Cindy Blackstock

Why is the govt spying on Cindy Blackstock? Cindy Blackstock is an advocate for First Nations children and youth. She has an email trail that shows bureaucrats from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs are tailing her, showing up at more than 70 speeches and appearances, taking notes, following her Facebook page and sharing what they find with their Dept and the Dept of Justice. She calls the surveillance, chilling and politically motivated.

Govt surveillance of native youth advocate Cindy Blackstock

Canada spends millions of dollars each year monitoring and tracking individuals and groups thought to threaten national security. Law abiding citizens aren't typically under the government's microscope. But when Cindy Blackstock applied for access to government documents, she received a fat folder that showed she was being watched. Cindy Blackstock runs The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.

In 2007, her organization filed a human rights complaint against the federal government, alleging under-funding of child welfare services on reserves. Her Access to Information request revealed, the Federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development has amassed a large file on her activities, much of it based on first-hand accounts from government employees who tailed her at public appearances. Cindy Blackstock joined us from our studio in Ottawa.

Listen to the CBC Radio Broadcast http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/11/17/govt-surveillance-of-native-youth-advocate-cindy-blackstock/

Government spies on advocate for native children

Why is the federal government spying on Cindy Blackstock?

When does a life-long advocate for aboriginal children become an enemy of the state?

The answer, it would seem, is when you file a human rights complaint accusing your government of willfully underfunding child welfare services to First Nations children on reserves.

Accusing your government, in other words, of racial discrimination.

That's what Blackstock, as executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, did in 2007.

Since that time, federal officials attended 75 to 100 meetings at which she spoke, then reported back to their bosses.

They went on her Facebook page during work hours, then assigned a bureaucrat to sign on as himself after hours to check it again looking for testimony from the tribunal.

On at least two occasions, they pulled her Status Indian file and its personal information, including data on her family.

As first reported by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, it's all there in a mountain of documents, measuring more than six inches high, which she recently received after waiting 1 ½ years for them to be released under access to information legislation.

"I have never had a parking ticket, let alone a criminal record and I have never conducted myself in an unprofessional manner, she told me from Edmonton Tuesday.

More....

Source: Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1087493--tim-harper-government-spies-on-advocate-for-native-children

Tribunal will rule whether Ottawa retaliated against native rights' advocate Cindy Blackstock

Cindy Blackstock has spent more than five years trying to hold Ottawa accountable for a funding gap on the welfare of aboriginal children on reserves.

Instead of dealing with that funding gap, Ottawa has spent nearly as long searching for dirt on Blackstock. In total, it has spent more than $3 million trying to derail her bid to have the government's funding policy ruled as discrimination against native children.

Fresh evidence of government spying on Blackstock and a court victory for the aboriginal children's advocate show Ottawa is losing this fight, despite its chilling surveillance of a woman they seek to discredit.

It was less than a year ago that Blackstock went public, after learning through her own access-to-information request that the government had been spying on her. It has been monitoring her Facebook account, sending officials to hear her speak and compiling a voluminous file on her.

In a decision released last week, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal agreed to add allegations of government retaliation against Blackstock as part of a historic hearing on the larger matter set to begin next February 2013

More....

Source: Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1275148--tim-harper-tribunal-will-rule-whether-ottawa-retaliated-against-native-rights-advocate-cindy-blackstock

Harper government surveillance: stalking Cindy Blackstock

In a decision released last week, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal agreed to add allegations of government retaliation against Blackstock as part of a historic hearing on the larger matter [discriminatory policies against Aboriginal children] set to begin next February.

More.... http://drdawgsblawg.ca/2012/10/harper-government-surveillance-for-those-who-speak-out.shtml

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Cindy Blackstock

Cindy Blackstock

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