• Invoking Emergencies Act against convoy protests was unreasonable, court rules - YouTube
    Infringed 'Charter rights’. 2B Freedom of Expression. 8 Search and Seizure. Didn't find any infringement on Movement.
    Finding was very different than the the ‘public inquiry’, the Merlo Commission which had found that what the government did was ok.
    At the time, there was a lot of talk about the ‘CSIS defintion of a naitonal threat.’ Justice Mosley said it doesn't matter if CSIS says that, although it might have weight and be considered. ... The seizing and freezing of bank accounts affected people beyond those they were trying to affect. ... Unreasonable invocation of the Emergencies Act.
    Judge said this is why it's important to have thes public interest litigants [CCLA] to bring these cases forward.
    #Canada #HumanRights
    The CCLA hadn't asked for costs or any remedy other than a declaration.
    ‘Canadian government’ expected to appeal.
    What happens when a court finds a democratic government violates the Constitution? Can a person who is a PM/President retain authority after they have publicly broken the law against many people and violated a whole nation? and how can they hope to afterwards talk about other people as criminals?
    Trudeau government has been saying that ‘economic harm’ can constitute ‘a national threat to Canada.’ Nope. ‘Gaslighting’ Court rules Trudeau's invocation of Emergencies Act was UNREASONABLE and UNCONSTITUTIONAL - YouTube
    Government lost on all measures, not just one. Everything they did, basically, was illegal (unconstitutional) (except perhaps againts Movement).
    The Trudeau Regime Just Got a Whole Lot Worse - YouTube

    FBI DEFIES Judge’s Order To Turn Over Seth Rich’s Laptop! - YouTube

    Supreme Court may reel in power of federal agencies in major case - YouTube
    Medicine, air quality. Who has power to decide? The government-created agencies or the courts, in deciding how to interpret laws? Fishing agency forces fishing boats to carry a government observer on their boat and to pay for it. Currently, courts defer to these types of agencies. ‘That’s where the government almost automatically wins. The government's argument just has to be within the realm of acceptibility, the realm of plausibility.' But the fishermen are saying the agency is overstepping. Lower judges are instructed they have to rule in the government's favor. 40-year precedent. Decision expected in June.
    Healthcare, things won't ‘move as smoothly.’
    #CivilRights
    We investigated the German farmer protests - YouTube

    Supreme Court Vacates Rulings Against Vaccine Mandates - YouTube
  • Court Orders Police to Give Man's Phone Back After 175M Failed Password Attempts - YouTube
    In Ottawa, Canada. How long should they be allowed to keep it? How many passcode guesses? They wanted to keep the phones for 2 years. They use a dictionary of passwords, leetspeak, and numbers. Takes about days to test 30m passcodes, but depends if the password is in the dictionary. Software (Mentalist) allows them to generate passcodes customized to what's known about the suspect.
    The judge is framing it as a property rights question, not a privacy rights question.

    Proposed Law Would Block Use of Bodycam Footage on YouTube - YouTube
    ‘Seeks to protect women’ and ‘young’ individuals also languaged, ‘young women’. Open public records act requests. Leveraged for gains on SM.

    State Court OKs Warrantless Searches Based on 'Nonverbal' Gestures - YouTube
    Wyoming.
    ‘Based on believed’ consent. What if the person who opens the door is just a visitor? Good faith belief. ‘Believed authority to consent.’ A smart officer will now just not ask if the residence is theirs, but will just say ‘Can I come in?’ and on ‘good faith’ believe the person had authority to consent nonverbally. If a man shrugs his shoulders, they can assume that means ‘I don’t care go ahead and search' when actually he meant ‘Why are you asking me that? its’ not my place' when he shrugged. Things that before would have meant the police don't have consent now mean the police do have.

    Court Allows Suit to be Served Via Bitcoin Wallet - YouTube
    #Crypto

    Canadian customs officers could soon be based in U.S. for the first time - YouTube
    ‘Preclearance.’
    Canadian guards would arrest people wanted under US law.
    Border guards and their lawyers didn't evne know about this until journalists at CBC just called them to comment on the story. They have a lot of concerns, and don't know anything about how it would work.
    Are all laws in Canada passed in secret from anyone they might affect? because it seems to be this way a lot.

