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Government spying is a reality of our world. But is this something we should just accept?

Stars from all over flocked to the 6ix for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and while the star-studded event featured a number of films that made headlines for a variety of reasons, I want to take a look at one film in particular and its implications to our national security.

Snowden. Recognize the name? You definitely should. Edward Snowden is a National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower who is currently living in Russia, having recently lost his status as an asylum seeker after he released classified documents from the U.S. government regarding national security and mass surveillance.

He has been charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person. To summarize, he’s been charged with treason.

I’ll start this off by adding that I am not a government communications expert. I know next to nothing about what our government agencies have to do to keep us safe, what rights I unknowingly sacrifice in the name of national security or what position we might be in if we didn’t have this protection. I haven’t even seen the movie Snowden, so who knows if this bio-pic is even historically accurate.

As a journalist, I believe that if citizens don’t have access to all the information they need in order to make an informed choice about who they elect to run their government, how can we claim it’s a fair and democratic system? And if our government is unlawfully spying on us, don’t we have a right to know?

The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) is the Canadian equivalent of the NSA. As reported in an article called “Whistleblower Edward Snowden’s impact on Canada” published by CBC News in 2014, Snowden’s whistleblowing exposed some fairly serious revelations about how the Canadian government was spying on its own citizens as well as other countries.

The side of me that always wants to play devil’s advocate thinks about what potential threats we were protected from because our government was able to spy and learn the secrets of those who meant to cause us harm. But the journalistic side of me thinks about what these violations mean for our rights as Canadian citizens who are not taking part in acts of terrorism or treason.

When you’re asked to choose between protecting the country and having the government spy on your phone calls and Google searches or risk national security but have your life be completely private and protected from government sanctioned spying, you begin to realize that the issue is not as black and white as it may seem.

The problem with the fact that our government was spying on its citizens is that we weren’t given a choice. No one in the government asked us if it was okay to take away our constitutional liberties. There was never a motion passed in government with the opportunity to debate the pros and cons of such a decision. Canadian citizens were having their privacy breached, even though they did nothing to deserve it, all for the sake of possibly catching a few people who were up to something nefarious.

This is why Snowden’s decision to blow the whistle on the NSA (and by default the CSE) is so important. In 2013, when we were functioning in a system where journalists were forced to submit pre-approved questions to our leaders and government workers who replied with scripted answers and to apply to have access to government information only to be turned down after weeks of waiting (thanks Harper), we were provided with more information than we ever could have hoped for.

To some, Snowden is a whistleblowing hero. To others, he is a whistleblowing traitor. I think it’s possible for him to be both as opposed to only one; he committed treason against his government, but for the sake of the people.

If it weren’t for Snowden, would we have ever learned about what the NSA and CSE were doing? Probably not. But if it weren’t for Snowden, would we actually be safer? We’ll never know. But hey, at least TIFF got another controversial movie in their line-up.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.