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Canadian Arrested Over Plans to Test G20 Security
epiphani writes "Byron Sonne, of Toronto, was arrested today by a task force of around 50 police officers associated with the G20 summit taking place this week. An independent contractor, IT security specialist and private investigator, he had notable ties to the Toronto technology and security communities. According to friends and associates, he had been purchasing goods online and speaking with security groups about building devices to collect unencrypted police broadcasts and relay them through Twitter, as well as other activities designed to test the security of the G20 summit. By all accounts, it would appear that Mr. Sonne had no actual malicious intent. In Canada, the summit has been garnering significant press for the cost and invasive nature of the security measures taken." "By all accounts" may not be quite right; the charges against Sonne, exaggerated or not, involve weapons, explosives, and intimidation.
It's been awhile since I got my Canadian Ham license, but I seem to remember learning that it was illegal to rebroadcast, (or talk about, publish, whatever) anything that you heard on the airwaves. I.e. cop, fire, air control, taxi, etc chatter.
If you have a butter knife or stapler on you (or in your car when they pull you over), and they arrest you for anything, then you can get charged with "possession of a weapon"...
Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
No, recording is not illegal either. The law only makes an offence of intercepting communications that were intentionally obfuscated (even if the method was easily broken.)
Dude, a stapler?? Are you kidding me? That will get you Tasered to death in Canada.
I wish I was joking. :(
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Speaking of car analogies, this afternoon a 57 year old man was arrested for having gasoline, an axe handle, sticks, a baseball bat, and possibly a chainsaw in his car.
link
So the message can be construed as such: if you go camping and return to Toronto, you may be used as an example to justify 1.2 billion dollars of taxpayer money spent on security.
.
http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/summit-survivor/2010/05/26/833-million-security-bill-for-g20-and-g8-called-insane/
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/12/17/12184191-sun.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/06/11/summit-traffic.html
So, Toronto police gets $12,000 bonus per each 6000 staff for 3 days work - works out to $170/h if they work 72h shift (not possible), $350/h for 12h shifts.
Where is the remaining $800 million? Who knows?
"There are 5,567 officers and 2,056 civilian employees. Salaries and premium pay total $848 million. "
Works out to $111,242 per person for *3 day* meeting... I'd love to get paid $1500-$3000/h from your tax dollars too!
RCMP wrong to use Taser on Dziekanski: report
Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
That would be manslaughter.
I don't know about Canada, but in the US, just making stuff up so you can be hauled in can get the police charged with False Arrest.
"building devices to collect unencrypted police broadcasts and relay them through twitter".
He's building a common police scanner? Anything of interest will be encrypted.
It will be interesting what is unencrypted!
I suspect the explosives on hand had way more to do with it. He may be smart but that was a dumbass move.
I heard the "explosives" were a handful of gas cans (dunno whether full or not). If that is an explosive, so is almost every car.
Even better, one of those fine officers drunk-drove someone to death, left the scene, drank more, came back and is still walking around free.
Read the article
"But quite clearly if an individual comes down into the area, is engaged in protest activity and is carrying things that could be used as a weapon, that matter's going to be investigated by the police and those items can be removed from that individual in the interests of maintaining a safe environment for everybody."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/06/24/g20-security-threat-car.html#ixzz0rnuWj3Uq
It was not just the items in the car; he was linked with protest activity. If that guy did use those weapons in a protest after the police found them, security would have be blamed.
Unlike Americans, most Canadians have had some level of military training, and have easy access to explosives and hunting rifles - in point of fact, Canadians have twice as many guns per person than Americans do, they just don't use them to kill people in civilian life.
Thus, it's not that unusual for any Canadian to have both experience and training in these things.
That said, it's more likely CSIS or the RCMP are trying to justify their budgets and just plain hate Canadians legal rights to privacy as enshrined in the Canadian Constitution.
(caveat - I used to be on the other side of riots when I was in the Canadian Army)
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
About 3 weeks ago, a guy bought 1.6T of fertilizer. Usual stuff, people went nuts, police went nuts lookin' for the guy. They found out that it was a farmer, going on about his normal farming business. This guy however is an idiot, ever since the mid-90's purchases of fertilizer have been tracked in Canada.
Om, nomnomnom...
These two counts caught my eye:
It sounds like this wasn't only involved with his other plans, but I'd guess "justice systems participant" could be law enforcement. I'm not that familiar with Canadian law, so it's just a guess. If he made direct threats of some sort, then that changes the whole ballgame.
Claiming he will eavesdrop on the police covers both of those. He made the threat that he will do it, and he was going to eavesdrop (watch) the police.
Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
I thought it couldn't be true. But it is. I don't know what to say. But I hope that officer Robinson is first on the list of the 4 RCMP officers if charges are laid by the special prosecutor.
it's kind of disturbing to think that being a observant bystander of police at work is grounds for arrest or even conviction. this kind of fits in with the mentality that the police are infallible and shouldn't need oversight. an idea i find hard to swallow.
"To stop the terrorists."
Canada doesn't have assassinations,...
Pierre Laporte
we don't have terrorist acts,......
All 329 passengers perished aboard Air India flight 182 would beg to differ.
2 out of the Toronto 18 have been released on bail and is currently in Toronto.
8 years... The location of the G8 rotates among the members.
It's G8 followed by G20 in the same country.
You can't handle the truth.