#Ontario Provincial Police digital safety

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Construction Links Network: Weekly Round Up August 11, 2018

Below are links to the top news items posted on Construction Links Network over the past week. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week!

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Arnie Gess, President

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Beyond buildings – Why infrastructure design matters in Ottawa

Study: Opioids hitting construction workers hardest

Report – Trump's border wall could run up $billions in unforeseen costs

Canadian building permits down in June

Call for Entries – HBSA Achievement in Architecture Awards 2018

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Contractor for Winnipeg police HQ launches cross-claim against co-defendant in city lawsuit

Is it time to upgrade Toronto's sewer system?

America's biggest housing challenge will be 3D-printing a home on Mars

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada holds free public forum in Vancouver

Indigenous Homes Innovation Challenge to be launched this fall

Bird Construction selected as preferred proponent to design, build and finance the Ontario Provincial Police Modernization Phase 2 project

Cadillac Fairview suspends use of facial recognition software in malls

Member News: Lixil and P.I.P.E. step up as sponsors for IWSH's Navajo Nation Community Plumbing Challenge

Public procurement process – Protesting the lowest bidder formula in Quebec

No one disciplined for photos on top of Edmonton's Stantec Tower

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The science behind 3D printing in construction

Canadian housing starts trend decreases in July

Mystery safe discovered by construction workers in Dawson City

Funding announced to help apprentices in Atlantic Canada complete their training

Committee recommends CIP expansion to include 147-unit retirees building in Windsor

Laneway homes coming to Port Moody, B.C.

Indian Residential School Survivors Legacy Project in Toronto to be completed by 2020

The digital building technology that is taking construction to the next level

Poll: Majority of B.C. supports NDP-union construction deal, but just 25% familiar with it

Toronto mayoral rival Keesmaat pledges 100,000 new affordable housing units over next decade

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How homeowners can avoid bad contractors and make good smart decisions

Toronto condo owner wins case against tenant after unit was rented 70+ times on Airbnb

Buddhist society planning grand temple near Richmond, Ontario

Value for your $ – Buyers of new condos get twice the space in Waterloo as in Toronto

https://constructionlinks.ca/news/construction-links-network-weekly-round-august-11-2018/ Established in 2003, Construction Links Network is a peer-to-peer network sharing platform for the construction, building and design community. This one-of-a-kind platform provides the tools necessary to source and distribute the latest news, videos, events and innovative products / services the industry has to offer which helps our members plan, design and build great projects around the world. #construction #building #architecture #engineer #safety

[ontarionewsnorth]

OPP Promoting 'Think Test' During Cyber Safety Awareness Month

@OPP_News Promoting Use of #ThinkTest During #CyberSafety AwarenessMonth @GetCyberSafe @SSMCrimeStopper @CanStopCrime @LawEnforceToday @StopWebBullying @SSCyberbullying

Cyber Security Vital to Protect Kids, Tweens and Teens ORILLIA, ON – Preparing younger generations for the digital world is a never-ending challenge and an opportunity embraced by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to enhance education, awareness and safety in cyberspace. OPP States : “Youngest Technology User Group is also Most Vulnerable” Threats to children in the virtual world include online…

[inbonobo]

At least nine police agencies in Ontario participated in a provincial program to deploy secret surveillance equipment in the province’s largest cities, according to documents released by Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General under a freedom of information request.

Moreover, the documents reveal that local police were trained in “lawful access” techniques—a police euphemism for intercepting digital communications—in order to keep up with “rapidly changing technology.”

These documents reveal that, in 2010, a grant was awarded to Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario (CISO), an arm of the provincial government, to pay for special training for police officers involved in the Provincial Electronic Surveillance Equipment Deployment Program (PESEDP). This is a secretive project whose goal is to equip cops with unspecified surveillance gear.

Although these documents don’t name the specific police agencies involved, Motherboard previously reported that police in Toronto, York Region, Peel Region and Ottawa had each received hundreds of thousands of dollars in provincial grants since 2010 to reimburse costs of running the PESEDP. This program is briefly described in public documents as paying for activities to investigate organized crime.

Police in those cities all refused to talk about the program, but it’s well-known that police across Canada are investing in surveillance equipment, from facial recognition systems to IMSI catchers.

Civil liberties advocates in Ontario said officials need to explain not only what equipment is being deployed, but why the program is being kept secret from the public.

“The government needs to justify the secrecy [of the program], and a need for the technology itself,” said Joseph Hickey, Executive Director of the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA), in a phone call.

“We’re very concerned about the increase in [police] surveillance. We need to know what the [province] is doing.”

The documents clarify who was paying to deploy secret surveillance gear across the province.

“The PESEDP [...] is funded by CISO,” reads a summary provided by the Ministry of the Attorney General. It explains that the grant to CISO was provided by the Ministry’s Civil Remedies for Illicit Activities (CRIA) Office, and that the money—$68,000—paid for a “Lawful Access Training, Research and Development Initiative” for police involved with the surveillance equipment program.

“Lawful access” refers to techniques police and national security agencies use to intercept, search and seize communications data.

Last fall, the federal government opened a public consultation into the Anti-Terrorism Act, also known as Bill C-51, to address privacy concerns raised by civil liberties groups after the Act was passed in 2015. As part of the consultation, the feds released a green paper to “prompt discussion […] about Canada’s national security framework”, but critics say that the document subtly advocates for expanded police powers, particularly for lawful access.

Read More: Canadian Police Don’t Want to Talk About How They Spend Surveillance Dollars

Grant records show that 120 police officers were part of CISO at the time the grant was awarded, but it isn’t clear how many cops participated in the lawful access training. Both CISO and CRIA provide grants to law enforcement agencies to pay for projects outside of regular policing budgets.

Brent Ross, spokesperson for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS), which oversees CISO, declined to answer questions about the training program or surveillance equipment deployment, based on what was found in the documents.

Previously, MCSCS refused to confirm or deny if a privacy impact assessment had been done for the PESEDP.

“We’re [moving] toward a society where the police are everywhere,” said Hickey of the OCLA. “The state’s actions have to be transparent, [because] for every increase in surveillance capacity, democracy is diminished.”

(via At Least Nine Ontario Police Agencies Helped Deploy Secret Surveillance Gear | Motherboard)