    900 Wrongful Convictions in British Post Office Scandal - YouTube
    #UK
    Not accused. Convicted. Because of a faulty computer system. Left them ‘bankrupt and bronken.’ Fixed after a TV docudrama roused public support, not before, not even after then news published on it. The State owned post office maintained that Horizon (their software) was reliable and said the branch managers were guilty. Some went to prison, some were bankrupt trying to defend themselves, became community pariahs, accused of stealing, marriages fell apart.
    Similar problem happened years ago in Michigan, Lehto said, to handle what they wanted to be an easy way to deal with unemployment claims, flagging people falsely of receiving fraudlently obtained unemployment money, and prosecuted them, saying they had to pay the money back. Class actions were served. Trusting machines to do our thinking for us, and make decisions for us.

    Huge Civil Asset Forfeiture Win for the Marine - YouTube
    #Nevada
    How many civil asset forfeitures happen in the US?

    Man Sues 27 Women for Comments on 'Are We Dating the Same Guy?' - YouTube
    Apparently there are Facebook groups like this for regions/cities. Sometimes it's someone's husband or wife.
    Relatedly, the state is looking at new legislation to prevent sharing of personal information online.

    GREAT 2A DECISION: Federal Judge Rules Post Offices ARE NOT Sensitive Places! - YouTube
    (Didn't watch.)

    The current legislation limiting big tech is not meaningful. Of all the big fines handed out to the big tech companies last year, the biggest fine was paid off in 7 days. Andy Yen. You can't change those companies behavior unless you're forced to. DMA coming into force this year in Europe though.

    Saskatoon passengers landing in Orlando told they 'entered the country illegally' - YouTube
    A staff member opened the wrong door so they didn't pass through customs.

    Madonna sued by fans in New York over late concert start time | BBC News - YouTube

    Is the ‘Panemic Treaty’ the next ‘Patriot Act’?

    Reports Ireland govt is trying to make new hate speech laws so citizens can't complain about immigration, which perhaps they majority oppose?
    Will Sin Fein become increasingly the nationalist party?

    Police Called To Stop Filming During Piano Livestream - YouTube
    This is something legislatures are going to have to decide. Should people be unrestricted in where they film/livestream? Do public spaces belong to people who don't care about others who may not want to be in their videos? or does it belong to people who would limit the ability of others to film?
    #CivilRights
  • “Prime minister Modi's effort to dismantle India's democracy and install a racist Hindu ethnocracy in its place.” - Chompsky, on the head of the opposition party in India being thrown in jail.



  • First of its kind bill, passed in the state.

    “to protect individuals from government surveillance in their personal finances through a CBDC." ... “the efforts to impose a central bank digital currency, which would shift purchasing power from consumers to the government.”

    “weaponization of the financial system through a CBDC.”



  • "It improves transparency" said lawmaker, to require news and other orgs that receive more that 20% of their rev from external to register as 'foreign agents'.

     

  • Days after US Congress made headlines for being set to ban TikTok on government devices.

     

  • It's still platformed on Rumble.


    Greenwald said Musk's definition is NOT the standard he is now using on Twitter.



    He's banning things that could not be interpreted as illegal. He's banning things that someone (many people or himself personally) find repugnant.

    A week later, headlines criticized Musk because he suspended accounts of journalists who had been tweeting the location of his private jet or something. He responded, 'You're not special because your a journalist. You dox you get suspended.'
     


  • Another example of how things go along (although philosophically opposed by many) until there's an actual contention, and then true colors are displayed.

     
  • Supreme Court strikes NY law (as unconstitutional) that required permits for concealed guns

    Before, New Yorkers had to show they had self-defense needs to get the permit.

    NY mayor not happy, nor Biden. It affects 40 states, Biden said.

    NY can still require people get licenses on condition of things like background checks and mental health records, said an analyst. They can also limit guns in places like overcroweded places, courts, maybe trains.

    Getting a gun is the same as before in NY. You still have to go through the same process to get a license. What is different is that anyone who has that license can concealed carry.

     
  • Japan announced up to $2000 and 1 year jail terms for online insults

    They already have the law, but it calls for a fine of $75 and no more than 30 days in jail.

    An actress killed herself two years ago, and in last days she was sharing some of the insults she had received online. This law change is considered to be related.

    Lawmakers added a provision that they would reexamine the law in 3 years, and if the impact was positive it would remain.

