[1690] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Just trust us
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jbugden@alis.com)
Fri Oct 3 15:07:43 1997
From: jbugden@alis.com
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 97 14:48:34 -0500
To: <cryptography@c2.net>
Cc: <declan@well.com>
Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> wrote:
.. the police say they'll never peek through this peephole without a judge's
approval. ...
In Canada, this week it was revealed that CSIS (~= CIA) secretly requested the
ability to extend wiretaps at their discretion without requiring a judge's
approval for any other than the first wiretap during the course of an
investigation.
At the secret hearing, CSIS had the support of the Solicitor General (~= Reno).
The Federal court judge who heard the request noted that the Supreme Court of
Canada in 1990 had explicitly forbidden the practise of wiretapping without
judicial approval and therefore denied their request.
The subsequent "revelation" by the Solicitor General was that CSIS's request was
not unusual, but the denial was. As it turns out, CSIS has asked for and
received discretionary wiretapping powers on a case by case basis for several
years.
And why, you may ask, are more Federal judges not aware of Supreme Court
rulings?
Well, that's a secret...
James
