Law Enforcement

Accusing RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki of damaging the federal police force, Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro called November 23 for her dismissal but it was immediately rejected by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. “The commissioner . . . must be held to the highest of standards,” Shandro said. “So far, Minister Mendicino has stood idly by while Commissioner Lucki has failed to meet even the most meagre of standards for the past two years.” [node:read-more:link]

Authorities in Estonia say two persons arrested in Tallinn November 20 for allegedly running a US$575-million cryptocurrency mining operation which was no more than an “elaborate Ponzi scheme.” Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, being held for extradition to the U.S., are said to have convinced their victims to invest in the service and then used shell companies to launder the cash and buy real estate and luxury cars. [node:read-more:link]

The RCMP warned Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino during last winter’s “freedom” border blockade in southern Alberta that some protestors were willing “to go down with the cause.” He told the Emergencies Act inquiry today that it was “a threshold moment for me” as the government considered invoking the legislation because “lives literally hung in the balance.” [node:read-more:link]

The federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to deal with “freedom” protests in Ottawa and at two border crossings last February was supported by Canadian Security Intelligence Director David Vigneault. Testifying today before commission of inquiry into the decision, he said that while the blockades did not meet the agency’s technical definition of a national security threat, he told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the evolving situation “required” action. [node:read-more:link]

Two days after being sworn in as Premier of British Columbia, David Eby announced a package of plans November 20 he said are designed to address growing concerns about public safety. They include proposals expanded emergency mental health resources and the formation of “repeat violent offender response teams” to address what’s been criticized as a “catch and release” justice system. [node:read-more:link]

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]