     

  • This video gives an idea of how China is managing its cities during the pandemic April 2022 (2 years after the start, but after the latest Omicron strain, when China locked down Shanghai again). Lots of images.

    Lower immunity from natural infection - uniquely vulnerable. It was a source of national pride for Chinese that their case numbers had been so low, and they had so 'successfully' weathered the pandemic relative to other countries, although their strict lockdowns of cities caused economic and other problems (such as other health problems due to lack of diagnosis and treatment, access to medicine, etc, psychological problems from isolation, social issues from lack of socialization - it has been said (by Mill in the following terms) that the necessity of the mental wellbeing of people (on which all their other wellbeings depend) lies in freedoms) as well as extreme tracking and monitoring through electronic devices and registration. Some say the Chinese see the issue politically, as the Chinese system versus the West, so it may be less likely China would now permit opening the cities and having more infections, because of the images that would be shown to the world.
     

  • 200k cameras in Moscow can identify protesters. Also in Ukraine to identify people killed in the war to tell their families.

    There's no control over false positives.

     
  • Sometimes people are making anti-suicide statements

    John McAfee did this a while ago, I guess when he first started to become concerned he would be 'suicided,' as people are calling it (coining a verb the way we coined 'disappeared' for what happens frequently in China and like Russia).

    He had made a video statement, where he said he was not suicidal and he wouldn't be, and expressed his reasons why not, and said if he was ever reported to have committed suicide, it would be false.

    But this year I've seen another person, a YouTuber, make a similar statement. And whenever YouTubers blog on controversial issues, many of the comments ask or mention this possibility for them.

  • Reportedly, Latvia and Czech Republic have made it illegal to support Russia

    That basically means Speech.

    25% of Latvia is Russians.

    Czech said 1-3 years possible for supporting Russia.

  • Feds are buying data about people from a company that gets it from several apps

    If you are an app developer, and you sell your app data to some company, it can be used this way.

    Some of these apps are for things like gay dating (Bro) and religious prayer and study (Muslim Pro, an app that notifies people 5 times per day it's time for them to pray) (Full Quran, an audio book of the Quran), as well as one where people upload their faces and do virtual makeup on it (Perfect365).

     

  • Arsenal Consulting

     
  • PM Trudeau invokes 'emergencies act' against truckers

    Gives extra powers to police and Fed gov can now freeze bank accounts of the truckers and anyone associated with them (participating in roadblock, funding them), It also means they can revoke insurance on the trucks.

    Reportedly, it also expands tax-funded terrorism and money-laundering laws to include crowdfunding websites.

    GiveSendGo has ignored an order and given some of the millions raised for the trucker protest (from countries all over).

     
  • Minister who crafted Canadian Charter suing government for violating it

    "I'm the only first minister (of those who drafted the Charter in the early 1980s) left alive who was at that conference and helped draft these freedoms and these rights and the Constitution Act of 1982 itself. And I do this very reluctantly. I've been watching this thing for two years, I've been speaking out about it ... and I've come to the conclusion now that I must as a Canadian and as one of the writers and founders of the Constitution Act of 1982, not only speak about it. I must act about it. I must show Canadians that I'm so concerned as a citizen and as a former first minister ... that I must take action against my own government because they have violated rights that I and others helped craft in 1981-1982." - Brian Peckford

    "There is a section in Charter of Rights and Freedoms which allows governments to override these freedoms in unusual circumstance. And I remember this very well when we were crafting the constitution. These unusual circumstances, because of putting it in the constitution, it's not a Federal act or a provincial act, it's in a constitution which is supposed to enshrine permanent values and give glue to the country. So this Section One can only be used, and I remember this well, in times of peril, in times of war and insurrection, or when the State is in peril, when the existence of the State is in peril."

    "Even in the extreme circumstance that you try to make Section One apply ... then there are four tests that had to be met in order for it to apply. That means it must be demonstrably justified that what the action is is worthwhile. In other words, some kind of cost-benefit analysis must be done by law, it must be done within reasonable limits, and fourthly and most importantly, all those three must be done within the context of a free and democratic society. And a free and democratic society to me means parliamentary democracy in our country. We have 14 parliaments, and they have all been completely silent. There's no parliamentary committee anywhere in any of those 14 parliaments looking at what's happening to our country. There are the people's representatives."

