Snowden Says Canada Spy Agency Runs a Global Snooping Program

By TeleSUR

29 January 15

anada is the latest country to be exposed as engaging in global mass surveillance, reportedly intercepting and analyzing data on up to 15 million file downloads daily, according to leaked documents.

The documents, obtained by National Security gency whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2012, are the first to reveal the large-scale spy program conducted by Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

According to reports Wednesday by CBC News and The Intercept, the program analyzed data from allied countries and trading partners, including the United States, Britain, Brazil and Spain.

Brazil, which clashed with the U.S. in 2013 when previous leaks revealed that the NSA was snooping on President Dilma Rousseff, responded scathingly of the Canadian spying scandal.

“Brazil regrets and repudiates all unauthorized espionage on foreign officials by intelligence agencies,” the Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement emailed to Reuters Wednesday. Brazil is also pushing efforts to step up Internet privacy and security in the country.

The CSE, like the NSA, is not permitted to target its country’s citizens, though in the past it has been accused of intercepting nationals' phone conversations and emails.

Canada is part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, along with the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

In the past, Snowden's damning information, often passed on to U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald, has mainly focused on spy scandals from Britain and the U.S. The latest revelations on Canada indicate the widespread reach of state-sponsored surveillance.