Police State Canada - No Press Freedom Under Capitalist Oligarchy

ministry of tokyo Capitalist Police State Canada No Press Freedom Under Capitalist Oligarchy CAPITALIST POLICE STATE CANADA http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-police-monitored-iphone-of-la-presse-journalist-patrick-lagace http://archive.is/avRSY Montreal police monitored iPhone of La Presse journalist Patrick Lagacé Karen Seidman, Montreal Gazette Paul Cherry, Montreal Gazette    Published on: November 1, 2016 | Last Updated: November 1, 2016 11:51 AM EDT Montreal police strongly defended a highly controversial decision to spy on a La Presse columnist by tracking his cellphone calls and texts and monitoring his whereabouts as part of a necessary internal police investigation — while the journalist involved called what they did “indefensible.” “Lives were not at stake, this was not a question of national security,” La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé said in an interview Monday. “The leaks made them look bad, that’s why they decided to go after me in the way they did.” Opposition politicians are also condemning Montreal police for spying on Lagacé, though Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre stood by police chief Philippe Pichet on Monday, noting that a mayor should not intervene in police operations, but did say he was troubled by the news. For several months this year, police were monitoring Lagacé’s iPhone to determine the identity of his sources, La Presse reported. This was confirmed to Lagacé last Thursday by Montreal police. At least 24 surveillance warrants were granted by courts in 2016, at the request of the Montreal police department’s special investigations section, which probes crime within the police force. The warrants allowed police to track the telephone numbers of incoming and outgoing calls on Lagacé’s phone, and to monitor the phone’s location, although Pichet denied at a hastily convened press conference Monday that the GPS on his phone was monitored. Lagacé said he is sure many judges around the world have been asked by police departments to grant similar warrants, but refused because it was too “vulgar” to spy on a reporter. “It was incredibly aggressive,” he said, questioning the judgment of the judge involved. Warrants obtained in relation to internal investigation The surveillance warrants were obtained as part of Project Escouade, which involved allegations that police investigators specializing in street gangs and drug trafficking fabricated evidence. Five police officers were arrested this summer, and two were charged. One of the officers targeted by Escouade was Fayçal Djelidi. By monitoring his cellphone, Montreal police detected contact between Djelidi and Lagacé, La Presse reported. Djelidi was arrested in July and is charged with nine counts, including perjury, attempting to obstruct justice, breach of trust by a public officer and obtaining sexual services for consideration. The controversial outgoing boss of internal affairs at the Montreal police department, Costa Labos, told La Presse that he gave the green light to the surveillance. On Friday it was announced that Labos has been transferred to the telecommunications department, but there is no evidence the move is related to the surveillance controversy. While Projet Montréal called on the police chief to step aside temporarily to permit an independent investigation, Pichet said Monday it was an “exceptional situation,” which warranted the action. “I’m saying in an exceptional situation we can use that type of tool,” he said in response to a reporter’s question during a 15-minute press conference at police headquarters Monday. He said the journalist was never under investigation, it was the police. “We do have a responsibility to investigate all types of crimes involving officers,” he said. He repeated several times how important freedom of the press is, but said the investigation was of a criminal nature and warranted the measures taken. “What is important for me is that all regulations were followed,” Pichet said, adding that there are no other similar surveillances to his knowledge. The police chief also said that Montreal city hall wasn’t involved in the investigation and Coderre found out about it in Monday’s La Presse.  Police met with Lagacé to explain the operation, said Pichet, but Lagacé said he is less concerned with such courtesies than with the principles involved. “I’m not an investigative journalist and they did this to me,” Lagacé said, adding that after what Pichet said at the press conference “this is now free game and not taboo anymore.” Coderre blamed for climate of “paranoia” Calling the spying “worrisome,” Quebec Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux said his department is looking into whether police followed proper procedures. He said a free press is important but noted that it’s also “important that there is independence between political power, judicial power and the power of police.” At a press conference, Coderre said he spoke to Pichet on Monday morning to tell him he was troubled by the case. He said he did not ask for details about the Lagacé surveillance or whether police are closely monitoring other reporters. “There is a process and we have to understand that right now it’s in front of the court and that there’s a judge who signed all the paperwork,” Coderre said. However, Lagacé said that while Coderre may never have been directly involved in the operation, he blamed the mayor for creating a climate that enabled it to happen — a climate of “paranoia” regarding leaks about the city and pressure on Pichet to curb such incidents. Éric Trottier, vice-president of information at La Presse, denounced the surveillance, saying it “constitutes an attack against the institution of the press and against the journalistic profession.” Sébastien Pierre-Roy, a lawyer representing La Presse, said it may be “the first time in Canada that we’ve learned that a police force has gone so far as to obtain private information from a journalist with the express purpose of identifying one of his sources relevant to that investigation.” Lagacé said late Monday afternoon that after a long day of doing interviews on the topic, he was still reeling from the whole thing. “This is uncharted territory,” he said. “I didn’t think something like this could be possible.” http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-police-monitored-iphone-of-la-presse-journalist-patrick-lagace http://archive.is/avRSY Seeing Canada is among the mass surveilling capitalist prison states whose prisoner populations are spied on, by capitalist serving prison warders in Canada, the US, UK, Australia & New Zealand, this isn't surprising. Lying, violating, hypocritical, psychopathic capitalist control respects no limits. Nothing is privileged under totalitarian capitalist rule, and what is referred to as 'press freedom' in the West is a lie. The press is there to publish capitalist serving propaganda.  That is the true press role.  The rest is lies that maintain the edifice of capitalist dictatorship. Rarely, does the capitalist-controlled press step out of line.  Mostly it stays within the confines of publishing propaganda, indoctrination and utter manure, that is in the capitalist publisher's interests, and class-interests, to publish. Of course, the corrupt capitalist-serving Canadian government will go after anyone that dares publish the truth, along with aggressively targeting whistleblowers who make known the ruling capitalist agents' violations.