was a mention by President Obama of its baseball fields, which nose right up against the international border.... Then, one frigid day last winter, hundreds of tractor-trailers and trucks rumbled down the highway to the village’s edge and stopped, blocking all lanes leading to the normally busy border crossing. They were a splinter group of the Freedom Convoy.... In Coutts, the village’s only bar, shuttered by the pandemic [restrictions - gd], was reopened to be their headquarters.
"All the while, scores of provincial police, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, kept watch. Over 17 days, 552 officers were assigned to the village of just 224, according to the mayor. On the fourteenth evening of protest, when a local church was holding a Sunday service in the bar, the police arrived in full military gear, wielding automatic weapons, and arrested two men in the crowd. Later that night, they executed a search warrant on a house, where a local woman was hosting many protesters. Over a few hours, the police arrested 14 people. Most were charged with mischief over 5,000 Canadian dollars, or about $3,700, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. But four men face a far more serious charge — conspiracy to commit murder, which carries a potential life-in-prison sentence.
"Undercover officers witnessed the set up of what they believed to be a delivery of guns to Coutts, search warrants reveal.... A photo of the cache of weapons [police] seized included rifles, handguns, high capacity magazines, ammunition and bullet proof vests. All four of the men charged with conspiracy to commit murder are middle-aged, blue collar workers from Southern Alberta. A day before the police raid, one of them, Jerry Morin, recorded a video on Facebook, calling his friends to Coutts to help 'hold the line.' 'There’s no excuses,' said Mr. Morin, a 40-year-old who installs and repairs electrical lines. 'This is war'....
"The day of the raid, [the Trudeau] government passed a sweeping emergency bill, granting police wide powers to arrest protesters, and instructing banks to freeze accounts linked to the convoy. Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino pointed to Coutts as part of the justification....
"Marco Van Huigenbos, the main leader of the Coutts protest, is so convinced that at least two of the four men are not guilty, he is subsidizing their families with 10,000 Canadian dollars a month. The money is from leftover funds raised in Coutts.... 'They are using these guys to send a message,' said Mr. Huigenbos, a town councilor and business owner from nearby Fort Macleod, who himself was recently charged with mischief over 5,000 Canadian dollars. 'There is political influence here.'"
February 24, 2022 - "A High Court challenge questioning the legality of Covid-19 vaccination mandates for Police and Defence Force employees has been upheld, with the court determining that the government mandate is an unjustified incursion on the Bill of Rights.... Justice Francis Cooke determined that ordering frontline police officers and Defence staff to be vaccinated or face losing their job was not a 'reasonably justified' breach of the Bill of Rights.....
"The challenge was supported by a group of 37 employees affected by the mandate, who submitted written affidavits to the court. Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Wood, Deputy Police Commissioner Tania Kura and NZDF Chief People Officer Brigadier Matthew Weston filed affidavits defending the mandate.... 164 of the overall police workforce of nearly 15,700 were affected by the mandate after choosing not to be vaccinated. For NZDF, the mandate affected 115 of its 15,500 staff.
"The group relied on two aspects of the Bill of Rights - the right to decline a medical procedure and the right to religious freedom. On the religious freedom argument, a number of those who made submissions referred to their fundamental objection to taking the Pfizer vaccine, given that it was tested on the cells that were derived from a human foetus. Justice Cooke agreed with the claim.... However, Justice Cooke disagreed with the claimants' broader claims that requiring vaccination is inconsistent with holding religious beliefs more generally.
"'I do not accept that a belief in an individual's bodily integrity and personal autonomy is a religious belief or practice. Rather it seems to me, in the circumstances of this case, to be a belief in the secular concept referred to in section 11 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.'
"Justice Cooke also agreed with the claim that the mandate impinged on the right to decline a medical procedure. The judge said that while it's clear the government isn't forcing Police and NZDF employees to get vaccinated against their will and they still have the right to refuse vaccination, the mandate presents an element of pressure. 'The associated pressure to surrender employment involves a limit on the right to retain that employment, which the above principles suggest can be thought of as an important right or interest recognised not only in domestic law, but in the international instruments,' Justice Cooke stated....
"The court accepted that vaccination has a significant beneficial effect in limiting serious illness, hospitalisation, and death, including with the Omicron variant. However, it was less effective in reducing infection and transmission of Omicron than had been the case with other variants of Covid-19.
"'In essence, the order mandating vaccinations for police and NZDF staff was imposed to ensure the continuity of the public services, and to promote public confidence in those services, rather than to stop the spread of Covid-19. Indeed health advice provided to the government was that further mandates were not required to restrict the spread of Covid-19. I am not satisfied that continuity of these services is materially advanced by the order,' the Judge said. 'Covid-19 clearly involves a threat to the continuity of police and NZDF services. That is because the Omicron variant in particular is so transmissible. But that threat exists for both vaccinated and unvaccinated staff. I am not satisfied that the order makes a material difference, including because of the expert evidence before the court on the effects of vaccination on Covid-19 including the Delta and Omicron variants'....
"Matthew Hague, counsel for the applicants, said that the affected workers must be allowed to return to work. He said he doesn't see why they won't be allowed to return on the grounds that they are currently still in a suspension period and because the basis of their dismissal was the mandate which has now been overruled.... In two separate but identical statements on Friday, spokespeople for both Police and NZDF said that any move to terminate staff contracts as a result of the vaccination order will be suspended while the decision is considered by government.... Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood also released a statement on the decision, saying the government will take time to consider the decision and seek advice on next steps."
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