Police Question Friend of Olympics Critic Chris Shaw
Nursing student surprised at school by intelligence officers. Councillor calls it 'harassment'.
Chris Shaw, UBC neuroscientist and author of 'Five Ring Circus'. Photo by The Blackbird.
Anti-Olympics critic Chris Shaw thinks Games security forces have him targeted. A recent incident suggests he may be right.
Last week, two intelligence officers waited for a 24-year-old Langara College student outside her classroom. She doesn't belong to a protest group. In fact, she knows very little about the Games. But she's friends with Shaw. And she said that's the only reason two plainclothes constables she'd never met called her by name, waited while she wrote a quiz and then rang her cellphone the next day.
That meeting is only the latest in a long line of police visits to anti-Games critics and the people that know them. Shaw says security forces have crossed a boundary. One Vancouver city councillor calls it harassment.
Police with big smiles
On Wednesday Sept. 30, Danika Surm received a strange greeting as she hurried to her biology class. Someone said "Hi Danika" in a very friendly tone. Surm appraised the man and woman standing before her in the hallway. They didn't really look like students. They were dressed too well, she said.
The woman introduced herself as constable Heidi Hoffman. Her partner, constable Jordan McLellan, had a big smile on his face. "Heidi said she needed to talk to me. I was just on my way to a quiz for biology. I told her it wasn't a good time. She was very insistent about when would there be a good time," Surm said.
Surm told the constables she had mid-terms to worry about and that this time of year is really busy. She left to write her quiz. When she finished the test, about ten minutes later, Hoffman and McLellan were waiting. A little resigned, Surm agreed to speak with the constables in an empty classroom.
"They said 'we know you're very good friends with Chris Shaw and we'd just like to ask you to tell us anything you know about him and his activities and associations," Surm said. The constables told her they were very concerned about Olympics security. That it was important they all work together to make the Winter Games as safe as possible. Hoffman played the tough cop while McLellan stayed warm and friendly, Surm said.
The talk didn't last very long. The young student didn't have much to tell them. They concluded the meeting with a request for Surm's cell phone number. She refused, and they left. The next day, Surm missed a call while in class. The message in her voice mail was from Hoffman, telling her to please call back. "It was a nice formality of asking me for my number," Surm said. "But they already had it."
Shaw's own encounter with police
Chris Shaw is, without a doubt, the most outspoken and well-recognized critic of the 2010 Olympics. He's written extensively about negative impacts of the Games, including a piece five years ago published on The Tyee. He's friends with leading activists in the Olympics Resistance Network. His name pops up almost weekly in 2010 media reports.
On June 2, 2009, Shaw was approached by two plainclothes police officers outside Tony's Coffee Shop on West Broadway. The officers asked him for a private meeting to talk about his opposition to the Olympics. He refused. Any talks about security and Games protest should be held in a public forum, he said, with media cameras and tape recorders rolling.
Ten days later, delegates at Play the Game, an international sport conference in England, condemned all such security force visits. The Coventry Declaration urged governments in Canada, B.C. and Vancouver, along with Games organizers and security foreces, to defend against any attack on freedom of speech. Vancouver city council endorsed the spirit of the document last July. But councillors voted to remove sections that could have been construed as criticism of Games security.
Anti-Olympics protestors say police have approached dozens of people opposed to the Games at their work and homes. The RCMP-led Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU), a $900 million behemoth funded with provincial and federal money, argues such visits are a legitimate tactic. Police need to know all they can about potential threats to the Games.
'They've crossed a boundary': Shaw
Even though Shaw knows he's on the radar of security forces, he was shocked that officers would visit his student friend at her school. Surm isn't even an activist. She's studying to become a nurse. Almost all her knowledge of the Olympics comes from him.
But even more alarming for Shaw is how officers managed to track his friend down. Where did they access her class schedule? How did they recognize her appearance? Why did they ask for her cell phone number when they already had it? "I'm getting the impression that security forces are extremely paranoid," he said. "They've crossed a boundary here. They are pushing pretty hard into Charter territory."
