Edward Snowden appears via video at Toronto debate

 

AP A file image (made from video) of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Edward Snowden, the former U.S. intelligence contractor who has been leaking information about government data collection programs, says entire populations, rather than just individuals, now live under constant surveillance.

Mr. Snowden appeared via video link at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall during a Munk Debate about state surveillance on Friday night.

Former U.S. National Security Administration director General Michael Hayden and well-known civil liberties lawyer and Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz, argued in favour of the debate statement — “Be it resolved state surveillance is a legitimate defence of our freedoms.”

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist whose work based on the Mr. Snowden leaks won a Pulitzer Prize last month and Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of social media website reddit, were in opposition.

The debate ended with 59 percent of the audience siding with Mr. Greenwald and Mr. Ohanian.