CSEC roundup 31 May 2014

Recent news and commentary items related to CSEC:

- Michael Bolen, "Former Head Of 'NSA North' Says Canadians Are 'Stupid'," Huffington Post Canada, 30 May 2014
- Michael Geist, "Why has the Canadian government given up on protecting our privacy?" Toronto Star, 30 May 2014
- Michael Geist, "What if the Government Passed Lawful Access Without Hearing from Any Privacy Commissioners?" Michael Geist blog, 30 May 2014
- Colin Freeze, "Spy agencies try to curb watchdogs’ ties to each other," Globe and Mail, 29 May 2014. Minor correction to the statement that the CSE Commissioner position was "created in a 1996 law": the first CSE Commissioner was appointed in 1996, but by Order-in-Council under the Inquiries Act; the position didn't become entrenched in law until 2001 with the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
- Michael Geist, "The Trouble With Bill C-13: My Appearance before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights," Michael Geist blog, 29 May 2014
- Jim Bronskill, "Electronic spy agency gathers personal information in cyberdefence role," Canadian Press, 28 May 2014. See also my comments: "CSEC data banks on Canadians," Lux Ex Umbra, 28 May 2014
- Jim Bronskill, "Canadian Spy Agencies Need More Parliamentary Oversight: Senator," Canadian Press, 28 May 2014
- Josh Wingrove, "Canadians are lax on privacy, Senate committee hears," Globe and Mail, 28 May 2014
- Colin Freeze, "Overseeing Canada’s spies: Some sobering second thoughts for senators," Globe and Mail, 28 May 2014 (subscribers only)
- Jordan Press, "Senator urges parliamentary oversight of national security services," Ottawa Citizen, 28 May 2014. Text of Senator Segal's proposed Bill S-220.
- Victoria Paterson, "MP has privacy concerns about cyberbullying bill," St. Albert Gazette, 28 May 2014. The article also reports that independent MP Brent Rathgeber is "working on drafting a bill that would revamp and increase civilian oversight over Communications Security Establishment Canada".
- Josh Wingrove, "Law groups urge government to revamp cyberbullying bill," Globe and Mail, 27 May 2014. Statement by the Canadian Bar Association: Bill C-13, Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, May 2014
- Craig Forcese, "A Three Front Legal Campaign: CSEC, Metadata and Civil Liberties," National Security Law blog, 26 May 2014
- "MP Wayne Easter calls for national security oversight," Guardian (P.E.I.), 26 May 2014
- Laura Payton, "NDP wants privacy, security experts to probe warrantless data gathering," CBC News, 26 May 2014
- Susana Mas, "Cyberbullying bill won't be split in 2, Peter MacKay says," CBC News, 26 May 2014
- "Privacy pushback: 6 ways your rights could be threatened," CBC News, 26 May 2014
- Paul McLeod & Alex Boutilier, "Supreme Court to rule soon on telecom data privacy," Chronicle Herald, 26 May 2014
- Colin Freeze, "What a cyber attack looks like – from the target's point of view," Globe and Mail, 26 May 2014 (subscriber only)
- Jesse Kline, "A bigger surveillance state won’t stop ‘cyberbullying’," National Post, 26 May 2014
- Michael Geist, "In Defence of the Government Tracking Social Media Activity," Michael Geist blog, 26 May 2014
- Josh Wingrove, "Privacy watchdogs troubled by controversial bill extending police powers," Globe and Mail, 25 May 2014
- Jim Bronskill, "Declaration urges respect for privacy," Canadian Press, 22 May 2014. Text of Ottawa Statement on Mass Surveillance In Canada.
- Justin Ling, "Here's Proof Canada Is Snooping on People's Twitter Accounts," Motherboard, 22 May 2014
- Laura Payton, "Stockwell Day calls for changes to cybercrime bill," CBC News, 22 May 2014
- Paul McLeod & Alex Boutilier, "RCMP use of data may spark probe," Chronicle Herald, 22 May 2014
- Justin Ling, "Forget me, Google," National: Legal Insights & Practice Trends, 22 May 2014
- Michael Geist, "Who's Watching Whom: An Examination of Canadian Privacy and Surveillance," Michael Geist blog, 22 May 2014
- Steve Anderson, "Ottawa’s spying on Canadians has no place in free society," Toronto Star, 22 May 2014
- Colin Freeze, "Spy program was suspended for being too aggressive," Globe and Mail, 21 May 2014. In a subsequent interview on Kevin Newman Live (21 May 2014) former CSEC Chief John Adams stated that the suspension began shortly after he became Chief in the summer of 2005.
- Colin Freeze, "CSEC chief cautioned not to refer to China if asked about cyberattacks," Globe and Mail, 21 May 2014
- "CCLA Challenges Federal Privacy Legislation," Canadian Civil Liberties Association, 21 May 2014. Notice of Application, 13 May 2014
- Ben Makuch, "Canada Just Got Sued For Warrantless Data Collection," Motherboard, 21 May 2014
- Alex Boutilier, "Canadian civil liberties group launches court challenge on warrantless access," Toronto Star, 21 May 2014
- Susana Mas, "Cyberbullying bill surveillance powers alarm Ontario privacy watchdog," CBC News, 21 May 2014. Letter from Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian, 16 May 2014
- Alex Boutilier & Paul McLeod, "Telecom giants worried about ‘antagonizing’ feds on lawful access: documents," Toronto Star, 21 May 2014
- Editorial, "Canada needs a royal commission on spying and privacy of Canadians," Globe and Mail, 21 May 2014
- Ben Makuch, "Chinese Hackers Are Probably Stealing Canada's Trade Secrets, Too," Motherboard, 21 May 2014
- Michael Bolen, "Ottawa Is Spying On Us Without Warrants And It's Time To Get Mad," Huffington Post Canada, 21 May 2014
- Daniel Proussalidis, "Canada may be on China's cyber-espionage radar, experts warn," Toronto Sun, 20 May 2014
- Angelina Chapin, "Don't Care About Surveillance? You're Probably White and Middle Class," Huffington Post Canada, 20 May 2014
- Colin Freeze, "Canada targeted in 2011 hacks by accused PLA unit," Globe and Mail, 19 May 2014
- Jesse Brown, "A Federal Minister Explains why the Government Creeps your Facebook," Canadaland podcast, 18 May 2014
- Stephen Maher, "Feds slyly expand power to invade privacy," StarPhoenix, 17 May 2014
- Jason Fekete, "Travelling officials easy prey for foreign hackers: federal records," Ottawa Citizen, 15 May 2014

