May 31, 2018

Voting made easy in Ontario.

I felt compelled to share this.

I work on a ship, which just happens to be super busy at the moment. My commanding officer approached me and asked me to do some research on voting options for our ship's crew in the Ontario provincial election, as most of them hadn't gone to the advance polls or applied for special ballots before coming back to work for a month. Given our current agenda and preparations we're all making for an upcoming remote trip, we didn't even think we'd be in a port to vote at all... which seemed like such a shame.

Unlike in federal elections, I discovered that you can't just walk in to any polling station and vote. It has to be in your home district. I called Elections Ontario to see if we had any options at all, as about 15 of our crew live in this province. I was basically told no, and I felt upset and angry that our voices would be overlooked simply because of the nature of our jobs. I don't know about my crewmates, but my voter card hadn't arrived in the mail before I left for work. The gentleman on the phone explained to me that special ballot applications generally take a couple days to process, and by the time the ballots arrived in the mail it'd probably be too late... but I decided it was worth a shot anyway.

I printed out the special ballot applications and the e-mail I received from Elections Ontario, along with an explanation for the crew, and urged them to bring me their applications and I would scan them to Elections Ontario with their ID. Only three of us bothered, because it seemed like a waste of time. I sent everything in, and in my e-mail to Elections Ontario I explained what our situation was and asked if they could please expediate the applications and courier them to our work address. Maybe, just maybe, they would have arrived in time.

We got a phone call last night from someone at Elections Ontario, who told us that someone would be driving our special ballots up to us. It's about a 4-hour round trip. We actually delayed our sailing today to wait for the ballots to arrive, and just when we had given up and prepped to depart, they showed up. We voted quickly and put everything in the proper envelopes. The crew stood around deck and waited for me to run to the mail room and back, ballots in tow, in this torturous humidity and with not a breath left when I returned. The gangway was lifted 5 minutes later.

Somehow, by the good graces of our incredible election staff, we were able to vote. What seemed like a long shot and a pretty unfortunate situation turned out to be quite a story. And I'm telling it because it's such a stark difference from what our neighbours to the south are dealing with. Voting should never, ever be out of reach. It should never be a way to shut people out and silence them. I think the employee who drove them up far exceeded expectations, but what stood out to me was that what they told my colleague on the phone was, "We just want you to be able to vote, so we're going to make sure you can." I'm blown away. We all were.

Just incredible. I'm proud of my province for this, especially as it was a tough situation. Bravo to Elections Ontario for going the extra mile... literally.

May 10, 2017

Scared - Tragically Hip

This song has been playing in my head over and over in the last month, every day that I hear more bullshit coming from the White House. It seems appropriate for what everyone has been feeling since yesterday afternoon.

I could make you scared, if you want me to
I'm not prepared, but if I have to
He said, I can make you scared, it's kind of what I do
If you're prepared, here's what I propose to do

You're in Russia and a more than a million works of art
Are whisked out to the woods
When the Nazis find the whole place dark
They'll think god's left the museum for good

I can make you scared, if that's what I do
If you're prepared, and if I have to
If I make you scared, and you pay me to
That's the deal, now here's what I can do for you

Now there's a focus group that can prove
This is all nothing but cold calculation

Tests have shown that suspicious are hostile
Their lives need not be shortened
Truth be told, they can live a long, long while
Tickled to death by their importance

If you can make me scared, if that's what you do
If I'm unclear, can I get out of this thing with me and you
If you feel scared, and a bit confused
I got to say, this sounds a little beyond anything I'm used to

Now there's a precious few that can prove at the root
This is all nothing but cold calculation

Clearly entranced, you're heading back now
Defanged destroyer limps into the bay
Down at the beach it's attracting quite a crowd
As kids wade through the blood out to it to play

Okay, you made me scared, you did what you set out to do
I'm not prepared, you really had me going there for a minute or two
He said, you made me scared too, I wasn't sure I was getting through
I got to go, it's been a pleasure doing business with you

April 4, 2017

Someone is spying on cellphones in Ottawa

A months-long CBC News/Radio-Canada investigation has revealed that someone is using devices that track and spy on cellphones in the area around Parliament Hill.

