Local Canadian Police Station Admits To Owning Stingray Surveillance Device (vice.com)

The Edmonton Police Service has admitted to Motherboard that it owns a Stingray and that it used the [surveillance] device in the past during investigations. After Vancouver cops admitted to using the phone tracker to investigate an abduction in 2007, Motherboard called up other local police stations in Canada to ask if they had also previously used one. As you can imagine, the other stations kept mum. In the US, Stingrays are a regular part of government and law enforcement agencies' surveillance arsenal. But Vancouver's and Edmonton's police services are the first law enforcement offices in Canada to confirm that they've used the device. Motherboard adds: According an emailed statement from police spokesperson Anna Batchelor, Edmonton's cops have "used the device in the past during investigations," but would not release any additional details in order to "to protect [Edmonton Police Service] operations." Until now, the only law enforcement in the country known to use the devices was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the country's analogue to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. These suitcase-sized surveillance tools have been used in the past by the Vancouver and Toronto police, but the Vancouver police have said they borrowed the Stingray from the RCMP, and in Toronto an RCMP technician was on hand, at least in that incident. The Edmonton police's comment to Motherboard is the first time a local police department in Canada has publicly admitted to owning a Stingray device.

Comments

20 fucking years of this in Edmonton

[StandardCell]

The police in Edmonton have been doing this to the press since the 90s when they wiretapped newspaper and TV reporters working on a story of police corruption with ties to organized crime. But that was just the old fashioned wire taps, and there have been many corruption scandals since. There is no press freedom in Edmonton and all communication should be considered compromised by the police there unless there is a cryptographically secure way with a Certificate Authority not controlled within Canadian or US borders.

Violation of the Canadian Constitution and Privacy

[WillAffleckUW]

Unlike the USA, Canada has a fairly recent Constitution which explicitly includes the Right of Privacy.

Which includes not having your info slurped up by police without a specific warrant on you as a person.

There are no exceptions.

It has been ruled so by the Canadian Supreme Court.

(caveat: I only wrote Canadian Army regs based on it, so IANAL just someone who had to implement it's provisions)

Re:Violation of the Canadian Constitution and Priv

[PolygamousRanchKid]

There are no exceptions.

Well, if your security clearance is high enough, you will find that there is concept of "Double Secret Probation."

This is the exception to "there are no exceptions."

Personal note: my father grew up near Calgary (Rosebud) and studied at Edmonton. Later he built radar stations for RCA in northern Canada. I didn't learn of this until after he died. The American spooks required him to get a USA citizenship. When my father asked why that was necessary, the spooks said that if he spied for the Russians, they couldn't hang him, as a Canadian national.

From what my mom told me, when he was at the radar construction sites, they were under constant surveillance from Canadian spooks. All telephone calls were recorded. Hey, but that was during the Cold War.

So with these Stingrays, are we returning to old Cold War practices . . . ?