OTTAWA—The Canadian government has not issued new directions to its intelligence agencies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, even as other countries track the virus’s spread with modern surveillance tools that some call a threat to civil liberties. “The law is still the law,” Blair’s office said in a written statement Thursday. There is no evidence the federal government has asked Canada’s national security agencies to turn their powerful surveillance capabilities on the public. And unlike situations involving terrorism or foreign espionage, tipping the agencies’ hand on the techniques being used to combat COVID-19 has little chance of hampering the fight. Before 9/11, the idea of the U.S. National Security Agency hoovering up massive amounts of domestic information would be unthinkable to many Americans.

Source: thestar March 27, 2020 22:45 UTC