The devices are known as IMSI catchers and have been used by Canadian police and security authorities, foreign intelligence and even organized crime.

The devices, sometimes known by the brand name of one model, StingRay, work by mimicking a cellphone tower to interact with nearby phones and read the unique ID associated with the phone — the International Mobile Subscriber Identity, or IMSI.

That number can then be used to track the phone and by extension the phone's user. In some instances, IMSI catchers can even be used to gain access to a phone's text messages and listen in on calls.

To do the investigation, our journalists used a device that detects IMSI catchers created by the German company GSMK. While it looks like a regular cellphone, the CryptoPhone emits an alert when a fake cellphone antenna intercepts its signal.

Media in the United States, Norway and Australia have done similar tests, but this is the first time it's been used by a media outlet in Canada.

During tests in December and January, the CryptoPhone set off alerts at locations around Parliament Hill, including the nearby Byward Market, the Rideau Centre shopping mall and CBC offices in downtown Ottawa.

Because IMSI catchers have a radius of about half a kilometre in an urban setting, the IMSI catchers CBC detected could reach territory including Parliament Hill, the Prime Minister's Office in Langevin Block, National Defence headquarters, as well as the U.S. and Israeli embassies.

We then used even more sophisticated equipment called an Overwatch Sensor that confirmed the presence of an IMSI catcher close to Parliament Hill.

Who is behind it?

We wanted to know more about who might be using the IMSI catcher or catchers that we detected, so we asked the U.S. supplier of the CryptoPhone to analyze the alerts we were getting.

ESD America specializes in counterintelligence and its clients include U.S. Homeland Security.

"Consistently you've been seeing IMSI catcher activity, definitely," said CEO and co-founder Les Goldsmith, when we took our results to the company's Las Vegas office.

"Somebody could be listening to calls right now and [the phone owners] have no idea," he said.

As for who might be behind it, Goldsmith says IMSI catchers are used by law enforcement, federal agencies as well as organized crime and foreign intelligence.

Based on the configurations suggested by CBC's results, he believes the IMSI catchers detected in Ottawa could be foreign made.

"We're seeing more IMSI catchers with different configurations and we can build a signature. So we're seeing IMSI catchers that are more likely Chinese, Russian, Israeli and so forth," he said.

Foreign spies?

We also showed our results to an expert in Canadian security.

He knows a lot about IMSI catchers and comes from a Canadian security agency. We agreed to conceal his identity in order not to jeopardize that security work.

The expert found the results of our investigation disturbing.

"That an MP or a person who works on Parliament Hill could be exposed, that they could be a victim of this type of attack— it undermines our sovereignty," he said.

Based on his experience, he sees two very different potential explanations for the results. One domestic, the other foreign.

He said Russia has used IMSI catchers in Canada before.

"We learned that Russian intelligence was parked near CSIS with equipment on board to do IMSI catching. After X number of days or weeks, they're capable of identifying the IMSI numbers that belong to intelligence officers because the phones were spending eight hours a day in the same spot."

He said when the Russians would do their next clandestine operation, they would use an IMSI catcher to see if any of the numbers associated with Canadian intelligence were nearby. If there were, they would call off the operation.

The Russian Embassy rejects any allegation that Russians have used IMSI catchers in Ottawa.

"Any suggestions as to that kind of activities are bogus and baseless," said an embassy spokesperson.

A representative from the Chinese Embassy told us it was "not only unreasonable but even irresponsible" to suggest that country would be involved in the activity.

Israel said it had no knowledge of the issue, and the United States declined to comment.

Canadian spies?

Our security expert suggested the IMSI catchers we saw might be the work of a domestic agency, like Canada's electronic spy agency, the Communication Security Establishment.

