As Canadians geared up to watch the 55th Super Bowl, Liberal MP William Amos tweeted that the real “story of the season” was former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Kaerpernick is a free agent who hasn’t played on an NFL team since 2016, the year he made headlines for taking a knee during the US national anthem to protest anti-black racism.
Amos suggested Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes are part of a “cultural moment,” alongside the halftime performance by Canadian-born rapper The Weeknd, but added that Kaepernick’s spat with the NFL remains the real story.
“Where is the justice in him not being reintegrated?,” Amos asked.
Last year, Kaepernick published an essay calling for the abolition of police and prisons.
Kaepernick has filed legal action against the NFL alleging the league’s leaders colluded to keep him off the field due to his political views. He was given a private league-wide try out with all 32 NFL teams in 2019, but at the last minute he cancelled the session and held a public tryout at a nearby high school.
Kaepernick has yet to be signed by any team since leaving the 49ers.
On Sunday, Brady won his record-breaking seventh Super Bowl ring after the Buccaneers crushed the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9.
A Chinese artist known for his anti-Western designs has depicted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the Batman franchise villainess Harley Quinn.
According to the South China Morning Post, an online artist named Wuheqilin recently put out an illustration featuring Trudeau as the comic and movie character, complete with makeup and fishnet stockings.
The illustration was titled “BAT.” Other parts of the image include British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the Penguin and Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in a crucifixion pose.
Photo: Weibo
BAT was in response to a Canadian embassy employee making a custom T-shirt that offended the Chinese government. The T-shirt was alleged to be an altered logo of hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, with the group’s “W” logo altered to look like a bat in reference to the coronavirus epicentre Wuhan.
Canada’s foreign service has said it regrets the “misunderstanding,” adding that the employee in question did not mean to reference bats, the alleged cause of coronavirus in Wuhan. The T-shirt sparked outrage on Chinese social media.
Photo: Twitter
Wuheqilin became well known last year for using his art to criticize Western countries. His first viral image featured an Australian soldier beheading an Afghan child.
Wuheqilin only makes satirical designs about Western figures, leading critics to argue that he is distracting the Chinese from their many domestic problems. In response, Wuheqilin has said he is not concerned about defending human rights.
“Intellectuals [in China], ever since ancient times, have always had the problem of caring too much about having a reputation for caring about the people and the country, so they would not fight. I’m not the same. I’ve never wanted to be a human rights defender,” he said.
A new report sheds light on how countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Rwanda are interfering in democratic countries — including Canada.
The Freedom House report on “transnational repression” identified 31 states found to be continuing campaigns of intimidation or violence towards people who have fled to places like Canada, undermining their rights and freedoms and subverting Canadian law.
These instances have not lessened in the modern era; due to the hyper connectivity of the digital age, oppressive governments now have more tools than ever to seek out dissidents to intimidate or harm.
Through case studies of China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda and Turkey, Freedom House examined how authoritarian governments continue to infringe on human rights even after its victims have escaped.
By assembling a catalogue of 608 direct physical cases of intimidation that occurred since 2014, They found that there were four methods used to oppress dissidents:
Direct attacks on an individual causing physical harm through assassination, assault or kidnapping.
Co-opting other countries to detain, deport or render an individual.
Restricting the individual’s ability to travel through passport or document control.
Threats from a distance through spyware and cyber stalking.
The report was particularly concerned with the 2018 murder of journalist and Saudi dissident Jemal Khashoggi. Khashoggi’s murder was traced to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and represents what Freedom House is calling a “pernicious and pervasive threat to human freedom and security.”
According to the report, Chinese-Uighur Muslims are being targeted even after they leave China. Uighurs have been the target of tactics such as coercion by proxy — a practice where Uighurs living in Canada have been contacted and told to remain silent or their family members who remain in China will face repercussions. Online harassment requires minimal resources to deploy and is an effective method of ensuring their silence.
The report offers recommendations, such as digital protections, targeted sanctions and full support from law enforcement moving forward.
A group of Canadian politicians from all parties are calling for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be moved from China to a different country.
The letter, signed by nearly 20 MPs and Quebec MNAs, compared the Chinese regime’s systemic abuse of the minorities to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
Signatories include Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Conservative MP Kelly Block, New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan and Green Party MP Elizabeth May.
“Some may argue that sports and politics should not mix. We would respond that when genocide is happening, it is no longer a matter of politics, but of human rights and crimes against humanity. We cannot accept the current status quo,” the letter reads.
“We want to ensure that the medals they win in 2022 are not tainted by what will no doubt go down in history, like the 1936 Berlin Games, as The Games of Shame.”
Last week, Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive officer David Shoemaker said that Canada will not boycott the games, adding that taking part will allow for more discussions on human rights in China.