A spokesperson for Langara College said the school maintains a stringent policy on student information. Not even a close family member can access a student's file.
"The college policy about release of information is very clear," Ian Humphreys said. "We do not release information to anybody regardless of which agency they are ... I doubt I can give you information as to how the RCMP might have received any information about one of our students."
Both Hoffman and McLellan belong to the Joint Intelligence Group, an agency working with the Integrated Security Unit. Spokesperson Mandy Edwards confirmed their visit with Surm last Wednesday. But she was vague when asked how they'd identified the student and known to wait outside her classroom.
'A form of harassment': Councilor Cadman
"I can't answer that on respect of the investigators," Edwards said. "It's possible information led them to that location." The purpose of such visits is to gather intelligence about potential security threats. Somehow Surm's name came up, so officers wanted to talk to her, Edwards explained.
How about Shaw? Is he being targeted by security forces? "We're just looking at any potential plans that are in place to disrupt the games," Edwards said. She added: "Chris Shaw is probably the most vocal anti-Olympics person out there."
And what about allegations that security officers paid a recent visit to Shaw's ex-wife Sylvie Peltier in White Rock? "I know our officers are looking to speak to anyone who may have information so I can't confirm that that happened," she said. "I can say it's possible."
Coalition of Progressive Electors councillor David Cadman heard about the meeting with Surm last week. She phoned him right after it happened, asking what could be done. Cadman admitted that council doesn't have very much jurisdiction over the ISU. But he's concerned such meetings set a bad precedent.
"I'm beginning to see this kind of police intervention as a form of harassment," he said. "There's so many bigger threats out there for this Olympics. To be approaching a student mainly because of her association with Chris Shaw is not helpful." ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Kingarthur
05-10-2009
The Ohlympics
So begins the "World Class Fun" (TM) we'll be having for the next 6 months. At least they didn't have Tasers!
Camero409
05-10-2009
Police Harrassment
This is clear evidence that the government and police don't want to be embarrassed. If the Olympics are such a great event why are so many being harassed? The real reason is control. The officials and the government know there is real opposition to the Olympics and want to suppress freedom of speech and assembly. Why else would so much money and resources be directed against legal protests and opposition?
Van Isle
05-10-2009
If the law enforcement
If the law enforcement agencies can get away with this level of harrassment at this time, what level would it be the next time Canada has a "world class event" (that's a sure worn out phrase)in the future? The question also has to be asked; how far will the security authorities go in about 3 or 4 months from now? Declare all anti olympic types 'terrorists' or 'terrorist sympathizers' so they could be thrown in jail for the duration of the olympics? I do remember former PM Trudeau's words when he said "just watch me", and I remember Chretin saying "me, I prefer pepper on my plate".
freebear
05-10-2009
Pre-emptive policing!
The reputation of West coast protests preceeds them!
THe elite are scared!
Obviously the elite will use any tools to make sure they are not embarrassed during the Olympic elitist orgy!
jwstewart
05-10-2009
Something to Compare to?
It would be useful to have something similar to compare to, or a reference to what is or isn't acceptable police work.
This sounds really fishy but is it actually illegal or unethical?
What action can be taken when this happens to oneself?
Grumpy
05-10-2009
British Columbia ........
........ is fast becoming a Fascist state, where the police have the right to do what they want, with absolutely no fear of the judiciary and it also includes willful murder.
Canada is a democracy in name only, run by a few elites and a massive bureaucracy who enjoy privileges that ordinary Canadians do not.
Those who decry what the "state" is doing are now considered "enemies of the state" and are treated as such. The RCMP have morphed into a pseudo Gestapo, the elites private police and can operate with impunity.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Joseph Goebbels, famed Nazi propagandist
freebear
05-10-2009
Pie (in the face) makers beware!