"One possibility is that the Communications Security Establishment has been mandated to monitor the network for protection purposes, in a defensive way," he said.

CSE said it's not allowed to do that.

"To be clear, by law, CSE is not permitted to direct its activities at Canadians anywhere or at anyone in Canada, " a spokesperson said in a statement, adding that CSE respects the law.

How an IMSI catcher works

IMSI catchers pretend to be a cellphone tower to attract nearby cell signals and intercept the unique ID number associated with your phone, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity or IMSI.

Police use of IMSI catchers

Last June it was revealed the RCMP uses IMSI catchers in its work. A Quebec Superior Court lifted a publication ban to reveal police were using the technology as part of an investigation into the 2011 death of Salvatore (Sal the Ironworker) Montagna, a high-ranking member of a New York crime family killed outside Montreal.

Court documents show the RCMP:

Purchased its first IMSI catcher in 2005.
Has used IMSI catchers in numerous investigations.
Keeps information about the cellphones of ordinary Canadians detected in the course of some investigations.
Recognizes phones may be affected while an IMSI catcher is in use, including possible delays in reaching 911.
The documents also show the RCMP obtained court authorization to use the IMSI catcher, which the RCMP refer to as a mobile device interceptor, or MDI.

Recent court proceedings may also shed light on the degree to which police are reluctant to discuss their use of the devices. Last month, lawyers for the federal government issued stays of proceedings against three dozen suspects out of the nearly 50 people rounded up in an operation targeting the Montreal Mafia.

A Crown prosecutor told reporters one of the reasons was that evidence gathered by the RCMP raised "unprecedented legal questions," but declined to say more.

Some privacy experts believe the Crown is concerned about whether their use of IMSI catchers — including debates about how the data is collected — will hold up in court.

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Municipal police forces use the technology as well. The Vancouver police have acknowledged they borrowed an RCMP IMSI catcher in 2007 and said they would use the technology again.

CBC News obtained documents showing that in 2016, Winnipeg police, Durham Regional Police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had also gotten a licence from federal public safety officials to purchase an IMSI catcher.

Who is using IMSI catchers in Ottawa?

We reached out to police, security agencies, embassies and the federal government to ask if they were involved in the IMSI catchers we detected.

The Department of National Defence said it had no knowledge of IMSI catchers being used on the dates we saw activity.

The Department of Public Safety, the Ottawa Police Service, the RCMP and CSIS all gave similar responses: They don't discuss specific investigative techniques but they do follow the law, respect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and adhere to the appropriate judicial processes.

The detection of the devices is troubling to Teresa Scassa, Canada Research Chair in Information Law at the University of Ottawa.

Even if the technology is being used by public authorities, Scassa sees reason to be concerned.

She points to a lack of transparency if Canadians are only learning in 2017 that the RCMP has had an IMSI catcher since 2005.

She also said it's not clear whether the authorities always get a warrant. Even when they do, there are still questions about what happens to the information of other people caught up in the investigation, Scassa said.

"Is it destroyed? Is it retained? Is it used for other purposes? It's not always clear that warrants contain conditions that require something specific to be done with the information afterwards."

Given that many groups may have access to IMSI catchers, Scassa argues there is a lot more the government could be doing to protect Canadians' privacy.

She believes agencies that use IMSI catchers should be required to get a warrant whenever the devices are used, destroy information that is intercepted but not related to the investigation and to report to the privacy commissioner about some key pieces of information, like how often they are used and in what context.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/imsi-cellphones-spying-ottawa-1.4050049


This is scary as hell, given what's happening in the US. Mcleans warned that the Russians were coming after Canada. CSIS better set up camp all over Ottawa and Gatineau.

March 15, 2017

Trump Immigration policies kiill work visas for specialized Canadian nurses

Canadian nurses working at Michigan hospitals were shocked last week when border security officers stopped them from entering the U.S. because of changes to their working visas under new immigration policies.