“The choices are to pull out, to barricade ourselves, to divide, to further polarize and say out of protest we’re not going to go, or to engage and be part of a conversation, to amplify voices, to speak our mind on things that are important to us and to participate in the Games,” Shoemaker said.
Nazi Germany used to the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a propaganda weapon against its critics. Despite widespread persecution of Jews and other minorities in Germany at the time, no countries boycotted.
Human rights groups say the Chinese regime is using the 2022 Winter Olympics to distract the wilder world from its treatment of minorities and create positive press coverage.
Since 2017, China has interned over 1 million people of the Uyghurs ethnicity, or nearly 10% of the entire population. While China claims these internment camps are for work and combating extremism, man sources say China is actively committing ethnic cleansing.
Last week the BBC reported the Uyghur women in these camps were subject to mass rape and sexual abuse. Another recent report found that over 570,000 Uyghurs are forced to work in China’s annual cotton harvest.
A coalition of 180 human rights groups from around the world recently called for a boycott of the 2022 Olympics, calling China’s treatment of minorities a genocide.
The Trudeau government has yet to label China’s atrocities as a genocide. Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “acknowledged” the US government’s decision to do so.
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics met on Friday to hear testimony from CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo of MindGeek, Pornhub’s parent company.
MindGeek is currently facing accusations of knowingly hosting and profiting from content involving child sex abuse and sex trafficking victims.
Antoon and Tassillo appeared before the committee for two hours of questioning.
“As a leader in this industry, we share the committee’s concern about the spread of unlawful content online and the sharing of non-consensual sharing of intimate images. It goes against everything we stand for at MindGeek and Pornhub,” said Antoon.
“While we have remained steadfast in our commitment to protect our users and the public, we recognize that we could have done more in the past and we must do more in the future.”
Alberta MP Arnold Viersen was one of the committee members who put forward questions to the executives during the hearing.
“I’ve read your brief and I’m astounded you would come here and claim you are world leaders in child protection,” said Viersen.
Viersen brought up Serena Fleites, who had testified before the committee on Monday and alleges Pornhub repeatedly neglected to remove an explicit video of her taken when she was 13 years old. “On Tuesday, after Serena’s testimony, you’ve announced new safety measures. Where were these safety measures when Serena needed them?”
Before the hearing, Pornhub suspended between 9 and ten million videos posted by unverified users. Visa and Mastercard cut ties with Pornhub in December after Mastercard’s own investigation allegedly found illegal content on the site.
Pornhub denied the allegations of hosting illegal content and asserted every video uploaded is screened before posting.
MP Charlie Angus contested MindGeek’s claims of heavy moderation and zero tolerance for illegal content.
“We’re not interested in adult pornography, what adults do in their room. The committee’s job is whether or not big tech is respecting their legal obligations,” said Angus.
“In the case of Rose Columba and her torture, the videos were listed as ‘passed out teen.’ Your moderators viewed this, because you told us every video is viewed. Wouldn’t you think that someone in your organization would’ve said a video of the torture of a fourteen-year-old girl is in contravention of the child pornography laws?”
When asked about their profits, personal income, amount of money paid out in settlements to victims, copies of previous independent reviews of the company and training methods for video screening, both Antoon and Tassillo chose to withhold those details and asserted they are internal company matters that they did not want to disclose to the committee.
The committee used its parliamentary privileges to request that those documents be submitted for their report.
The meeting ended with a call for witnesses to come forward under the legal protection of parliamentary privilege with any information regarding MindGeek’s practices.
As law enforcement agencies across Canada continue to crack down on Canadians for trying to live their lives, the Trudeau government has been busy trying to regulate the internet – a threat to our right to free speech.
As Leo Knight explains, the government has yet to define what they consider “hate speech” and the fact that there are already existing laws on hate speech in the criminal code.
A rural crime incident just outside of Calgary nearly turned deadly after a thief exchanged gunshots with a property owner.
According to the Airdrie RCMP, the incident took place on the afternoon of January 26, 2021.
Residents alerted police that somebody was in the process of stealing a pickup truck at a property in Rocky View County.
“The homeowner reported that the suspect was still on the property in the stolen truck and he was stuck in the driveway,” said Airdrie RCMP Cpl. Gina Slaney.
“The suspect fired a shot at the property owner and neighbour, and the neighbour returned fire in self defence. Thankfully, no one was injured during this exchange.”
The suspect is believed to have been armed with a .22-cal. rifle at the time of the exchange.
“It was quite intense for a while – it was just a guy trying to steal someone’s vehicle and then this,” said Slaney.
After the brief gunfire, the suspect fled the property on foot and was eventually captured by a police canine unit nearly 20 minutes later.
“The suspect suffered non-life-threatening injuries (from the dog),” reported Slaney.
