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Comparing the After Action Reports of the Olympics and the G20

BLOG POST posted on January 8, 2012 by infil00p

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A month ago, I received the RCMP V2010ISU After Action Report. I requested this document after the G20 papers were released and when I got the G20 AAR. Instead of just releasing the one document, I'm going to be posting both for download. The G20 Papers documents you can get from the Toronto Media Coop website, but I'm including the AAR here.

The two documents are very different in structure and tone. The RCMP V2010ISU AAR has a celebratory tone to it, where Bud Mercer's executive summary tries to put a very positive spin on the Olympics. This helps to make the report far less dry and painful than the G20 report. There are some similarities, but it's hard to do a one-to-one comparison. Since this blog's main theme is state surveillance, we're going to be focusing on the roles of the JIG in each case. The V2010ISU-JIG's section of the report indicates that their purpose was to secure the games, and that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms wasn't explicitly mentioned. Both groups mentioned issues with finding qualified resources to work on the JIG.

The G20 JIG and the V2010ISU JIG differ, since the V2010ISU-JIG had something called the SCIS team. I'm assuming that's similar to the Covert Intelligence Unit, but I'm going to have to ATIP ANNEX B to figure out what SCIS is. I assume it's something to do with Criminal Intelligence, but I'm not certain. The V2010ISU JIG mentions how the PIIT in its case was the Financial Investigation Team.

The G20 AAR is far more through than the V2010ISU AAR, since the V2010ISU AAR glosses over many of the details of the G20 ISU. G20 JIG has their recommendations broken up into sections while the V2010 JIG has theirs at the end. Here's some interesting recommendations and take-aways from the V2010ISU-JIG:

  • JIG must be located with its parent unit - The V2010ISU-JIG pre-dated the rest of the ISU, so it was located at RCMP HQ on Heather Street in Vancouver, while V2010ISU itself was based out of what is now the Richmond Detachment.
  • Experienced analysts are required for a JIG to fully be able to fulfill the mandate set out for it. Experience in the Police field is also crucial. - Apparently the poor quality of the intelligence reports that the JIG had to deal with was more common than they would like to believe. For example, it took them forever to figure out what my real name was.
  • Security policy surrounding USB use in a Classified Environment should be adjusted to allow the controlled use of these devices for data transfer. - It seems that the RCMP doesn't understand how bad this practice is. This will provide lulz in the future

Also, here are the statistics which determine what documents I'm now after:

  • Olympic Intelligence Report (Approximately 20 produced since 2005) - I have the June 2009 report, and excerpts from other reports, but now I requested all 20 reports. We'll see if I get them.
  • Daily Olympic/Paralympic Intelligence Report (Approximately 100 total produced); - I'm not going to ask for all 100 yet. I'm assuming there's overlap with the ITAC Assessment Reports
  • Olympic Torch Relay Intelligence Report (Approximately 150 produced since 2008); - I may start asking for this once I get the other 20 requests
  • Tactical Intelligence Reports (Approximately 300 produced since 2007); - This may be interesting, and I'm not certain that we've gotten our hands on any of these reports. However, I'm starting with solid leads, so this will be mid-2012 at the earliest.
  • Corporate Advisory (Approximately 50 produced since 2006); - I asked for this
  • Corporate Briefings (Approximately 20 were presented to corporate partners during live time); - I definitely asked for this.
  • Request for Information (RFI) (Approximately 700 completed since 2006); - This is too broad, and this gives a rough idea of how many businesses and persons were investigated during the Olympics. It would be good to see if a breakdown of the G20 numbers exists. No plans to go after all the RFIs, but people should ask for their RFI if it exists.
  • Open Source Summary (OSS) (Approximately 200 completed since 2006) - This is all the Internet Searches - This will probably be requested mid-2012

It'd also be good to get a complete distribution list for the Foreign Police Forces who saw this information, I think that would be good, since there are many people such as myself who were never arrested, charged or convicted who had their information pass across the border in the course of the investigation.

At any rate, here is the source material for this comparison. It's a very long and dry read, but these two documents allow for more strategic Access to Information and Privacy Act requests to be made.

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