    He said that newspapers in the country, which in the past did carry his letters when he wanted to comment on some public policy, but since he started talking this way, they have not carried his letters, or even acknowledged that they've received his letters.

    He noted that lots of news organizations in the country have received money from the government. Over $600m.

    His legal team is basing their claim on the freedom of mobility guarantee (since he has to specify something). He commented that in Canada, the second largest country by land mass, freedom of travel was very important. The government has banned travel by plane and train (and sometimes highways, I've heard). "In other words, we can't travel across our own nation."

    (He said they also considered freedom of association, and freedom of assembly. "Lots of people and churches were prevented from getting together.") (And there's currently a curfew in Quebec.)

    "If us as first ministers had wanted to just have protecting rights and freedoms that could easily be changed, we wouldn't have gone to the constitution. We would have said, 'Just put an act in the Federal parliament, put acts in all the parliaments, and then up to the whim of the political party of the time to change it. We wanted to safeguard it, so it would be beyond the whim of political machinations and therefore could not be changed, only in the most extreme circumstances."

    He also noted that the Oaks Test (coming from a Supreme Court case in 1986) about what Section One meant, and [in the current situation] the lower courts have not looked at this test. This is highly unusual because the courts always look to the precedent set by the highest court ... in determining what they will do in their case. The absence of seeing the Oaks test in the lower courts is very troubling and is the other reason we must take this kind of action at this time."

    "And this is where I ... come down and say, 'We have to exhaust all of the civilized legal processes that we set up under our constitution. ..."

    When asked what the current process was, if not by parliamentary discussion and decision, for the government to take these actions, ever the Charter rights, Peckford said, "Here's where the most insidious part of this equation comes into play. What the governments have done is used, in many cases, existing legislation under which they have the power to make regulation. So they've used existing emergencies, legislation, and inflated it enough or interpreted it in a manner that they can also use in this circumstance and therefore issue additional regulation. And then in other cases, they did not fully explain or have a parliamentary committee look at other amendments when they opened their parliament and closed it within two or three days or a week. In other words, sufficient debate wasn't allowed to understand the repercussions of what they were doing, when they were giving more power to the minister and more power to the public health officer."

    He said it was worse than just not allowing debate, "because we had time. One can perhaps relieve or excuse, if one wants to, and say, For the first 90 days, when this thing began, you could make an argument that OK, the government's had to move. But in any rational way if they had used the emergency measures planning that was already in place, they would have moved to protect the vulnerable first. And then did a study on the rest. What else do we need to do in society. What they did is just a cart blanche over all of society without giving second thought to it."

    "... not only are the vaccines destructive. More destructive than any vaccine in our history, and that's a scientific fact, they have had time to adjust, and this is where they have not even been nimble."

    He discussed that many decisions are made by government based on opinion polling of Canadians in the street, but that the polls were sometimes affected by advertising and (government subsidized legacy media) news, saying "Here they are advertising that you've gotta get vaccinated, on the television, and they're actually even doing ads for children, and trying to talk to children directly through a public ad, so they're feeding off themselves. They're creating enough fear so they'll get the poll they want to get."

    "Canadians are very trusting of their government," he noted. (I've also noticed this a lot.)


     
  • "You can't legislate, judges can't solve these problems, you can't get FOIA requests to get the documents. You need whistle blowers." - James O'Keefe of Project Veritas

    "You need people on the inside who are brave enough to jump on a metaphorical grenade."


  • Texas abortion law

    "If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgements of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgements, the Constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery." - Chief Justice Roberts

    Currently, the Texas law is the strictest in the States, banning abortion after 6 weeks, when 90% of abortions happen. The Supreme Court (Conservative majority) said OK, 5-4, this is a weird new thing, we don't understand it yet, weird procedural question, but abortion providers haven't given us enough reason to tell Texan judges not to enforce it.

    R V Wade (1973) said 24 weeks. Are Women's rights being violated now, since abortions after 6 weeks are not being done. The Constitutionality won't be worked out, people say, until there's a real case brought forward (a lawsuit by a Texan--perhaps one of their anti-abortion groups like Right to Life) to be tried.

    The Texas law is enforced in a unique way, which is why Conservatives on the Supreme Court said they didn't have the power to intervene here. State officials don't enforce it. Individual Texans sue both providers and anyone who aids and abets an abortion. Doctors said they would comply by not doing abortions after 6 weeks.