32-year-old Blaine Elliot Manywounds of Calgary was charged with 11 criminal offences as a result of the incident. The charges include break and enter, obstructing a police officer, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm while prohibited and discharging a firearm with intent.
The suspect is due to appear in Airdrie Provincial Court on Feb 11.
According to Statistics Canada, rural communities in the West are disproportionately affected by higher crime rates than their urban counterparts.
“As with most property crimes, rates of break and enter and motor vehicle theft were higher in the Prairie provinces, especially Alberta. In 2017, police reported 978 break and enter incidents per 100,000 population in rural Alberta,” claimed Statistics Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dismissed Canadians’ concerns regarding the federal government’s lagging vaccine rollout on Friday, saying that “anxiety” and “noise” were getting in the way of the real picture.
“I speak almost every week with CEOs of these vaccine companies, and they have assured me that they will meet their obligations,” claimed Trudeau.
“I hear it from all Canadians right now… They want to know when they can go back to everything they’ve done before… When the vaccines are going to come? That’s why there’s a lot of anxiety and there’s a lot of noise going on right now.”
“I hear it from all Cdns right now… They want to know when they can go back to everything they’ve done before… When the vaccines are going to come? That’s why there’s a lot of anxiety & there’s a lot of noise going on right now," Trudeau said
Recent polls indicate a lack of confidence among Canadians in the Liberal government’s bungled vaccine campaign.
According to an Abacus Data study, 42% of Canadians polled stated that the Liberals have done a “poor/terrible” job ordering the vaccines Canadians need. Another 48% of Canadians stated the same about the government’s role in making sure that Canada receives vaccines in as timely a fashion as possible.
The prime minister’s own popularity has taken a hit as well as a result of the failed roll out with disapproval for Trudeau trending upwards at 42%, while only 36% of people polled said they had a positive impression of the prime minister.
The Trudeau government has faced recent criticism by the opposition for the ongoing delays.
On Thursday, Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole pinned the blame on the Liberals for the botched effort.
“Much of this uncertainty is due to the failure to plan by the Liberal government,” said O’Toole.
“Last April, Minister (Chrystia) Freeland was calling PPE procurement worldwide the ‘Wild West.’ Airplanes full of masks and ventilators were being redirected off tarmacs to the highest bidder. It’s incredible to think that the Liberal government didn’t learn from that experience and didn’t plan to ensure that Canada would not end up empty handed when it came to vaccines. But here we are.”
A joint investigation by the privacy commissioners of Canada, Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec found that the American tech company Clearview AI Inc. has collected, used and disseminated Canadian’s personal information without consent.
“What Clearview does is mass surveillance and it is illegal,” said Canadian privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien. “It is completely unacceptable for millions of people who will never be implicated in any crime to find themselves continually in a police lineup. Yet the company continues to claim its purposes were appropriate.”
Clearview developed a facial recognition tool that collected images from public networks like social media platforms, adding them to a database. When users upload images of people, the software will search for matching photo subjects within the database, which can bring Clearview users to people’s Facebook profiles, YouTube pages, Instagram posts and tweets.
Through this process, Clearview amassed a database of over three billion images of faces and corresponding biometric data, including many individuals in Canada.
Clearview asserts its software is intended for use by law enforcement, the investigation found that a variety of organizations in the private sector had used this software via a free trial service.
The investigation was carried out by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (OIPC AB), Commission accès à l’information du Québec (CAI) and the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia (OIPC BC).
The offices determined that the biometric data on Canadians was collected and disclosed for inappropriate purposes and represented mass identification and surveillance of individuals for commercial activities.
“Where there is a conflict between commercial objectives and privacy protection, Canadians’ privacy rights should always prevail,” Therrien said.
The potential for harm was outlined in the report, as the information gathered through mass surveillance would often be used to the detriment of the individual in the image. This creates a risk to significantly harm the majority of people who have never and will never be implicated in a crime, but whose data are nonetheless being stored in Clearview’s system.
The commissioners’ offices brought their findings to Clearview along with three recommendations:
That Clearview cease offering its software to clients in Canada;
That Clearview cease the collection and disclosure of information gathered on Canadians; and,
That Clearview delete existing Canadian biometric data
During the investigation, Clearview AI Inc. withdrew from the Canadian market and stated it was prepared to consider remaining outside of the country for a further two years while the Offices considered guidance. In the meantime, Clearview recommended the investigation be suspended.
The investigation was not suspended and when the report was published, Clearview expressly disagreed with the findings. By disagreeing, the commissioners’ report determined the tech company failed to acknowledge the potential for harm to Canadians.
Clearview argued the information they collected is nothing more than information already available to the public. The company asserts that the expectation for privacy for information in the public view is or should be reduced.
The commissioners concluded that if Clearview continues to refuse to accept the report’s findings, they will pursue the actions available to them to bring them into compliance with federal and provincial privacy laws.