RCMP are browsing grocery store data to see if people are getting pie making supplies, and then going to 'pie' politicians, vanoc and dignataries during the Owelimpics!!
harold white
05-10-2009
Police question friends of .....Shaw
I am vehemently opposed to the Olympics. Why don't you guys drop by and pay me a visit sometime?
sdgreen
05-10-2009
I think
Yes I think the Olympics are indeed proceeding, nothing will stop the event. Those opposed will be assimulated without doubt, those who disrupt this event for the elite will be crushed.
.... so it is said so it is done says the Leader of the elite.
The Blackbird
05-10-2009
Great Dark Humour
Loving the comments, laughed out loud after reading a few.
Okay, I believe it is proper etiquette for those who report and shoot for The Tyee to refrain from commenting on articles they have written or illustrated, and I have done so until now. If anyone wants to call me rude for doing so this time, fine. The IOC has to be stupid. It is planting the seeds of a public relations nightmare for itself down the road. Activists have legal representation with teeth here in Vancouver.
The IOC is not above the law. Any crimes committed here during the Games, any willful infringement on Canadians' guaranteed rights and freedoms, will likely result in the extradition of its executive body when they are tried in a court of law for conspiring with its government partners in Canada to violate the Charter. An illegal contract and a set of new/ammended by-laws would topple like a house of cards against the supremacy of the Constitution.
If there are any true patriots in Canada, they will take a stand and do so with pride in their hearts for defending country and Crown against numerous corporations which hold no protections similar to those held by the people, under the Charter.
Even though it is "only" a Winter Games, Vancouver 2010 will take place in the biggest city the IOC has ever staged the event. It is also filled with people who value their freedom and resent anyone, whether an invading army from another nation state or a corporate circus that believes it cannot be held legally accountable for its actions wherever it does business, who tries to tell them they aren't free.
Canada is a democracy. True north strong and FREE.
docleslie
05-10-2009
come and get me!
hey security bitches! Would love for you stupid ham-fisted morons to come and question me at home in Whistler about why I think the Olympics suck--plus why I think you suck!
Hermans Hermit
05-10-2009
We Are the BORG - We Are the Collective
Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated.
Jeffrey J.
05-10-2009
"The IOC is not above the law"
That is the question, isn't it? It is certainly not a conclusion. But it should be. We now live in a time where our citizens are put on secret lists. No-one knows if you're on one. If you are, no-one can say how you got there. No-one knows how to get off the list. Non-public police (aka 'secret police') now show up and interview a person speaking out against the regime. Another name on another list.
Does this sound familiar? Have we so quickly forgotten 1930's Italy and Germany. Because this is how those countries, democracies all of them, started down a road of tyranny and authority. And at that time, no-one, not even the Jewish community, could have ever predicted how dark things would become. It was unthinkable. But that was then, and since that horrible era, we learned in great detail exactly how authoritarian regimes begin.
With secret lists. Visits by the 'authorities'. Reminders to shut up and be good.
This is how their democracy ended. What about ours?
My thoughts go out to the courageous and heroic Dr. Chris Shaw. You have many, many supporters in BC. We stand behind you.
Fish-counter
05-10-2009
On the same day that yet another RCMP officer is charged...
with drunk driving, the same force announces a new, improved, random breathalyser program. The Olympic Thought Police start their Operation Thoughtcrime. Oh well, the Braidwood Enquiry will sort it all out, won't they? I mean, like, Braidwood is our new Don Quixote, championing the Little Guy against the forces of darkness. Sure.
playethic
05-10-2009
I found this story to leave
I found this story to leave unanswered questions, and because of what wasn't answered, or asked, I ended up feeling that the story was too unbalanced; wasn't credible.
I'm opposed to the Olympics, but I think you lost ground on this story.
She isn't even an activist. Why wouldn't she then just have been quite open to meeting with police to hear what they wanted? She makes excuses, and then is 'resigned' to meeting with them. I don't get this.
