Team led by SELEX Sistemi Integrati, a Finmeccanica company, delivered integrated security system to provide common operating picture to ensure situational awareness

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Sept. 21, 2009 –Intergraph®, as part of a team led by SELEX Sistemi Integrati (SSI), the systems integrator for the Finmeccanica Group, played a vital role in successfully ensuring the safety and security of world leaders, guests and infrastructure at the G8 Summit, held in L’Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy, from July 8–10, 2009.

Intergraph’s integrated security solutions provided a common operating picture that aided Civil Protection Department personnel in their efforts to secure vulnerable areas, detect and assess threats and quickly respond to incidents. The integrated security system also enabled the exchange of intelligence between the Central Management Station and several remote command and control centers.

Whether it’s an airport tasering or a free speech clampdown, roving legal observers will hold Olympics powers accountable come 2010. At least, that’s the goal of a new program announced today by local civil rights advocates.

Starting this Sunday, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and Pivot Legal Society will begin training regular people to become their eyes and ears next February.

For the dozens of demonstrators outside the Algonquin Theatre on Monday afternoon, one thing was abundantly clear: no one knew who had arranged for them to gather there.

“S.K., S.K., who is S.K.?” one woman cried, of the initials the host of the event had used to inform demonstrators about the local version of the worldwide rallies against climate change, 189 in Canada alone.

Another cajoled a friend to tell him if he had set it up.

“It must be someone here,” said demonstrator Jody White, looking around the rain-splattered crowd. “I guess they just want to remain anonymous.”

Around 40 people of all ages gathered for the flash mob demonstration against climate change outside the theatre on Monday while their counterparts around the world did the same.

Mitch Potter

PITTSBURGH–Canada will be the birthplace for the rise of the world’s new pre-eminent world economic institution, the Star has learned.

The moment will come June 25-27 in an unusual gathering of world leaders in Huntsville, Ont. Originally planned as a G8 summit, the event will now include the full G20. That group includes the biggest industrial countries, plus major emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India.

As soon as the federal government announced Huntsville would play host to the 2010 G8 summit, it was presumed Jack Garland Airport would have an integral part in the three-day event.

Other than the announcement of a $10-million investment to repave the runway —

$5 million from the G8 fund — nothing has been publicly confirmed.

Kevin Johnson, consul general of the United States, was in North Bay Wednesday and said nothing has been “formally announced, however it’s assumed planes will land in North Bay.

For the dozens of demonstrators outside the Algonquin Theatre on Monday afternoon, one thing was abundantly clear: no one knew who had arranged for them to gather there.

“S.K., S.K., who is S.K.?” one woman cried, of the initials the host of the event had used to inform demonstrators about the local version of the worldwide rallies against climate change, 189 in Canada alone.

Another cajoled a friend to tell him if he had set it up.

“It must be someone here,” said demonstrator Jody White, looking around the rain-splattered crowd. “I guess they just want to remain anonymous.”

OTTAWA and ORILLIA, ON, July 13 /CNW/ - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in partnership with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the Canadian Forces, North Bay Police Service, Toronto Police Service and other safety and security partners, have formed the G8 Integrated Security Unit (G8 ISU) to help ensure a safe and secure G8 Summit in Huntsville in June 2010.
Planning is already underway for security operations and personnel have been assigned from a number of organizations to work on this project full time. The operations are jointly led by RCMP Chief Superintendent Alphonse MacNeil and OPP Chief Superintendent Brian Deevy.

I would like to let those who are planning on protesting at the 2010 G8 Summit know that there is already an uneasy tension building up at the thought of their arrival in Huntsville.

Did you hear the one about a new hydro line being strung exclusively for Deerhurst? What about the fact that once you get home from work, you won’t be allowed to leave again, even to walk the dog?

When an event the size of a G8 Summit comes to town, tall tales about what might happen are bound to emerge.

But what’s fact and what’s fiction?

Between now and next June’s main event, the Huntsville Forester will be running a G8 rumours page as a regular feature in our newspaper.

Send us your rumours, tales, whisperings and musings — anything you’ve heard that might happen in or around town as a result of the G8.

The Forester will take those rumours to summit and security organizers and help to separate the fact from the fiction.

E-mail your rumours as you hear them to cmalchuk@metrolandnorthmedia.com

How many people could descend on the area for next year's G8 Summit is anyone's guess, but it's expected to be on par with the 1984 papal visit when an estimated 70,000 pilgrims flocked to the region to catch a glimpse of John Paul II in Midland.

