Canadian warship seizes four tonnes of hashish and has a "happy crew that day"
[tags]hashish, canada, drug trade[/tags]
During a "terrorist search", a Canadian warship boarded a Pakistani vessel in the Arabian Sea and found four tonnes of hashish during a 17 hour search. The catch was dumped in the sea.
Canadian Press, quoted by Macleans, states that the Canadians were allowed on the fishing vessel by some of the 11 men who were repairing fishing nets on the deck. The search and seizure ended up taking 17 hours and became successful only after the Canadians started tearing up deck planks. Bags the size of pillow cases were found also in the fuel tanks, for a total of 173 bags of 170 kg each.
The only previous drug catch took place in 2005. Recently, they only found "illegal alcohol".
Lt.-Cmdr. Mike Davie of HMCS Charlottetown is quoted as saying "We had a happy crew that day, that's for sure."
In other wacky Canadian news, 8 GTA driving schools lose their license (2), a Quebec woman dies during sado-masochistic sex (3), the officer who spearheaded the Cornwall inquiry into Ontario pedophilia was sentenced to 6 months jail for contempt (4), CRTC tells telemarketers not to fear the "do-not-call" list, and a CBC probe finds what we've always known: hackers grab concert tickets long before fans.
Wait! There's more! A website to be launched on March 8, www.lawforforeignbrides.ca aims to answer all foreign brides questions. A report by the leading scientists for the federal government leaked before official publishing warns of more extreme weather to come (5). It's mostly about water and its accelerated natural cycle - more violent storms, more soil erosion, more water shortages, more droughts in Western Canada.
In a weird turnabout, UN has adopted the US position and criticized Canada for its crack pipe programs. Currently, 3 Canadian cities (Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa) offer safe (and free) drugs to addicts, in an effort to combat drug crime and infectious diseases. This pisses off USA and they got the UN to do the talking for them (cuz we wouldn't listen to Big Bro). Our safe centres offer access to literature and professionals and are some of the best things the government has done for our people. Furthermore, another UN agency, World Health Organization, has done studies supporting such centers (6).Sources
LB Pearson got his Nobel prize exactly 50 years ago
If you're anything like me, and you don't happen to know who The Right Hon. Lester Bowles, P.C., C.C., O.M., O.B.E., B.A., M.A., LL.D. is, you might think "So What?!?". I think he was one of the most important politicians Canada ever had and quite possibly the best.
He did more to take this country into modernity than any other P.M. (at least that I know of, which is not saying much) and he did it mostly while in a minority government. Because so many high-schools and even the airport where I first entered Canada bear his name, it is almost impossible to find a video clip with him, but here it is:
As you can tell, the best are not also telegenic... Here's what he accomplished (mostly in a minority government):
Sources:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_B._Pearson
CBC.ca writeup: http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten/nominee/pearson-lester.html
CBC.ca archives: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-73-1265/politics_economy/lester_b_pearson/Corrections
none so far!
Massive, unfixed security flaw at Passport Canada
We just learned about a very serious security flaw in the Passport Canada website accepting online applications. Other people's information can be easily accessed by simply applying for a passport and then altering characters in your browser's address bar. The flaw was discovered by Jamie Laning, an IT worker at Algonquin Automotive, in Huntsville, Ontario. The available data includes SINs, driver's licence numbers, mailing addresses, business and phone numbers, federal ID card numbers and even a firearms licence number. Says Carlisle Adams, professor at U of O:
This is exactly how identity theft happens. If you want to take out a mortgage, for example, this is the type of information the bank is going to ask for to make sure you're really the person you're claiming to be. Then all of a sudden there's a mortgage in someone else's name.Although Mr. Laning alerted Passport Canada of the problem last week and the site was suspended through yesterday, the problem has not been fixed, despite Passport Canada's claim to the contrary. While the security flaw in itself is not the most terrible thing, it is deeply unsettling to learn that Passport Canada was unable to fix it within one week, that it deceptively claimed it fixed it and that Canadian law does not even require disclosure of privacy breaches. This means that there may be many more security breaches that happen but we do not know about them, unless somebody makes a FOF request.
The security breach follows two significant events concerning personal information. On Nov. 21, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson introduced legislation making it an offence to obtain, possess or traffic in people's identity information for the purposes of committing a crime. Just two days earlier, Britain's tax and customs service announced it had lost disks containing banking and personal data of 25 million people."I think it's very clear that a strong, mandatory security-breach law is long overdue in this country and it's cases like these that highlight it," said Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.This is not the first negative media report to hit Passport Canada. Only a couple of months ago, Canadian Press issued the following:
Canadian law does not require organizations to disclose when they've suffered security breaches. In the United States the majority of states have enacted legislation requiring organizations to disclose security breaches within a specified period of time.
Passport Canada is reporting continued long delays in processing mailed-in passport applications, despite a streamlined renewal process and hundreds of new employees. And there is concern those delays will only get longer as the busy winter travel season approaches.It now takes a minimum of six weeks to get a passport through the mail; two weeks longer than the agency's benchmark of four weeks.The way our secretive, inept government works, we would not be surprised if Mr. Laning would be charged with terrorism. It is much easier to find a scapegoat than hiring a knowledgeable IT security firm and have the problem fixed.
And that doesn't include the time it takes to get applications and documents through Canada Post.
UPDATE: Brian Masse (NDP) raised this issue in Question Period and Minister Maxime Bernier was told by CEO Gérard Cossette that the website is now "among the most secure".
IT Business published an article citing concerns that the privacy breach will lead to ID theft.
Source: Passport applicant finds massive privacy breach, Globe and Mail Read More to See the Light...
Liveability | Where the grass is greener | Economist.com
In this Economist article several world cities are rated for their "liveability". The article is actually a pointer to the full report and notes that the largest cities in the world were not considered. Surprisingly, the little gems - cities such as Victoria in BC or Quebec City in Montreal do not appear to have been considered either, despite being the not-so-secret gems of those provinces. Or maybe did the authors want to keep them uncrowded?