And about the cell phone number. Asking is the easiest way for the police to get a number. If they can't get it that way, then they go dig it up. The writer accepting and stating that the police had the number all along, puts everything else he's written in doubt.
The Olympics piss me off.
But I think the writer's bias in this case blew an opportunity for this incident to reach beyond the anti-Olympics camp.
Hermans Hermit
05-10-2009
Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw:
"I'm a scientist [He's a frigin' eye doctor!]. I can do the math... It's $7 billion so far - that we know about. The environment has suffered - with over 100,000 trees cut down."
"There will be 15,000 soldiers on our streets next year with massive surveillance programs already under way. There will be cameras on every street corner with face recognition software and voice recognition software for the phone lines. We are facing a freaking nightmare for civil rights."
"Three hundred million dollars more were dumped into an ill-considered subway line that may have been influential for the bid but was not a solution for local transportation."
"The city ... found itself facing a nearly $2 billion dollar Olympic debt.... brought Vancouver to the brink of bankruptcy."
"The overall cost to all levels of government for the 2010 Games will likely come out at about $10 billion."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-tresser/no-games-chicago-hosts-ol_b_162587.html
Now THAT'S NUTTY!
BTW, which government is responsible for shutting down Riverview??!!
When the 2010 Circus leaves town I hope that they take all of the clowns with them - including Chris Shaw.
bike-anarchist
05-10-2009
Nutty
"BTW, which government is responsible for shutting down Riverview??!!"
The SoCreds, in 1988, ie. pre-Liberals.
Chris Shaw a Clown, needing to be institutionalized? Now that is really nutty!
Herman, do you know him personally, or is this just an ad hominem attack?
x4estworker
05-10-2009
The RCMP's Huge Credibility Gap
Just when you thought the RCMP couldn't do any more damage to its reputation and image, along comes a boneheaded stunt like this. If this story is on the level, then whoever is in charge of Olympic security should be asking themselves why they assigned a couple of rubes to assess security risks.
The Olympics are a huge waste of money with a huge security bill attached. Maybe the security bill could be a little bit lower if the RCMP chased real risks instead.
Public oversight of the RCMP can't come soon enough. And if the RCMP wants to talk to me about this post, don't bother. I won't be available.
coyoteman
05-10-2009
A thinly veiled fascist state arises....
The corruption and theft at the heart of the class economic system is now evident for all to see. The lurking fascist character of the political and justice system, thinly veiled behind the guise of the anti-terrorist state will now increasingly display its mailed fist in defence of the system, and more and more present itself unabashedly to us.
It is not already untimely for the "aware citizenry" to begin to prepare their self-defencive response.
dave49
05-10-2009
Be a spy for us
What seems to be over-looked in this discussion is that the security people believe they can get someone to spy on a personal friend. The approach was hardly subtle. How much of the Olympic security budget, our tax dollars, went to getting the information to allow the officers to make their approach?
This business of cultivating contacts (i.e. spys) has been going on for many months. How many are participating? Are there inducements being offered to informants?
dave49
05-10-2009
Economic impact of the security spending
For money spent to have beneficial effects in the economy, money earned must be spent on goods and services. Those business owners and employees spend their profits and earnings, further contributing to what is called the "multiplier effect."
However, this $900 million for security will have little impact since most of these people are, or will be, simply too busy to get out and spend their pay and all that overtime pay.
dave49
05-10-2009
October crisis
I was a teenager in Montreal during 1970's October Crisis. I remember taking buses downtown and seeing my share of off-duty soldiers. For the most part, they were obnoxious and full of themselves.
Between Vancouver and the other Olympic venues, I recall seeing an estimate of at least 600 to 700 Canadian Armed Forces members will be working on the Olympics.
