Canadian Government to Jam Radio Signals

An anonymous reader submits: "According to this article, the Canadian government has given the military and RCMP permission to jam radio signals during the G8 summit and the Pope's visit. I suppose that the stated reason would be to prevent terrorists from communicating with each other, but I have to wonder whether it's also being done to keep those pesky protesters from effectively organizing at the G8. And if this action manages to block wireless 911 calls, and someone dies because of that, who's going to be willing to step up to the plate and take the blame?"

Some Technological Insight

[Real World Stuff]

Here are some details [milspec.ca].

Jam this!

Re:must tear apart article......

[meringuoid]

Who would be moronic enough to think attacking the Pope of all people would be a good idea?

Mehmet Ali Agca [edwardjayepstein.com], perhaps?

Oh, don't be an ass.

[ghjm]

The Canadian constitutional equivalent to the U.S. Bill of Rights is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which reads in part:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other means of communication.
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.

If Canadian officials are willfully disregarding the provisions of their own constitution, who are you to throw rocks? You[r supreme court] elected George W., thus creating the least constitutionally responsible executive branch in the past hundred years...

They don't need this for G8

[BlueStreak]

I doubt they need this for the G8 summit. The jamming of cell phone frequencies seems a little overkill because:

(1) the G8 meeting is held in a park called Kananaskis [gov.ab.ca]. It's in the foothills and Canadian Rockies, located in the province of Alberta. Anyway, the place the summit is located (the Rocky Mountain Lodge) is fairly isolated. Cell phone coverage is good in the area (so says my wife who has been there recently) but I'm guessing it's only available in populated areas or along the major roads.

(2) The place is being secured mostly by the Canadian military, with the RCMP in town or along the roads. The military presence is huge (the soldiers are fully armed), their primary role is to secure the outlying areas and they have permission to use deadly force. The air space will be closely monitored (they have mobile radar stations up) and jets can be called up or will be patrolling the area (I think there's a no-fly-zone in effect).

While there is a possibility of terrorists, protestors are probably an equal target of cell phone jamming. Protesters (good & bad) use cell phones as a means of organizing groups of people.

Let's just hope the RCMP doesn't fuck up and, say, jam emergency frequencies or that used by commercial aviation.

Re:Oh, don't be an ass.

[SerpentMage]

(As a Canadian) that section is not the same as the American counterpart.

Specifically, the constitution can be NULL and void as per the following part:

1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

This basically says there are limits. This was there because without this clause it is not possible to prosecut hate literature folks.

And this is where I have to say that as a European and Canadian citizen the Americans got it right and the rest of the world not.

Freedom of speech is a double edged sword, but by ensuring that everyone has it under all circumstances ensures that we do have a free society.

My example is the EU prosecuting Haider in Austria. The man is a loon much like Buchanen. And Haider has done nothing other than say stupid things, but yet the EU slapped sactions, etc on Austria.

What gets me in this is that while I agree Haider is an idiot the communists in Europe are just as big idiots. So if you ban Haider, ban the communists, fair is fair. And remember that Stalin was just as gruesome as Hitler.

So as a Non-American I have to say that NOBODY has the same rights as an American, POINT BLANK!

Re:Uh..well...gee...

[GLX]

You're wrong.

*Every* phone connected to the PSTN in all *50* states(this includes COCOTs, CLEC owned equipment, etc.) is required to be able to dial 911 . Not only that, it's required that it be able to dial 911 without dialing a 9 first (ie, if you're in a hotel and dial 911 on their PBX, it should dip into it's translation table and automatically dial 911 externally). 9-911 must also work.

Not only that, but as part of licensing agreements with the FCC, every cellphone, whether or not paid for/activated, is required to be able to dial 911.

Stop karma whoring.

Re:ue

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously you were misinformed about the G20 protests last summer. I was there, and one McDonalds got trashed near Sparks street. A few banks were spray painted in the same area. All 7 of these 'anarchist idiots' out of the 4000 or so people that were protesting were arrested promptly. When the peaceful protestors (ie: students from Carleton and University of Ottawa, along with professors, an old lady in a wheelchair that we helped push along, and countless other typical citizens without hand grenades, automatic rifles, etc..) arrived at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin street, the police felt appropriate to tear gas the crowd during a sermon given by a Muslim guy. Then, when the president of the Canadian Students Unions gave his speech, there was another flurry of tear gas. Granted, the McDonalds in the area was boarded up by that time, so perhpas there would have been another McDonalds thrashed.

I think you should try going to a protest and seeing what happens before spouting off like you know what goes on. That was my very first protest that I ever went to, and granted there was high tension, there was not mass destruction as the media and yourself would have others beleive.