    A civil avenue for any individual to sue anyone else for violating a certain law.

    Americans to a considerable but not overwhelming degree would favor laws against abortions in the 3rd trimester (80% according to Gallup) and a slight majority (60%) would favor laws for the 2nd trimester.

    Texas poll found 50% of Texas support making abortion illegal after 6 weeks. 67% of Republicans and 27% of Democrats said they supported these bills.

    (This story has been going on for a few months now.)
      
  • 'Transnational repression'

    'You are not allowed to be a popular person who is not working for them. Either you are their friend or you are their enemy, and that's it. You are their enemy because you tell what they don't want to be told.' - the guy they made Hotel Rwanda about, now a political activist outside of Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina.

    Rwanda got him. He was living as a legal resident in Texas, and tried to fly to Burundi through Dubai for something. He boarded a private plane in Dubai but it took him instead to Rwanda. (Admitted by Rwanda's justice minister) the Rwandan government paid for that plane. He was charged with terrorism and other crimes. However, from reports I saw he might have actually been funding and founding groups politically active in Rwanda. I can't comment on whether you would want to call them 'terrorist.'

    One of his daughters also was a target. Reportedly, the government hacked her phone and used it to listen in on her life, including meetings with lawyers.

    Transnational repression is the word people are using for part of this. Where governments use threats, intimidation, violence, assassination and murder to silence critics even when they're not in the country. Freedom House documents this.

    Some lawyers say he was kidnapped (by means of his illegal rendition to Rwanda). The government did not present a formal request for rendition, because, some lawyers say, this would have never passed a judge's test, and this is why they didn't do it legally (due process).

    His family is suing the private airline.

     
  • Justices denying anti-vaccine mandate cases

    "Mass General is Massachusetts's largest private employer with about 80,000 employees. Their vaccine mandate went into effect on November 5th. Non-compliant employees were subsequently fired. Several of them filed a lawsuit to prevent the vaccine mandate from taking effect.

    "Barrett declined the vaccine case from Indiana University and Breyer declined this one from Massachusetts. Six of the nine judges turned down a similar case from Maine. It's not looking hopeful for the anti-vaccine mandate crowd."

    This caused some commenters to say they think the Supreme Court has become part of the DeepState.

    But others have noted that this is a purely business decision, and working for a company is at-will in most jobs (a company can mandate you have to wear blue on mondays).

    Others noted that because the vaccines (mRNA) are still experimental (one of the biggest concerns of people not wanting to get or mandate them), forcing people to get them violates the Nuremburg Code (if people later die those who participated even in small ways in forcing people to undergo the procedure liable for deaths).

    #Pandemic #CivilRights #HumanRights

    Nuremberg Code — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum  
  • Halal (Muslim) and kosher (Jewish) food in Greece

    A recent law made permission for production of food products in these two ways.

    But on review, the Hellenic court annulled the permits because existing Greek law requires anesthesia for animals slaughtered, and said the halal and kosher production methods were 'inhumane' because they killed animals without first removing sensation to pain.

    In recent years, 5 northern and eastern European nations have banned ritual slaughter.

    #Animals #Greece #CivilRights
     
  • France dismissed an imam for sermon

    ... reportedly, it had something to do with something Imam Mmadi Ahamada said about the wives of Mohammad, which the French interior minister said was 'contrary to the values of the republic' ('against gender equality').

    Minister Gerald Darmanin asked the Loire governor's office to dismiss the imam and ensure his residence permit is not renewed.

    He's now had 2 imam's fired it seems.


  • Mexico decriminalized recreational marijuana

    ... by video conference, the Supreme Court 'recognized the right to the recreational use of marijuana.'

    It's still not legal. The Supreme Court can just cross out unconstitutional laws. Legalization (rules for consuming, growing and selling) is for the Senate and Congress.

  • DOJ used powers to legally spy on Journalists and elected members of Congress

    We don't know everything about the story, or what led to the Trump admin investigating journalists, because of the US's secrecy (even in its court trials).

    Rather than investigating the journalists, they went to the tech companies that had the emails and other information and served them not only a warrant for the information, but a gag order (non-disclosure order). Once the gag orders expired, companies were able to notify the journalists.

     

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