Editor's Notes Special Edition Autumn 2013

 

 

A First Nation's recent refusal to "have coffee" with an agent of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was an act of courage and wisdom.

Here is the conversation that Clifton Nicholas recorded, at right or click http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/09/20/csis-agent-targets-kanesatake-man-over-greece-trip-recording/ to read the full story first.

 

The CSIS employs many decent people who work such as analysts and translators but like hockey coaches who want dirty work done on the ice, the CSIS hires those with psychopathic personalities who are happy to commit anything from character assassination to systematic psychological torture. 

 

For those recruited by the CSIS who have any kind of conscience and become disturbed by the required dirty work, there is a secret therapy clinic at the University of Ottawa that serves to reinforce CSIS agents on the verge of nervous breakdowns.

 

While we live in a democracy, the CSIS thugs are quite happy to instill fear in targets that in effect puts the latter in personal police states. Out of unwarranted fear these victims often eventually become tools that the CSIS can manipulate at will.

 

Distinguished experts in the field such as Reg Whitaker, professor of political science at York University, the author (with Gary Marcuse) of Cold War Canada who has published widely on politics, security, intelligence, and informational power in the modern world, and award-winning journalist John Sawatsky, For Services Rendered, both advised that it's best not to talk with the secret service at all.

 

But if you can't avoid it, make sure you have a witness. And if at all, possible, record the conversation then go public with it as Mr. Nicholas has done.

 

In the name of democracy the CSIS commits crimes against humanity. Like all bureaucracies — especially those that operate in a shroud of secrecy — the best way to defend your freedom as defined under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms is to go public whenever your freedom of association is being challenged.

In 1984, the Federal Government of Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, against a background of exposed dirty tricks by the Security Service of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), passed an Act of Parliament that removed security intelligence activities from the RCMP and established the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Unfortunately, the CSIS picked up too many bad habits of its predecessor.

It is conventional wisdom that any bureaucracy that exists in a shroud of secrecy is not to be trusted.

The best protection against CSIS bullying, involving any coercive prompting that is contrary to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is to go public. Write your member of parliament and the prime minister, and a letter to the editor. In today's world, and given the apparent disinterest of all of the former, the best bet is to go public in the way that Mr. Nicholas did.

The CSIS, like the RCMP SS, studies and practices character assassination and systematic psychological torture entirely contrary to the letter and spirit of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If you are subject to this behaviour, don’t be cowed, stand up and make your outrage known. Keep firmly in mind that we live in a democracy. Bullies only have the authority that we allow them.

We live in a great country. We should not allow our liberties to be taken away from us by those who commit crimes against humanity in the name of democracy.

Meanwhile, take it easy, but take it.

Looking forward.