Also worth checking out: Matthew Braga's new weekly newsletter on security, privacy and surveillance: .digest

Also relevant: On May 28th, Prime Minister Harper nominated Department of Justice official Daniel Therrien to be the next Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Official announcement. Background info on Therrien. As many commentators subsequently noted, this looks an awful lot like the fox being put in charge of the hen house. How likely is it, for example, that the official more or less directly in charge of the lawyers responsible for CSEC's highly problematic interpretation of the legal status of metadata will suddenly become the active advocate for tighter controls that Canadians need? Reaction to the announcement:
- David T. S. Fraser, "Prime Minister names DOJ's top national security and law enforcement lawyer as next Privacy Commissioner of Canada," Canadian Privacy Law Blog, 28 May 2014
- Rosemary Barton, "PM’s pick of Daniel Therrien as privacy watchdog alarms NDP," CBC News, 28 May 2014
- Alex Boutilier, "Stephen Harper nominates top public safety lawyer for privacy watchdog," Toronto Star, 28 May 2014
- Josh Wingrove & Colin Freeze, "New privacy watchdog slammed by critics," Globe and Mail, 29 May 2014
- Craig Forcese, "Privacy Commissioner & Emerging Controversy over Appointment," The Laws of Government blog, 29 May 2014
- David Murakami Wood, "Harper’s nominee for Privacy Commissioner must be challenged," notes from the ubiquitous surveillance society blog, 29 May 2014
- David Christopher, "Privacy Coalition experts urge Prime Minister to heed serious concerns about Online Spying Bill C-13 and to rethink Privacy Commissioner nomination," OpenMmedia.ca, 30 May 2014
- Stephen Maher, "Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau agree on spooky pick for next privacy commissioner," Postmedia News, 30 May 2014