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Canada’s spy agency keeping tabs on 2010 Games protesters

Surveillance won’t change protesters plans
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I Spy RCMP riot squad members keep their eye on protestors during the Pacific North West Economic Region conference held in Whistler in 2001.

Groups which have protested against the 2010 Games say a report by Canada’s spy agency stating it is prepared for violent acts from demonstrators shows that activists are being targeted.

“The Anti-Poverty Committee and others have been receiving the brunt of the attack already,” said organizer Anna Hunter.

“The important point that we want to get out there is that we have been saying that Vancouver and B.C. are going to look like police states during the Olympics and people thought we were crazy. And now it is coming out through this report that it is actually going to be a police state.”

But the report won’t change how the APC works said Hunter.

The comments come following the release of a highly censored copy of a 2007 annual report by Canadian Security and Intelligence Service director, Jim Judd, to the Minister of Public Safety, Stockwell Day.

The report states: “…the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics may lead to protests with potential for violence.”

Jason Gratl, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association was not surprised to hear that the Games were included in the CSIS report.

“We would fully expect that CSIS would be engaged with the Olympics to ensure the safety and security of foreign officials, diplomats, and athletes from disparate countries,” he said.

“But it is of some concern to us that CSIS is concerned not only in actual or planned violence but in protests that might lead to violence. Our concern is that an overenthusiastic spy agency might want to infiltrate or undermine the activities of lawful protest groups.”

The Conservative government has been under pressure to look again at how the police are policed in Canada after a series of recommendations came out of the Maher Arar Inquiry.

“The Arar commission recommended enhanced oversight powers in relation to RCMP and other agencies engaged in security activities and to date the Harper government has failed to act on those recommendations,” said Gratl.

The Integrated Security Unit, with the RCMP as the lead agency, is handling security for the 2010 Games. Security costs are currently budgeted at $175 million.

“There has always been a strong partnership,” said RCMP Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre, adding that it wouldn’t be appropriate to single out any one partner for comment.

The RCMP has also created the Community Relations Group, specific to the Games, said Lemaitre, to help facilitate peaceful and lawful protests.

“We will work to facilitate any lawful demonstration or protest because that is part of the fabric of our country but by the same token we want… to find anybody who wants to go past that,” he said.

The CRG can be contacted through local police agencies by groups wanting to protest so that activities can be coordinated. It has several members, said Lemaitre, including a First Nations representative.

Simon Fraser International Relations professor Doug Ross said it is impossible to know what CSIS or any other security agency is doing around Games security, as the information is being kept secret.

And he is concerned that a small security budget may mean disaster for the Games.

“They want to be as ‘mum’ as possible about this and are not releasing information,” he said, adding that government security analysts believe this is better for safety.

“I think that is highly debatable and that is certainly not the American approach. They lay out exactly what is being done, how many personnel are involved, how many units of police are involved, and what kind of backup one can expect from special weapons operations in the military. We have had none of that.

“We have only had a few oblique communications for the army in the past two years saying that they are stretched incredibly thin and they really aren’t in the position to be able to offer much in the way of backup.”

That could create a difficult situation for Canada, said Ross, as America is unlikely to stand by and let its citizens travel to a place not considered secure and where the country’s military is not part of the security loop.

“(The military) have to be part of the loop otherwise you can expect that the Americans are going to start offering their services whether we like it or not,” he said.

It won’t be clear how the federal government is tackling security for the Games until the new ISU budget is released in the coming months. It is complete and now lies with government officials for review.

Ross is concerned that Ottawa is not taking the responsibility seriously enough.

“I think the attitude in Ottawa is that this is just a one off kind of thing and we just have to get through that three or four weeks and then this will all go away,” he said.

He points at upgrades to Canada’s borders as a clear way to improve security, questioning why there are no physical barriers to stop the ten or so cars and trucks which run the border each month nationally.

“Unless you do that our border remains wide open to the importation of quantities of small arms and chemical explosives and any number of materials from the United Sates,” said Rosss.

However, Paula Shore spokesperson for the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, said that border runner cases are taken very seriously.

“We take public safety and security very seriously,” she said.

When a vehicle does run the border the licence plate information is forwarded immediately to local police agencies to take up the chase. If necessary RCMP helicopters are called in and Canada’s custom officers can call on air support from US agencies too.

Canada’s continued role in Afghanistan may also increase security risks for the Games, said Ross.

“We are not getting out of Afghanistan,” he said.

“ …there will be lots of jihadis, both foreign and potentially domestic home-grown, who are going to decide, we have to do our bit to get Canadians out so let us go for this marquis event and see whether we can disrupt it.

“In Ottawa they are not taking it seriously.

“They think the war on terrorism is fading and all this will go away. I really hope they are right, but if they are not it could be really ghastly.”