"It's very hard (to estimate the number of people)," said Kelly Magnusson, manager of emergency response with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, adding there will be delegates and their support staff, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other interest groups. "We've been given a very broad range by the provincial and federal governments."

The 36th annual G8 Summit comes to Huntsville's Deerhurst Resort next June, but preparations are already underway.

The G8 Summit in Huntsville next summer will have a minor, if any, effect on the population of Haliburton County, the Huntsville Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce general manager says.

While rumours are rampant that radical, destructive protesters are going to take over campgrounds and rent unsuspecting cottage owners’ properties for the June 25 to 27 international event, Kelly Haywood says there’s no evidence that will happen.

Ottawa – June 12th, 2009. Canada is set to become one of the first countries in the world to provide police officers nationwide with technology to gain immediate access to INTERPOL’s vast international criminal databases.

“This project will have a positive and immediate impact on Canada’s ability to fight global crime,” said Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan. “We are providing law enforcement with the tools they need to prevent attacks on our security, and make communities safer.”

Between the afternoon of June 3 till June 5, 2009, approximately 15 anti-Olympics activists were visited by Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (VISU) Joint Intelligence Group officers. Surprise visits by plain-clothes officers included home visits, work place visits, persistent phone calls, and intimidation of family members and neighbours. The patterns of visits reveal that VISU has clearly been spying on activists and making note of daily routines. In one case, an organizer was stopped on the road near the skytrain he uses daily on his way to work and followed into the packed station where VISU very publicly identified themselves and him. In some cases, the officers would not leave when activists refused to speak with them and demanded that they leave.

More than a dozen anti-Olympic activists and critics were contacted by intelligence officers from the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit (VISU) for the 2010 Olympic Games, from June 3 – 5, 2009. The Olympic Resistance Network and other groups are again asking VISU to stop harassing individual members and are preparing a legal letter to VISU to cease such intimidating visitations. The visits and phone calls were carried out by at least 8 members of the Joint Intelligence Group of VISU who asked activists about specifics around anti-Olympics activities. The plain clothes intelligence officers conducted surprise visits at people’s homes and workplaces, or in public places. “This is a clear effort to intimidate and monitor people who have concerns about the negative impacts of the Games on our communities,” explains Cara Fisher.

The North American Aerospace Defence Command will play a key role in providing security for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games and the G8 Summit to be held in Huntsville next summer, says the U. S. air force general in charge.

Norad Commander Gen. Gene Renuart, also head of the U. S. Northern Command, said during a stop in North Bay Tuesday that plans involving both U. S. and Canadian aircraft and personnel are already underway to defend both events from any potential threats.

The Town of Huntsville has submitted four applications for G8 funding for emergency equipment that could help the municipality during the summit, as well as provide a legacy for the town afterwards.

This is article is an overview of some anarchist activity and the context in so called “British Columbia, Canada,” written by anarchists living in Vancouver. Much that could be here is not, especially concerning our context. We are focusing mostly on the years from 2006 on. For earlier times look at: geocities.com/insurrectionary_anarchists and A Murder of Crows issue #1 (Insurrectionary Anarchist Projects and Social Conflict in Vancouver)

Counter-terror force to help with Olympics

March 2, 2009, Vancouver Sun

Troops from the Canadian army’s elite Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorist unit will be assigned to help provide security at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, a senior military official said on Monday.

Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden’s statement came as something of a surprise. The military does not usually comment on the deployment of the JTF2, which is the most important part of its so-called Special Operations Forces.

Planning for the security of the 2010 G8 Summit is still in the conceptual stage, but Tim Charlebois, planning and operations coordinator for the OPP for both the 2010 Olympics and G8 Summit, says the second ring of the security zone will include local residences.

Charlebois spoke Friday to an audience of about 340 people at the Muskoka Futures Symposium at Deerhurst Resort.

“The G8 is . . . the largest annual security event in the world. It’s about getting eight people in a room,” he said.

Reserve units across Canada are being trained in securing perimeters in case of an emergency.Master Cpl. Brian Walsh/DNDReserve units across Canada are being trained in securing perimeters in case of an emergency.

The Canadian military has embarked on a wide-ranging plan to turn its reserve soldiers into focused units trained and equipped to respond to a nightmarish array of domestic threats, including terrorist "dirty bomb" attacks, biological agent containment, Arctic catastrophes and natural disasters.

The creation of seven units within each region of the country -- including unusual all-terrain vehicle (ATV) squadrons and perimeter security teams to cordon areas of potential devastation -- prepares reserve soldiers for operations on the "domestic front" while freeing regular force soldiers to concentrate on foreign battlefields.