Spies that Share

dawn — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:13:38 +0000

Docs show CSIS collaboration with private sector

TORONTO—The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is disclosing intelligence to private companies despite a law that does not permit this sharing.

Why US groups are interested in Olympic security...

Tim Groves — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:25:05 +0000

Dear Dominion,

Canada's enthusiasm for US involvement in the Vancouver Olympic security will advance any pre-existing interest of the most powerful people in our society. The Washington State Committee that is heading up Olympic security in the US is using the Olympics as an opportunity to push objectives including: further blurring the lines between public and private security, implementing treaties that allow US security personnel operate on Canadian soil, bolstering support for RFID chips, and diverting funds towards building security infrastructure. Little focus has been given to this aspect of the 2010 Olympics, and the topic would be of great interest to readers of the Dominion.

In testimony before the US congress, it was revealed that large US corporations including Boeing, Microsoft and Starbucks, are being asked to use their “significant intelligence assets” to support security operations in the leadup to the 2010 Olympics. Washington State is at the forefront of the trend to involve corporations in law enforcement, and already several large corporations are working hand in hand with law enforcement officials in the State. The regional free-trade body, PNWER, appears interested in spreading this model into its member provinces within Canada.

I hope to write an article for the Dominion that covers these issues. I have already researched in detail congressional hearings, flight records, news articles, corporate websites, and a variety of other documents. My next step is to start making phone calls to a variety of corporations, politicians, law enforcement bodies, activists and civil society groups, in order to fill in the story with more detail and colour. Ideally I will be able to find out the specifics of corporate intelligence operations being applied to the Vancouver Olympics, but if this is not possible there is still ample material for a revealing and powerful article.

Writing Samples:

www.thevancouverobserver.com/show1269a/Are_Private_Corporations_Entwined_in_Olympic_Security http://somemeanderingideas.blogspot.com/2009/03/torontos-adventure-playground.html

About the Author:

I make less than $10,000 annually

Email Address:

timymit

One-line bio:

Tim Groves is an investigative researcher based in Toronto