Moderator: CBC journalist Jesse Brown, Panelists: Colin Freeze — Globe and Mail national security reporter, Ron Deibert — U of T prof and Citizen Lab director, Wesley Wark, U of Ottawa prof and two-term member of the PM’s Advisory Council on National Security.
Is it good to know that our government is spying on us and making end runs around our Charter rights to privacy? Even if there seems to be little we can do about it?
A two-hour panel discussion at the Toronto Reference Library raised these questions and revealed the stunning extent of corporate and government espionage. The price tag to do this to ourselves has rocketed upwards, apparently unchecked. No end in sight. Very little in sight, in fact. The laws governing our spies are themselves secret.
The panelists seemed as informed as it’s possible to be in this Alice in Wonderland world, but they could offer little practical advice to the audience. Be aware. Read the User Agreement. Elect privacy-conscious politicians. Would doing these things make any difference, even if people took the trouble?
One audience member asked specifically where she could find citizen groups that would help her learn to safeguard her communications, encrypt her email and so on. There seems to be very little of this sort of group activity in Canada, although there’s plenty of it in Europe and the USA.
Panelist Deibert pointed the questioner to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for its resources, and to the Toronto HackLab in Kensington Market for local support. I won’t say whether I will be following up on these suggestions. Someone is probably listening.