Tag: police state

Freedom Convoy blacklist circulated to thousands of financial firms, records show

A federal blacklist containing personal information about Freedom Convoy supporters was circulated to potentially thousands of financial firms, according to new records uncovered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Blacklock’s reports that regulators in Ontario distributed the information to between 1,000 and 2,000 brokerages and other firms, with no restrictions placed on further distribution.

The blacklist originated with the RCMP and included names, birth dates, telephone numbers and other personal information. Earlier parliamentary records showed it was distributed by unencrypted email to as many as 50 financial institutions, along with industry organizations and securities regulators.

The list was created after the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act in February 2022. Authorities froze $7.8 million held in 437 bank and credit union accounts and cryptocurrency wallets associated with Freedom Convoy supporters.

The Federal Court of Appeal ruled in January that the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was unlawful.

Finance officials have also acknowledged the names on the blacklist were not verified.

“There was no verification,” then-assistant deputy finance minister Isabelle Jacques testified in 2023. “We didn’t do any follow-up.”

The revelations contrast with comments from then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who said in 2022 the RCMP had provided financial institutions with information on protest leaders, organizers and people whose trucks participated in blockades.

Blacklock’s previously reported parliamentary records showing the blacklist also went to Canadian operations of foreign financial institutions, including Bank of China, State Bank of India, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Habib Bank, ICICI Bank, Mizuho Financial Group and Wells Fargo.

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German Parties Converge To Change Law that Makes It a Crime To Insult Politicians

To call German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ‘Pinocchio’ hardly classifies as a crime.

Germany has become a repressive society where the politician overlords are shielded from online insults by an absurd law.

But now, parties from all political stripes have come to a rare consensus: the law criminalizing citizens for offending politicians needs to change.

This comes after outrage broke over investigations of people who mocked failing Chancellor Friedrich Merz and called him names like ‘Lying Fritz’.

Politico reported:

“But while politicians across the spectrum agree the law needs fixing — they just can’t agree how, or when, to change it, according to a POLITICO survey of the lawmakers responsible for the issue from each of the parties represented in the Bundestag.

‘We take seriously the criticism that, in practice, it may have created the impression of a special legal privilege for politicians’, said Susanne Hierl, a lawmaker from Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). ‘Such preferential treatment was never the intention of the legislature’.”

While the Left Party and right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) want to abolish the law, the establishment political forces like the CDU, the Greens, and the Social Democratic Party just want to ‘revise’ it.

“’Politicians like Friedrich Merz insult ordinary people in this country every day by calling them lazy or malingerers’, said Luke Hoss, a Left lawmaker, referring to the chancellor’s remarks that Germans should work more to boost economic growth. ‘The provision creates a special criminal offense that applies only to politicians and should be abolished’.

Tobias Peterka, an AfD lawmaker, said tough criticism comes with the job. ‘Anyone who voluntarily enters politics and exercises public authority must — as Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has repeatedly emphasized — tolerate harsher criticism than private citizens, not less’, he argued.”

The absurd law applies to insults that ‘impede the politicians’ work’.

The ‘criminals’ face up to three years in prison.

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3D-printing enthusiast creates ‘Flock Sock’ to blind controversial cameras, shares design — slip-on cover attaches to broom handle to make it easy to put on devices placed on traffic and streetlights

Privacy concerns and multiple incidents have led many citizens to take it upon themselves to block or disable Flock cameras. They often do this either by placing black trash bags over them or by spraying paint or insulating foam onto their lenses. Now, the former can be dangerous, especially if you don’t have equipment, as you need to reach high enough to cover the camera and secure the plastic bag over it. The latter can get you into deeper trouble, as paint or foam can damage the camera. So, 3D printing enthusiast SquidInk decided to create an easy-to-use model that would take seconds to install without damaging the camera and posted it on Maker World.

While the public was initially concerned about their privacy with Flock’s AI-powered cameras, this concern eventually turned into outrage after it was discovered that some police officers had been misusing the system. There were also a couple of high-profile incidents where procedural errors led to the mistaken apprehension of innocent people. Because of these incidents, some jurisdictions have voted to remove these cameras, to the chagrin of some of their most ardent supporters. As for towns and cities that voted to keep their Flock AI cameras operational, some citizens are taking matters into their own hands and deliberately blocking these cameras to prevent them from capturing video. Note that actions like these are probably illegal and will get anyone caught doing so in hot water. Possible charges include vandalism, criminal mischief, property damage, tampering with public infrastructure, obstruction, and more.

The Flock Sock itself doesn’t encourage anyone to commit a crime. Its description says, “The Flock Sock is a slip on cover designed to help protect a Flock camera from the harmful radiation of the sun. Your city spent their very own hard-earned tax dollars scattering these cameras everywhere to keep you safe, all it cost you was a little privacy. The very least you can do is help protect these valuable civil servants from getting a bad sunburn.”

