by Silviu Riley

The documentary Citizenfour, directed by Laura Poitras, reveals the thoughts of notable whistleblower Edward Snowden as the cache of documents he delivers in May 2013 to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras are analyzed for the first time. Poitras directs in a very immediate way, pulling the audience into the moment-by-moment decisions Greenwald makes in reporting the massive global surveillance program Snowden has disclosed.

Primarily focused on the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) and the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the documents Snowden discloses to Greenwald and Poitras describe a near constant surveillance on the citizens of both nations, and others, ostensibly on national security grounds. Yet the programs are revealed to contain the emails, phone calls, browsing habits, location information, text messages, pictures, and videos of all citizens, without the requirement of probable cause.

These two security agencies are not the only ones involved. NSA and GCHQ operate in close cooperation with other nations in the Five Eyes grouping, with Canada, New Zealand and Australia being the other three members.

As Canadian citizens, we have to ask what role our intelligence agencies, Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), have alongside the NSA and GCHQ. We must keep in mind while watching Citizenfour that what Snowden discusses with Greenwald and other reporters applies to Canada as well. What information does CSE and CSIS capture under Canadian anti-terrorism legislation? Does the overreach displayed by their counterpart agencies in the US and UK also apply to domestic surveillance in Canada?

In Citizenfour, the importance of the disclosure drives Greenwald to report daily on new documents from the cache. The pressure to gain as much insight on NSA thoughts and abilities from Snowden is palpable to the audience.

It is highly recommended to everyone to see this documentary, no matter your area of expertise or amount of knowledge. The issue of global surveillance must be made a public, and Canadians have to be informed as to what capabilities our governments have and if they are they are being improperly used.

This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol.7, No. 5 (Feb/March 2015).

Citizenfour