Staff at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital heard reports of nurses unable to renew their working visas. Last week, a new Canadian hire at Henry Ford tried to go to work, but was turned away at the Windsor-Detroit border.

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She was told advanced practice nurses and nurse anesthetists no longer qualify for the working visas because of policy changes under U.S. President Donald Trump.

"We really question the motives," said immigration lawyer Marc Topoleski, whose firm is retained by the hospital. "All of the immigration executive orders and all the things being rolled out have been focused on national security first, and this is clearly not an issue of national security whatsoever."

'Livelihoods are at stake'

Only advanced practice nurses and nurse anesthetists are being rejected. All Canadian nurses working in the U.S. have non-immigrant NAFTA professional (TN) visas.

An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Canadians work in the U.S with TN visas, which allow experts in certain fields — like economics and science — a fast track, provided they have a job offer.

Henry Ford Hospital alone has hundreds of Canadians on staff, with about 25 advanced practice nurses or nurse anesthetists with TN visas.

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"Some of these things are surprising," said Patrick Irwin, vice-president human resources at Henry Ford Hospital. "We have always been able to qualify these nurses under the TN category."

CBC News contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection for an interview, but has yet to get a response.

Hospital officials said they're doing everything they can to resolve this issue.

"Their livelihood is at stake," Topoleski said. "They don't know why this is happening, they don't understand why it's happening. All they've been doing is just coming here and helping Americans get better by providing patient care."

Michigan's Council of Nurse Practitioners is trying to make their members aware of possible problems at the border, according to executive director Olivia McLaughlin.

"It's obviously concerning for a number of reasons," she said. "This seems like a recent opinion that is affecting the renewals."

The nurses have been advised they need to apply for H1B visa status, which is a separate category under NAFTA for more specialized employment. But those applications can cost between $3,000 and $4,000 depending on the applicant, according to Topoleski.

Henry Ford Hospital job fair in Windsor a hit at Caboto Club
Other policy changes recently announced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will suspend a fast-track program for processing H1B applications as of April 3.

Standard application processes for work visas could then take six months or more, said Topoleski, who worries long wait times could hurt hospitals that are in desperate need of specialty nurses.

"These specialty nurses are hard to find. There's more positions than there are people available," Topoleski said. "They're coming here to help our patients. I just don't understand what the policy goal is by doing something like this, it just makes absolutely no sense."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/canadian-nurses-working-in-us-rejected-1.4026554

March 15, 2017

Canadian volunteers denied entry into US so they wouldn't "steal American jobs"

This is from yesterday. I didn't see it posted yet, so apologies if it was.

Kaper-Dale, who said the group had been co-ordinating their stay at the New Jersey church for months, was frustrated and shocked by the incident.

"We've hosted other Canadian groups, and we've always been appreciative of their coming, and no Canadian group has ever had any issue at the border."

He said he'd never had to send out a letter before, and believed that the changes were a reflection of political changes in the U.S.

"If you can't get a church van with 12 white folks through [the border], how much worse is it for any person of colour, any person born somewhere else, any person whose name sounds foreign to an [Immigration, Customs and Enforcement] officer, or any refugee?"

Hoeksema said all members of the Hamilton group were carrying Canadian passports and had previously travelled to the U.S. with no incident.

"We probably would've gotten through if we'd just said we were visiting," he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/hamilton/hamilton-church-volunteers-denied-entry-to-u-s-so-they-wouldn-t-steal-american-jobs-1.4022969

March 12, 2017

I made Trump cookies...

My work let me order a bunch of cookie cutters online, and while shopping I discovered a Trump cookie cutter. And naturally, I bought it. My crew has a pretty good sense of humour and they unanimously hate Trump, so I had a little fun mixing confections and politics.


http://m.imgur.com/gallery/Svdp5Wa

http://m.imgur.com/gallery/2AVObnx

http://m.imgur.com/gallery/9gngBL3