A new series of documents from Snowdenshow that Canada allowed the United States intelligence agency to conduct widespread surveillance during the G8 and G20 summits in 2010.
According to CBC News, top-secret records show that the United States converted the country's embassy in Ottawa into a security command post during the above events, when Barack Obama was meeting with other leaders of the state.
Unlike many other cases, given the fact that they are both part of the "Five Eyes", the Canadian authorities were fully aware of what was happening and were in fact working closely with the Americans.
The two partner countries easily hacked into phone calls and computer systems to gather information about their respective governments. The target of the spying is not specified in the files, so it is likely not a single individual but a group of state leaders. However, the files show that the NSA's purpose during the summit was to provide policy support.
Furthermore, the top-secret NSAinclude a list of all the main topics for the Toronto summit, namely international development, banking sector reforms, combating trade protectionism and much more. Facts that the United States would do well to know in advance, in order to better negotiate on key points.
Another section of the secret files shows that much of the surveillance was focused on security elements at the summit. “The intelligence community assesses that there is no specific, credible information that al-Qaeda or other Islamic extremists are targeting the summit,” they wrote.
This was not the first time the two countries had spied on world leaders, as they had done the same during the G20 summit in London in 2009, where they collaborated with GCHQ.