The creator also said that Flock commonly uses three different models, and that they’re working on profiles for the other two so that there’s a 3D-printable Flock Sock for every Flock camera you may find in the wild.

Aside from being easy to print, it’s also easy to use and deploy. It slides onto Flock cameras in seconds, and you can easily lift it into position with a 1-inch broom handle through the built-in adapter. They also highlighted that it’s 100% non-permanent, saying, “No glue, no screws, and zero structural changes. Because it pops off instantly with absolutely no damage caused and costs exactly $0 to revert, it conveniently avoids some of the troublesome labels that Uncle Sam might stick to you. It’s just a removable accessory.” While SquidInk recommended using ABS/ASA for its excellent heat and UV resistance, they also suggested using PLA “if you prefer your Flock Sock to develop a long term relationship with the summer heat.”

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Former Police Officer Convicted of Sharing ‘Grossly Offensive’ Meme About Islam in Britain

A former British police officer has been convicted of posting offensive content on Facebook after he reposted an image mocking Islam, sparking accusations that blasphemy laws have returned to the United Kingdom.

A former British police officer has been convicted of posting offensive content on Facebook after he reposted an image mocking Islam, sparking accusations that blasphemy laws have returned to the United Kingdom.

Retired police officer Stephen Gray, 65, has been found guilty by the Newton Aycliffe magistrates’ court of breaching Section 127(1)(a) of the Communications Act 2003 over a post he reshared on Facebook, which was deemed to be “grossly offensive”.

According to The Telegraph, Gray was reported to the Durham Constabulary for two Facebook memes by a non-Muslim neighbour of his, whom Gray had previously been in a separate dispute with.

The first post reported to the police featured the title “time for mass deportations” next to a Middle Eastern man in his 20s or 30s with the words “Children in need”. It was captioned with: “12-year-old Mohammed recently arrived at Dover. Please donate to help him move from a three-star to a five-star hotel, which has a better halal menu, free Wi-Fi, and Sky and is nearer to a girls’ school”.

This post was not deemed by the court to violate the law, as it concerned a political issue that had been debated in Parliament.

The second meme depicted a picture of a man wearing a turban next to some bacon with the caption: “Fun facts about Bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9-year-old!”

As the post was not considered to be a political message, but rather critical of a religion, it was found to be “grossly offensive” by the court. For this, Gray was found guilty of violating the Communications Act and was ordered to pay £1,000 in fines and court costs.

Gray said of the ruling: “I made a joke, an ironic joke, about Islam. That is all it was at the end of the day. A joke. I certainly never, not for one second, thought it would be deemed abusive.”

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BOOTLICKERS: Busybodies Flood 999 To Report Neighbours’ BBQs After Stupid Government Alert

Millions of phones across England and Wales blared a sudden siren on Friday evening as the government unleashed its emergency alert system over ‘wildfire risk’. What followed was a wave of neighbour-on-neighbour reporting that left fire services and police inundated with non-emergency calls about barbecues in gardens and parks.

The same compliant instincts that flourished during COVID appear alive and well.

The alert, described by First Secretary of State Louise Haigh as “the most extensive use of the UK’s emergency alert system in response to an active incident,” warned of a “very high risk of wildfires nationally.”

It instructed residents, landowners and visitors not to undertake any activity that could start a fire, including disposable barbecues, firepits, garden incinerators or fireworks. Even a small flame, it said, could rapidly develop into a major wildfire placing lives, homes, businesses and emergency responders at risk. People were told to report signs of fire immediately by calling 999.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the alert was triggered at the request of firefighters and urged the public to take it “seriously.” He has repeatedly described Britain as a “tinderbox right now” after a record stretch of extreme heat and multiple major incidents, including a West Midlands blaze that destroyed 19 homes across more than 500 acres.

Within hours, the practical result became clear. Fire and rescue services reported a high volume of 999 calls about neighbours using BBQs, lighting bonfires or campfires.

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Are China’s Surveillance Exports Turning Nations Into Digital Dictatorships?

Is Beijing hoping to turn other authoritarian societies into digital Chinas?

China’s rise as the world’s leading exporter of surveillance technology is yielding some disturbing results. Beijing’s surveillance export packages comprise an entire technological architecture that can give governments an unprecedented ability to see, identify, and track their populations.

Those technologies include cameras, artificial intelligence, telecommunications networks, cloud computing, facial recognition, license-plate recognition, and centralized command systems. Many mid-sized countries are becoming or are already customers.

Turning Other Nations Into ‘Little Chinas’

Turkey is an important case study.

