Counselling Mischief as Thought Crime

In 2010, Canada was hosting two of the world's largest events, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the G20 summit in Toronto, Ontario. In both cases, there was a special group formed from the various security groups in Canada, and these groups were called the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit and the G8-G20 Integrated Security Unit. In the case of both Toronto and Vancouver, citizens found that their city was being turned into a fortress to ensure security, and surveillance was being used against its own people. This is combined with laws that are designed to protect the corporate sponsors of the games, as well as the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

This talk will focus primarily on the tactics of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit during the Olympics, and may touch on the G8-G20 Integrated Security Unit in Ontario, and how these groups used various public forums on the Internet to identify and compile a secret list of Activists to be targeted with intimidation tactics, arrest and in some cases, prolonged detainment. This will also cover the aftermath of the surveillance to see what lessons an international audience can take from this, as well as a dispelling the myth that Canada (and other Western countries) don't engage in the same behaviour, despite their reputation as being "Better than the United States". This talk is of particular interest to technologists, due to the recent case of Byron Sonne, a security researcher, who, like me, dared to poke the Security Apparatus in the eye, but unfortunately was still in prison when I wrote this presentation. Due to a publication ban, his information will NOT be presented, but other defendants in the G20 who have published their material will have theirs presented.