Maximum 10-year prison term for conviction of new offence (Canada, wearing a mask at a protest)

[Fire Walk With Me]

JamesFromTheInternet ?@JamesFTInternet

Wearing a mask at a riot becomes a crime today
http://cbc.sh/SrlEXvN
Wear a mask, go to jail for 10 years, rob the country, get a bonus!


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/06/19/pol-mask-bill-royal-assent.html?cmp=rss

A bill that would ban the wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly and carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence with a conviction of the offence is scheduled to become law today.

Bill C-309, a private member's bill introduced by Conservative MP Blake Richards in 2011, passed third reading in the Senate on May 23 and is expected to be proclaimed law during a royal assent ceremony in the Senate this afternoon.

Richards, MP for Wild Rose, Alta., said the bill is meant to give police an added tool to prevent lawful protests from becoming violent riots, and that it will help police identify people who engage in vandalism or other illegal acts. The bill is something that police, municipal authorities and businesses hit hard by riots in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and other cities in recent years, were asking for, according to Richards.

"The provisions of my bill are effective immediately, which means police officers across Canada now have access to these tools to protect the public from masked rioters," Richards said in a statement being released today.

(More at the link. This of course includes Anarchopanda, a teacher in a panda outfit who marches in solidarity with the protesting students and who has become quite popular; police took his costume head into custody recently, to much laughter and derision on the part of Canadian media. This new "law" also allows police to do the following to peaceful protesters, so its actual intent is easy to spot...)

[Scootaloo]

1. What's the penalty for diguised officers wearing masks acting as agent provocateur?

Oh right, police are above the law.

[meegbear]

15. +1

[Hydra]

2. Gee, I can't see where this is going!

Increased police state, more ways to identify people who are protesting...I think we have some sort of bad announcement coming from the various countries!

[cascadiance]

3. Guess they don't like too many Guy Fawkes being found in facial recognition SW analysis of video...

they have been accumulating in their surveillance of all of these protests...

[Joe Shlabotnik]

4. Hopefully the Supreme Court

will send this law to the shredder quickly, and that not too many people have their lives ruined before then.

[reusrename]

5. I went to school with Iranian students who protested against the Shah.

This was in Los Angeles, and they all wore brown paper bags over their heads.

They were conscripted into the Iranian Air Force.

They carried signs that said "Down with U.S. Imperialism in Iran."

They wore the bags over their heads because they had family back home that would be tortured or killed if their identities were known.


Fuck.

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Because if you wear a mask it stops surveillance building a profile on you. Anonymity...

Fibreman ?@TheFibreman

@Anon_GovWatchCA @Libra_Media
Because if you wear a mask it stops surveillance building a profile on you. Anonymity is their nemesis.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Have you seen the face paint/hairstyle ideas to get around the software?

How to Beat Facial-Recognition Software
(with pics)
http://www.technewsdaily.com/3684-beat-facial-recognition-software.html

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. Nice, thank you!

[Hatchling]

7. Not to mention..

...masks play hell with facial recognitin software.

[starroute]

8. And the ten-year penalty lets them squeeze people to rat on others

Law enforcement has been finding the protests very hard to deal with because of their leaderless, hivemind nature. There were reports at the height of Occupy Wall Street that the cops were photographing people who seemed to be taking a leadership role at protests and then deliberately singling them out for arrest during the next demonstration. But that's pretty hit and miss, because somebody cheering others on may just be a general loudmouth and not a planner. And of course the use of masks makes it even less effective.

Surveillance of communications is a related law enforcement tool. They hope to be able to map out protest movements and learn who communicates with whom and who seems to be a nexus so they can take them out. Even if the planners aren't out on the streets themselves, they can get them for conspiracy, which is what they pulled on Earth First! back in the early 90s.

They were taken by surprise when all this started two years ago, but that doesn't mean their methods aren't well-honed and effective once they get them going. If the movement wants to survive a wave of serious repression, it needs to get its defenses in order now.

[bahrbearian]

9. Is wearing Make-up next?

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Yes...see #13, above

[Downtown Hound]

10. Does the same go for police?

And I'm not even talking about agent provocateurs. I'm talking about uniformed police in masks. because I've seen quite a few of them at protests.

[WinkyDink]

11. Wigs, false beards, sunglasses, make-up, hats, ....

[Jack Rabbit]

12. What are they going to do if a quarter million people march on the Parliament building

. . . each wearing a Guy Fawkes mask?

Or better yet, a Stephen Harper Halloween mask?

[Fire Walk With Me]

18. Run out of tear gas, then options, as is now occurring in Turkey :)

[WillyT]

17. K & R !!!

[malthaussen]

19. I for one am glad that our valiant cousins north of the border...

... have enacted such a sensible, equitable, and necessary law.

Or perhaps not. You never know.

-- Mal