To be clear, Turkey has not yet become a Chinese-style surveillance state. Its political system and institutions remain different from China’s. That said, Chinese technology companies have established a significant presence in Turkey’s digital infrastructure, and they’re not shy about it. In fact, Huawei has explicitly marketed its AI-powered CCTV and “Safe City,” i.e. surveillance technologies, in the Turkish market.

It’s no mystery that China wants to sell as much merchandise to as many trading partners as possible. But is it also possible that China wants as many partners as possible to use and become dependent upon its surveillance technology so that their societies turn into “little Chinas” by deploying Smart City tech?

AI Camera Surveillance

The first building block is the camera.

Chinese companies such as Hikvision and Dahua have become global leaders in video-surveillance equipment. Meanwhile, Huawei has developed AI-powered cameras capable of performing sophisticated image recognition and analysis. CSIS notes that Chinese firms can provide technologies ranging from cameras to AI analytics and centralized deployment.

Huawei’s AI-enabled technology is in Turkey, using cameras with embedded AI chips and deep learning capabilities to perform recognition and identification while feeding information into cloud-based big-data systems. Such systems could operate across enormous numbers of cameras.

That represents a fundamental shift in surveillance capability for nations such as Turkey. A conventional camera records what happened. An AI camera can begin answering who, when, where, and what.

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Exclusive: Palestine Action facing new rigged ‘terrorism’ trials

As the British state seeks to destroy Palestine Action, a new trial is underway in which a judge has threatened defendants with a ‘terrorism connection’ if they explain the motives behind their activism. 

It is one of three such trials in which the government has muzzled defendants, blinded jurors and banned local media coverage to guarantee convictions.

The Grayzone can exclusively reveal that hearings have been underway in the trial of the so-called Teledyne Three. These three defendants damaged the clean room of a UK factory which produces parts for the F-35 aircraft which Israel has used to carry out an array of crimes against civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip, and beyond. They are members of the direction action protest collective, Palestine Action, which the British state has designated as a “terrorist entity” in the face of international condemnation. 

The presiding judge in the Teledyne Three case, Driver, has imposed restrictions on the defense which threatens them with a “terrorism connection” if they attempt to explain the motives behind their actions.

The British media is currently forbidden from reporting on the trial or the draconian measures applied by the judge.   

The Teledyne Three case is one of three ongoing trials in which the British state is intensifying its assault on Palestine Action by muzzling defendants and blinding jurors. Stretching the definition of terrorism to the point of absurdity, and applying it as promiscuously as possible, forms the heart of the government’s strategy.

This February, the government’s relentless attempts to designate Palestine Action as a terrorism entity was found “unlawful”. However, the Home Office’s July 2025 designation of the protest group as a “terrorist entity” remains under final appeal. Meanwhile, separate ongoing court proceedings against PA actionists testify to a systematic campaign of dubious legal tactics to sentence defendants as terrorists, drastically increasing their penalties if found guilty.

As first revealed by The Grayzone, British authorities stacked the legal deck against a group of PA defendants known as the Filton Six. A judge imposed severe restrictions on what the defense could say, what the jury was allowed to hear, and which defenses the jurors were allowed to consider. The jury was not even able to know that the defendants could be sentenced as terrorists if found guilty of lesser criminal convictions. The entire case appeared engineered to guarantee convictions. 

In June, four were convicted, receiving jail sentences as “terrorists” of five to eight years.

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Minnesota Secretary of State THREATENS James O’Keefe, Cam Higby For Going Undercover in Muslim Garb and Easily Exposing State’s Insane ‘Voter Vouching’ System

Minnesota’s Democrat Secretary of State threatened James O’Keefe and Cam Higby after they went undercover in Muslim garb to expose the state’s insane ‘voter vouching’ system.

“Under Minnesota’s Statutes § 201.061, a registered voter can sign an affidavit affirming that they know another individual resides in the same precinct, allowing that person to register at the polls without presenting standard proof of residence. One registered voter can vouch for up to eight people,” O’Keefe said.

“We wanted to find out what this actually looks like inside a polling place and how far election workers would let us take it,” he said.

O’Keefe was dressed in a ‘thobe’ and Cam Higby wore a black burka as they entered polling stations across Minneapolis.

James O’Keefe used a hilariously awful Middle Eastern accent when he tried to vouch for other voters.

“I have a question about the vouching program, yeah? Vouching? I can vouch for them but they are not registered,” O’Keefe asked the poll workers.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” the poll workers said.

“Ahhh good. Can I bring five more” O’Keefe asked the poll workers.

“Up to eight people,” she said.

“Up to eight? Okay, that’s a good thing,” O’Keefe said.

“If you’re all in the same precinct and you are already registered, you can vouch for them as ID. Eight people,” a poll worker told James O’Keefe.

“You’re the ID,” the election worker told O’Keefe.

“I am the ID!” O’Keefe said.