Miss aware-beware
05-10-2009
A Police State is what is
A Police State is what is being described here. Violence is to a dictatorship what propoganda is to a democracy. And, in a pinch apparently, threat through intimidation and creating fear in citizens through harassment takes the place of the propoganda when they release you see through thier propoganda. Do not fear, and know that your compassionate power is infinetly more powerful than their dark power.
doggone
05-10-2009
Great comments and an interesting article
In these situations I generally call for calm. Little will be gained by pointing out the obvious stretching of human rights involved.
So we should just lay down our keyboards for a few months and keep our heads way down and smile as we watch the people up on Whistler attempt to make snow.
"What if the "Winter Olympics" fell in a mountain forest and there was no snow?"
Yes, Officer, I will come peacefully
swami99
05-10-2009
I Oppose Disruptive Protests of the Olympics
The games are a fait accompli, and they are only 18 days long. I have seen pamphlets where roadblocks are openly advocated. These can only be counter-productive.
If you need a reminder of how pathetically weak the Left is under the James wheel-spin party, think of this: the NDP lost a seat in the Cambie district in spite of the countless hours that stupid voters spent in avoidable traffic jams.
The cop lobby has used the threat of protest to create a huge bureaucracy at a cost of $900,000,000. That will continue after the Games, if stupidity prospers.
In any case, anyone approached by an RCMP goof with their standard 85 days of training, should have the common sense to advise them that you will speak to them over the phone ONLY, and that you will tape the call. Cops are the hired help and they are dolts; don't act like their player-pianos.
varik
05-10-2009
well..but..maybe...i dunno
I am living in the dreaded toronto now. Missing out on all the fun politics of Vancouver 2010.
I fully support all actions taken to support charter rights, but I have one question to ask...What if some cop had questioned a friend of the Squamish 5 when they were just gluing doors? They accomplished nothing and the two I knew regretted what they did.
crankypants
05-10-2009
Overkill
As the olympics draw closer, one gets the impression that this will turn into the biggest non-party ever held. Are people going to have to raise their hand to get permission to go to the bathroom? Will they have to be escorted by a potty police officer?
What do the RCMP expect to find out by harassing all these various people? If they are planning something that may be considered outside the law, do they actually think the protesters will spill the beans? It seems highly unlikely. If anything, they are probably fanning the flames of these protest groups.
I, for one will be glad to see spring arrive next year. The olympics will be just a memory and all we will have to worry about is paying for them.
sicntired
06-10-2009
This is CSIS
Wonder how they can get information on your friends?How naive are you?They've already refused to rule out the use of agents provocateurs so it won't matter that your protest is non violent.These guys don't do peaceful.They want to eliminate those that won't pose any threat so they can set up people like the anti olympic committee.There will be no protest that will interrupt any olympic event no matter how far these guys have to go to discredit otherwise non violent protesters.Look at past events.If they've already begun harassment of friends of obviously non violent people they are obviously so paranoid that there's no telling how far they'll go in harassing people.Hide the mj folks,the olympics are coming to town.
Sky Captain
06-10-2009
How did the cops get the info on Shaw's friend?
....I am certain they used a little-known, seldom-mentioned computer program called Carnivore to find out their info on her. That, or hacking, are the only ways.
coyoteman
06-10-2009
Swami's third eye is blind...
"If you need a reminder of how pathetically weak the Left is under the James wheel-spin party..." swami99 aimed, fired, and shot himself in the foot.
The NDP is not "The Left". They are but on its right wing fringe, where it shares the muddy centre with the other parties to capitalism.
You'll know the "Other Left", or the more "Serious Left" when it arises and you see it. There will be no question about it. Then you can get really hysterical.
Fish-counter
06-10-2009
It is time BC had its own police force. Send the RCMP packing.
Not that it would change anything much, but we would not have to listen to another cop who is responsible for the death of an innocent Polish immigrant tell us he was above the provincial laws because he is paid with a federal cheque.
