Edward Snowden, the fugitive American who leaked state secrets, wants Canadians to know that anti-terrorism laws are easy to pass but very hard to undo.
He told the high school students that they should “always be extraordinarily cautious” & press for answers, whenever governments rely on “fear & panic” to set up powers that can be exercised in secret.
On Friday, the Conservative government introduced legislation that would empower Canadian authorities to “disrupt” suspected terrorist threats & remove extremist posts from the Internet. At the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been resisting calls to step up scrutiny of Canada’s spy agencies.
Mr. Snowden was speaking to a crowd of more than 1,000 students at Toronto’s Upper Canada College via a Google Hangouts link from his exile in Russia. More people watched on the Internet, & it was the first time he directly addressed a Canadian audience.
Students pressed Mr. Snowden to do more to reveal the inner workings of Canada’s NSA counterpart, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).
Last week, a leaked CSE document revealed that Canadian analysts have been scouring “free file upload” Internet sites in hopes of unearthing manuals related to jihadi activity.
The agency, which collects foreign intelligence signals for Canada, is technically banned from spying on domestic communications.
Previously, leaks have shown that CSE traced smartphones it had spotted moving through Toronto’s Pearson airport.
Many of Mr. Snowden’s leaks to date have highlighted secret spying collaborations among the NSA, CSE & counterpart agencies in Britain, Australia & New Zealand. The collective is known as the “Five Eyes.”
He told the high school students that they should “always be extraordinarily cautious” & press for answers, whenever governments rely on “fear & panic” to set up powers that can be exercised in secret.
On Friday, the Conservative government introduced legislation that would empower Canadian authorities to “disrupt” suspected terrorist threats & remove extremist posts from the Internet. At the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been resisting calls to step up scrutiny of Canada’s spy agencies.
Mr. Snowden was speaking to a crowd of more than 1,000 students at Toronto’s Upper Canada College via a Google Hangouts link from his exile in Russia. More people watched on the Internet, & it was the first time he directly addressed a Canadian audience.
Students pressed Mr. Snowden to do more to reveal the inner workings of Canada’s NSA counterpart, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).
Last week, a leaked CSE document revealed that Canadian analysts have been scouring “free file upload” Internet sites in hopes of unearthing manuals related to jihadi activity.
The agency, which collects foreign intelligence signals for Canada, is technically banned from spying on domestic communications.
Previously, leaks have shown that CSE traced smartphones it had spotted moving through Toronto’s Pearson airport.
Many of Mr. Snowden’s leaks to date have highlighted secret spying collaborations among the NSA, CSE & counterpart agencies in Britain, Australia & New Zealand. The collective is known as the “Five Eyes.”
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