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Canada Cellphones Privacy News

Local Canadian Police Station Admits To Owning Stingray Surveillance Device (vice.com) 43

Posted by msmash from the big-brother-and-his-van dept.
The Edmonton Police Service has admitted to Motherboard that it owns a Stingray and that it used the [surveillance] device in the past during investigations. After Vancouver cops admitted to using the phone tracker to investigate an abduction in 2007, Motherboard called up other local police stations in Canada to ask if they had also previously used one. As you can imagine, the other stations kept mum. In the US, Stingrays are a regular part of government and law enforcement agencies' surveillance arsenal. But Vancouver's and Edmonton's police services are the first law enforcement offices in Canada to confirm that they've used the device. Motherboard adds: According an emailed statement from police spokesperson Anna Batchelor, Edmonton's cops have "used the device in the past during investigations," but would not release any additional details in order to "to protect [Edmonton Police Service] operations." Until now, the only law enforcement in the country known to use the devices was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the country's analogue to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. These suitcase-sized surveillance tools have been used in the past by the Vancouver and Toronto police, but the Vancouver police have said they borrowed the Stingray from the RCMP, and in Toronto an RCMP technician was on hand, at least in that incident. The Edmonton police's comment to Motherboard is the first time a local police department in Canada has publicly admitted to owning a Stingray device.
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Local Canadian Police Station Admits To Owning Stingray Surveillance Device More

Local Canadian Police Station Admits To Owning Stingray Surveillance Device

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  • RCMP are also local police (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    RCMP act as local police in most of Canada; basically any city that doesn't run their own police force and isn't in Ontario or Quebec (which have their own provincial police). So the RCMP could have been using stingray devices all the way to the local level for quite some time now.

    The article is wrong in its implication that this is the first time local police have had access to stingrays.

    (Also, Canada does not have an FBI equivalent. The Government of Canada doesn't have enforcement agencies, the crown d

    • "Canada does not have an FBI equivalent"

      Everything that the FBI is capable of doing, the RCMP can do just as well. I'd call it equivalent.

      "We like our policy makers separate from enforcement that you very much"

      You think policy makers and enforcement officials don't talk to each other? Cute.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ls671 ( 1122017 )

        "Canada does not have an FBI equivalent"

        Everything that the FBI is capable of doing, the RCMP can do just as well. I'd call it equivalent.

        "We like our policy makers separate from enforcement that you very much"

        You think policy makers and enforcement officials don't talk to each other? Cute.

        Yep!

        A tip from the FBI triggered what Canadian police on Thursday called a “race against time” as police scrambled to identify and locate a balaclava-wearing would-be suicide bomber they feared was on the verge of committing a terror attack in Canada.

        https://nypost.com/2016/08/11/... [nypost.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      (Also, Canada does not have an FBI equivalent. The Government of Canada doesn't have enforcement agencies, the crown does. We like our policy makers separate from enforcement that you very much)

      Knows so little about Canada.

      As mentioned the RCMP is the FBI equivalent. The RCMP sometimes operates as both provincial police and local police, but only under contract--but has jurisdiction across all Canada unless it's waived by a standing provincial force(OPP, SdQ, etc), in which case they only operate inside that province and only operate "token offices" but will mobilize against any threat against national security regardless of that agreement. They will also at the behest of the provincial, territo

    • <quote><p>RCMP act as local police in most of Canada; basically any city that doesn't run their own police force and isn't in Ontario or Quebec (which have their own provincial police). So the RCMP could have been using stingray devices all the way to the local level for quite some time now.</p><p>The article is wrong in its implication that this is the first time local police have had access to stingrays.</p><p>(Also, Canada does not have an FBI equivalent. The Governme

  • 20 fucking years of this in Edmonton (Score:3)

    by StandardCell ( 589682 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @01:34PM (#52692339)
    The police in Edmonton have been doing this to the press since the 90s when they wiretapped newspaper and TV reporters working on a story of police corruption with ties to organized crime [www.caj.ca]. But that was just the old fashioned wire taps, and there have been many corruption scandals since. There is no press freedom in Edmonton and all communication should be considered compromised by the police there unless there is a cryptographically secure way with a Certificate Authority not controlled within Canadian or US borders.