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The Policewoman Who Remembered Britain Was Still Britain

A Metropolitan Police officer stood on Whitechapel Road surrounded by men who wanted a Christian preacher stopped. One of them gave her his reason plainly: “This is Whitechapel. This is a Muslim area.”

Her answer shouldn’t have required courage.

“In this country, we have freedom of speech.”

From The Standard:

The video, filmed in Whitechapel, shows the officer defending a Christian preacher’s freedom of speech while being surrounded by a group of men.

The encounter, filmed in Whitechapel Road, has been widely shared on social media, and appears to have been shot last Monday, a day before the beginning of Ramadan.

In the footage, uploaded to YouTube channel Auditing Britain, a man holding a Bible can be heard preaching the Gospel just yards from the East London Mosque, one of the largest mosques in Western Europe, accommodating up to 7,000 worshippers for daily prayers.

The officer tells the group: “I understand that you guys don’t want to hear it, so I would just recommend that you walk away and don’t listen to him. He’s not in your home.”

A man wearing a facemask can be seen replying: “This is Whitechapel, this is a Muslim area.”

People are seen yelling at the preacher, with one bearded man shouting: “Talk about Jesus, don’t talk about Muhammad”, and another shouting “Your God is a Jew.”

One man accuses the preacher of “spreading hatred”, alleging that he was calling the Black Stone in the sacred Kaaba building in Mecca “a box”.

The preacher is also physically attacked by one man wearing a black duffel coat and mask, who shoves him in the back, causing him to stumble forward.

The officer continues to defend the preacher, explaining to the group: “In this country we have freedom of speech, the same way you guys have your freedom of speech.

“You guys don’t need to see eye-to-eye, and you don’t need to agree. You’re all more than welcome to stand here and have conversations with them, but they’re not being aggressive.”

She adds: “I understand that you guys don’t want to hear it, so I would recommend that you just move away and don’t listen to him.”

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Canada is taking censorship lessons from the U.K.

Heritage Minister Marc Miller flew to Scotland in July, officially to attend the Commonwealth Games. According to an access to information memo obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, however, he also scheduled confidential briefings on a U.K. Labour Party plan to promote what it calls “social cohesion.”

Ezra Levant broke it down on Thursday’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show.

The Labour document, titled Protecting What Matters, calls for “new tools and powers to disrupt organizations that spread extremism, hate, and threaten public safety.” It also proposes to combat what it labels “digital grifters,” “hostile states,” and “politicians of grievance” — a phrase that, Ezra noted, technically describes almost every opposition politician who has ever existed.

“Isn’t every politician sort of supposed to have grievances and then try to solve them?” he asked.

Miller denied discussing censorship during the trip, saying on social media he met with a Scottish cabinet secretary and first minister, discussed nothing of the sort, and that “the most controversial thing I did was drink an Irn-Bru.” Ezra was unconvinced, though.

“It wouldn’t be the first time in history that a politician lied,” he said, adding that the confidential memo listed the briefings on Miller’s official schedule. “I don’t trust Marc Miller when he says he didn’t have discussions about censorship when his own schedule said that’s what they would be talking about.”

Responding to a Canada Proud social media post about the story, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke responded with one word: “Dystopian.”

Miller replied to Lutke directly, dismissing the story. Ezra noted that Lutke, of German descent, has particular reason to be alert to the language of state censorship — both the Nazi SS and East German Stasi were in that business.

The phrase “social cohesion” is not new in Miller’s vocabulary. In a parliamentary committee exchange obtained by Rebel News, Conservative MP Rachel Thomas asked Miller to define it after he said the CBC’s role was to foster social cohesion.

Miller replied that an age of “disinformation” required a strong state-funded broadcaster and suggested that questioning the CBC contributed to the spread of “falsities.” He also referred to “illegitimate sources” of information — without defining who decides what is legitimate. Thomas noted that the term is used by the People’s Republic of China to mean state control.

Ezra said he first encountered the phrase “social cohesion” in the United Kingdom — and that it has a very specific meaning there. A sitting UK Labour MP named Naz Shah from Bradford West once liked and retweeted a post arguing that the 1,400 young girls raped in Rotherham by gangs of predominantly Pakistani Muslim men should “shut their mouths for the good of social cohesion.”

“That’s what social cohesion means,” Ezra said. “It means shutting down anyone who has a grievance — including, in that case, the rape of 1,400 girls.”

Ezra also noted that he himself was banned from the U.K. earlier this year for being “not conducive to the public good” — which he described as another way of saying he was not part of their social cohesion.

Justin Trudeau introduced four separate censorship bills during his tenure — more than on any other subject. The pattern, Ezra said, is not subtle. The U.K., he said, offers Canadians a view into the future “like a dystopian time machine.”

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