Bulgarian prosecutors have charged three Moldovans and a Syrian Kurdish couple with supporting “terrorist acts” in connection with the deaths of six persons in a November 13 bombing in Istanbul. “The charges are in two groups: for supporting terrorist acts in another country, namely the attack in Istanbul, and for human trafficking, Bulgarian prosecutor Ivan Geshev said November 19. Turkey is seeking extradition of some of the accused. [node:read-more:link]
Two Russian nationals have been charged by the U.S. of running Z-Library, a global pirated e-book site used by thousands of students, professors and others worldwide for more than a decade. Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova, arrested in Argentina, are accused of copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering. [node:read-more:link]
Death threats from within Iran against residents of this country are being investigated by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. “Ultimately, these hostile activities and foreign interference undermine the security of Canada and Canadians, as well as our democratic values and sovereignty,” a CSIS official says. Details were released after British intelligence confirmed a similar campaign there. [node:read-more:link]
The Canada Border Services Agency received a death threat against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and inquiries about how to import bullets during last winter's “Freedom Convoy.” Former CBSA President John Ossowski told the Emergencies Act inquiry November 16 that the threats showed up on its online “contact us” form. [node:read-more:link]
A B.C. resident who claims to have been “ranting on the internet like everyone else” has been charged with threatening CNN news anchor Erin Burnett and her family on Twitter and YouTube. Nicholas Ryan Hedgecoe Sullivan was charged after an investigation by RCMP, the FBI and New York police. An RCMP spokesman said November 16 that “some people may think that when they are on social media platforms that they're anonymous and if they are involved in this type of behaviour where they're uttering death threats to somebody that there will be no consequences.” [node:read-more:link]
A resident of Lévis, Quebec, faces terrorism charges for allegedly planned a terrorist act to overthrow the Haitian government of Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated in July 2021. RCMP said today that “concrete actions by Gérald Nicolas included travel to Haiti to coordinate a group planning a coup. Nicolas insists that he was set up by a woman on an online dating service. [node:read-more:link]
FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned the U.S. Congress that the globally popular Chinese-owned Tik Tok social media site is a potential threat to national security, He cites “the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users, or control the recommendation algorithm which could be used for influence operations if they so choose, or to control software on millions of devices.” [node:read-more:link]
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki testified today at the inquiry into the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act last February that some federal politicians and bureaucrats were frustrated by what they perceived to be the Ottawa Police Service’s inability to deal with the “Freedom Convoy” blockade. [node:read-more:link]
A day before it invoked the Emergencies Act last winter to end the “Freedom Convoy” blockade of downtown Ottawa, the government was told by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that the protest was not a threat to national security. Nor, according to CSIS documents released today by the public inquiry into the government’s action, was the protest supported by foreign state interests. [node:read-more:link]
Yuesheng Wang, 35, a Montreal-area employee of Hydro-Québec arrested today by RCMP, faces four charges arising from the alleged sale of trade secrets to China “to the detriment of Canada's economic interests.” A battery researcher in the utility’s Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, Wang is accused of, among other things, using a computer without authorization and with fraud and breach of trust. RCMP were acting on a complaint by the utility’s security division. [node:read-more:link]
The Australian Federal Police suspects “loosely-affiliated” Russian hackers of trying to extort a major medical insurance company. “We believe that those responsible for the breach are in Russia,” Commissioner Reece Kershaw said today. Meanwhile, the AFP was ““undertaking covert measures and working around the clock with our domestic agencies and our international networks.” [node:read-more:link]
Mikhail Vasiliev, a 33-year-old Russian-Canadian faces extradition to stand trial in the U.S. for alleged involvement in the LockBit ransomware group. In a criminal complaint unsealed in New Jersey, the Justice Department says that Vasiliev, in custody after his November 9 arrest in Ontario, was involved in “one of the most active and destructive ransomware variants in the world” in that it collected millions of dollars from victims. [node:read-more:link]
Draft federal legislation which would dissolve the RCMP’s civilian complaints review body and create a replacement which also would deal with Canada Border Services Agency should involve indigenous personnel. A potential amendment to Bill C-20, broached in the House of Commons by the New Democratic Party’s public safety critic, has drawn the support of the president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. “It's absolutely essential that any oversight bodies of policing agencies include an indigenous presence,” says Grand Chief Stewart Phillip. [node:read-more:link]
A former member of the RCMP and Prime Minister’s personal protection unit says he did not leak the PM’s schedule ahead of last winter’s “Freedom Convoy” gridlock in Ottawa. The allegation was in a redacted Ontario Provincial Police report to the inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act but Daniel Bulford, who resigned from the RCMP last December because he disagreed with the government’s vaccination mandate, adamantly rejected the suggestion. [node:read-more:link]
The Ottawa Police Service is investigating allegations that some officers leaked intelligence to organizers of last winter’s “Freedom Convoy” which gridlocked the city’s downtown for weeks. The investigation follows testimony before the inquiry into the government’s use of the Emergencies Act by a lawyer representing some protest organizers. [node:read-more:link]