    • Fascinating. I live in Edmonton also, and find this sucks.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ls671 ( 1122017 )

      secure way with a Certificate Authority not controlled within Canadian or US borders.

      You can always check the fingerprint of the certificate presented to you to insure safe communication. It is much safer than relying on "not controlled within Canadian or US" CAs. CA should never know your private key so there isn't much they can do other than signing your certificate request. You more or less make the certificate yourself and the CA just signs it. At least, this is how it is supposed to be done last time I looked.

      As long as you trust the person who made the certificate request, it doesn't

  • Violation of the Canadian Constitution and Privacy (Score:4, Informative)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Friday August 12, 2016 @01:43PM (#52692413) Homepage Journal

    Unlike the USA, Canada has a fairly recent Constitution which explicitly includes the Right of Privacy.

    Which includes not having your info slurped up by police without a specific warrant on you as a person.

    There are no exceptions.

    It has been ruled so by the Canadian Supreme Court.

    (caveat: I only wrote Canadian Army regs based on it, so IANAL just someone who had to implement it's provisions)

    • There are no exceptions.

      Well, if your security clearance is high enough, you will find that there is concept of "Double Secret Probation."

      This is the exception to "there are no exceptions."

      Personal note: my father grew up near Calgary (Rosebud) and studied at Edmonton. Later he built radar stations for RCA in northern Canada. I didn't learn of this until after he died. The American spooks required him to get a USA citizenship. When my father asked why that was necessary, the spooks said that if he spied for the Russians, the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hylandr ( 813770 )

        are we returning to old Cold War practices?

        Implying it ever stopped...

        • Technicallly you are correct. We have been spying on our own citizens for a long long time.

          But that doesn't mean it's legal. Or Constitutional.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        During the Cold War, their aim was to assess, contain, and otherwise mitigate the signals capability of our Russian counterparts.

        Now the aim is to assess, contain, and otherwise mitigate the signals capability of our own citizenry.

        We never left.

    • Unlike the USA, Canada has a fairly recent Constitution which explicitly includes the Right of Privacy.

      Which includes not having your info slurped up by police without a specific warrant on you as a person.

      There are no exceptions.

      It has been ruled so by the Canadian Supreme Court.

      (caveat: I only wrote Canadian Army regs based on it, so IANAL just someone who had to implement it's provisions)

      I don't give 2 shits about privacy and civil rights if the stingray device allows the police to find a kidnap victim. You have no rights once you violate another's humans rights.

  • Mommy? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    May I pet the stingrays?

  • ...what have you done?

    This wasn't the first and certainly not the last time they have used Stingray. The most worrying aspect is that they don't even keep records of its use! Nobody could ever tell when, where and how often it has been used.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by imidan ( 559239 )

      they don't even keep records of its use! Nobody could ever tell when, where and how often it has been used.

      That's a convenience feature. Makes it super fast and easy to respond to a records subpoena when you just don't keep any records. "I don't recall" is such a difficult statement to disprove.

  • I'm sick and tired of hearing about all the crimes our police, judges and politicians are committing and getting off with no repercussions.
    As a police officer you are held to a higher standard and these criminals are acting worse than many of the people currently in jail.
    Even our premier has admitted to criminal negligence on public record. She is still in office.

  • It seems to me an admission comes after an allegation. It sounds here like the police responded to an inquiry.

  • RE:
    " ... Until now, the only law enforcement in the country known to use the devices was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the country's analogue to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. ..."

    The RCMP are far more than a simple "analogue" to the US FBI. They are, first of all, a Military Police. The can and have organized into military units and participated in combat both within and outside Canada. They are a national cross-provincial police force, like the FBI, but they are also a Provincial Police like

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