We have to make sure that this Olympic security force is dismantled in March 2010. Otherwise the guvmint might start finding other uses for it. At $1 billion per crack, BC can't afford it.
(I suppose this would not be the place to tell everyone about the fully-armed Predator Drone I have in my garage. It is for sale to the first bidder. It is taking up space - I need to put my Panzer tank under cover).
Colleen
06-10-2009
We are pretty much
We are pretty much unanimously appalled by these ISU tactics. Let's use our voices. Contact the Minister for Public Safety or one of the Public Safety critics such as NDP MP Don Davies. Call your MLA. Email Gordon Campbell. Let 'em have it!
Think of creative ways to protest. How about crooning Geoff Berner's song "The Dead Children are Worth It" as you're walking around downtown during the Games? I don't think they've outlawed singing yet!
dorothy
06-10-2009
The worst part
Is that they waste valuable time and resources doing this kind of schoolkid nonsense. The more I hear about this stuff, the less secure I feel around the great event. I live near one of the main routes and at this point want to take my family out of town. I thought there were some sophiticated and intelligent people in there in the mix, who would do a quality job out of the security, but this campaign is so amateurish, that it makes me want to scream.
Why has it not dawned on these people something so simple that the most dangerous agents are those they don't hear anything from? You think people who have big plans of blowing stuff up and hurting others would stand on pulpits or soapboxes and tell everybody what they were thinking? Get real!
janet666
06-10-2009
civic left approved the olympics
too bad danika wasn't aware that Cope got rid of everyone in the party that was outright opposed to the olympics, and formed an alliance with vision which totally supported the olympics, an alliance aided and abetted by david cadman.
Dan the socialist
06-10-2009
The brown-shirts in
The brown-shirts in actio
Vancouver seems to be turning into a police state for these games and even before. This, the Free Speech areas, and on and on. I guess VANOC/RCMP learned well from the Beijing Games...
Did they even get a warrant for her class schedule?
I hope there is a general strike on Feb 12, 2010.
Miss aware-beware
06-10-2009
Police Software
Has anyone ever heard of the soft ware PROMIS used by RCMP. Apparently it was developed by and stolen from a citizen who created it. It has a "back door" built in that is accessible to the powers that be, specifically all the US "alphabet agencies".
dave49
06-10-2009
Merely a reminder?
I told a friend about this story and her view was that the RCMP want to make sure Olympic opponents know they are being watched closely. I replied that is certainly not news to Chris Shaw.
Whatever you want to call it, it is NOT sophisticated police work.
Umslopogaas
06-10-2009
Informant
I am willing to provide information about people that are opposed to the Olympic Games. I will only charge $100 per name to any authority interested in this information. I can provide dozens of names. Please bring cash.
The Blackbird
06-10-2009
How did the cops get the info on Shaw's friend?
Why use Carnivore or hacking to find out what her class schedule was. Langara College is a Provincial Government run institution. It's part of the extended Olympic Family. By registering as a student at the College, she probably agrees somewhere to permit her student file to be shared with other government agencies. Clandestine tactics are unnecessary when there are free tickets to Olympic events to go around. Just guessing, but can't you see it happening?
lynn
07-10-2009
Dan the socialist
Quote:
"I hope there is a general strike on Feb 12, 2010."
Now there's an idea whose perfect timing has come -
That's if we're still free to express opinion....or hope itself in this province/banana republic anymore.
The Blackbird
07-10-2009
I took a walk ...
down to the courthouse to shoot the BCCLA press conference on Mr. Shaw and a fellow ORN members' law suit against the City's free expression-infringing Olympic By-law and I have to say I am quite on side with the action.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbird_hollow/3990971685/in/set-72157622414826881/
doggone
07-10-2009
T'anks God
There are other things than VANO happening.
What a pain in the neck!
I will avoid the town for the next few months (hope I do not need to pass through there at all.)
Good luck
Takuan
08-10-2009
General Strike Feb. 12 2010
Make signs, pass it on.