Government Surveillance Is A Serious Matter Demanding Public Vigilance

I've gone back and forth about whether Edward Snowden is a hero or a traitor. People are indeed divided on this front. However, this may not be the right question. Rather, should we not be indebted to him for bringing to light this issue and for his intellectual call to arms in matters of government surveillance?

They are, after all, watching us without our consent.

Governments in the West in general have become so cavalier, so brazen in their aggressive posturing on such matters there was bound to be civil push back. Snowden represents that's push back.

And for people who say, 'if you have nothing to hide then you shouldn't worry' or 'they're not worried about you'. Wake up.

This is not the point. The point is your privacy rights are being violated. Shrugging your shoulders or coming up with strawman logic like above is just plain lazy and does no one a service. No one is safe. If they need a scapegoat for anything it can fall upon you. Do you really trust bureaucrats with the sanctity of your liberty?

I've come to view him as another figure in the long fight to protect civil liberties and freedom in the face of tyranny. It's no mistake of history it took an American to carry this mantle given it's literally the only nation left on earth fighting for the rights of man where individual sovereignty is concerned.

Americans have that impulse programmed deep in their psyche and they will fight for it.

We should join them in that fight.

Here's Snowden talking to McGill University. He talks, among other things, about how far behind Canada is in such matters.