English

Meeting at Toronto’s York University on implications of Snowden/CSEC spying revelations

Keith Jones, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Canada), will be the main speaker at a public meeting at Toronto’s York University on Thursday, January 23 called to discuss the political implications of the global police-state spying operation being mounted by the US National Security Agency (NSA) with the assistance of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). (Scroll to the bottom for the meeting time and venue.)

Thanks to documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, we now know that the NSA spies on virtually all telephone calls and internet use around the world, including—in flagrant violation of the US constitution—the communications of Americans.

Canada’s own (CSEC) has been revealed to be a major partner in this global spy ring—putting the lie to government claims that CSEC’s main function is to fight “terrorism.”

Since last June the shroud of secrecy that surrounds CSEC—an agency that functions under secret ministerial directives unknown to the public, parliament, and all but a handful of national-security operatives—has been slightly lifted.

Pivotal revelations include:

* CSEC has been spying on Canadians’ phone and internet communications metadata since at least 2005.

* CSEC spies on Americans for the NSA in exchange for help with spying on Canadians.

* CSEC swaps personnel, materials, and technology with the NSA and receives funding from it.

* CSEC spies on foreign governments (eg. Brazil) and their delegations to international meetings (eg. the London G20 summit) and has conducted spying in at least 20 countries for the NSA.

Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has responded to these revelations by systematically lying about the legality and scope of CSEC’s operations.

Organized by the York University chapter of the IYSSE (International Youth and Students for Social Equality), the meeting will expose the government cover-up and the role the opposition parties—including the NDP—and the corporate-controlled media have played in aiding and abetting it.

Most importantly, the meeting will explain the connection between the elite’s turn to police-state measures and the crisis of the capitalist system and fight for the understanding that the defense of democratic rights is bound up with the mobilization of working people against ever-growing economic insecurity and social inequality and the struggle for a socialist alternative.

Thursday, January 23, 4:30 PM
Room 004, (Harry Leith Room)
Atkinson Building
York University, Keele Campus
Toronto

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