Canada Spying Revelations in Brazil

[eyeball]

We can either see whats going on or we cant.

A worm-hole camera would do the trick but then again so would ethics.

[Rue]

And what sort of national security threat is potentially posed by the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy?

Probably none but you know better then that. Your assertion/inference that spying should only be done as a pre-emptive measure to prevent a national security risk is naive.

Spy agencies of nations are used for industrial espionage as much if not more then they are for national security reasons and often the two coincide.

Canada has been spied upon by Brazil and supposedly friendly countries like France, the US, Britain, Germany as well as China, Russia, Japan, etc.

Any nation with an industrial base will be spied upon. Its called industrial espionage a necessary offshot of capitalism and competition.

You want to compete to make a better product you spy.

Sometimes you get caught, the mea culpas are sent out, but the spying continues.

Now before anyone sheds a tear for Brazil it makes a fortune selling weapons and exploiting labour at cheap wages.

I would not be in so much of a rush to label this country a victim. It exploits its own people as cheap labour, pollutes as bad as any nation in the world, props a corupt regime with a huge gap between the rich and poor and because of pure greed and lack of planning has over populated, highly polluted, crime ridden cities and a natural disaster transpiring in its rain forests.

Brazil's political engine is ruthless and unethical.

If Canada has to compete with it to sell the same natural resources then it may have to spy and don't think for a second Brazil has not done the same in reverse.

When I went to a certain graduate school in Toronto I met many Chinese students who as the price for being allowed to come to Canada to study were expected to file monthly reports on the research projects going on by all the other students in that university. That is low level espionage.

I knew of someone working for French intelligence who was in essence sent to keep an eye on car designs and engines.

Its not that big a deal. Industrial espionage is a reality.

It is everywhere. It is probably what took Blackberry down. Many believe the Chinese government was able ti infiltrate Blackberry with angry fired employees (and there were many) and sabotage its systems evolving into the black out which was the final nail in its coffin.

I am not justifying industrial espionage as moral. I do not know what constitutes morality. I also do not want the state spying on me either.

I do not want a police state any more than you do. What I am saying though is industrial espionage is everywhere. It is the reality of today's

world. Nothing remains hidden for too long from competitors.

It is in Canada's natural interest to compete and get contracts away from Brazil. Our government is trying to protect potential jobs for Canadians.

Our countries are in a fight over the same shrinking global opportunities.

[eyeball]

Our planet's economies and countries are circling the drain, but its not that big a deal, its just business.

It's as hilarious as it is pathetic.

[bleeding heart]

You want to compete to make a better product you spy.

It is in Canada's natural interest to compete and get contracts away from Brazil. Our government is trying to protect potential jobs for Canadians.

And what of the revelations that the spy agency could be spying on Canadian citizens--which is not only explicitly outside their mandate, but is flatly illegal?

the overseer himself feels the possibility very large...and the only reason he can't be sure is because the agency has kept poor records...ALSO illegal, probably an intentional deception precisely to keep the overseer in the dark (which, too, is completely illegal).

Is this also our principled government trying to protect potential jobs for Canadians?

Critics are urging the Harper government to lift the veil that shrouds Canada's electronic eavesdropping agency in the wake of an overseer's report that suggests ordinary Canadians may have been illegally spied on.

In his final report to Parliament before he leaves his post, commissioner Robert Decary says some of the spying activities at Communications Security Establishment Canada may have affected Canadians in the last year.

However, thanks to poor record-keeping, Decary — a retired judge who has been the agency's independent watchdog since 2010 — said he can't be sure.

"A number of CSEC records relating to these activities were unclear or incomplete," said the report, tabled Wednesday.

"After in-depth and lengthy review, I was unable to reach a definitive conclusion about compliance or non-compliance with the law."

Edited October 22, 2013 by bleeding heart