Douglas Quan reports:
A spokesman for this country’s ultrasecret electronic-spy agency, Communications Security Establishment, said Monday that the agency is not in the business of prying into Canadians’ private communications — and that if they do pick up emails or cellphone chats, it’s “unintentional.”
The spokesman was responding to published comments last week that the terrorism-related arrests in Ontario were triggered when authorities intercepted messages between members of the alleged cell and that at least one of the suspects used Ottawa Public Library computers to send those messages.
[…]
CSE spokesman Adrian Simpson said Monday that the agency only spies on the electronic communication of foreign targets — non-Canadians living outside of Canada. He said that the only way the agency would be able to pick up the communications of a Canadian is if that foreign entity corresponded with a Canadian.
“We are prohibited by law from directing our activities at Canadians or any person in Canada,” Simpson said.
Read more in the Montreal Gazette.
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