Just my 2 cents from experience, also posted in Civil Liberties...

[shockedcanadian]

Hello all,

First time posting in this forum. I can assure you I don't work for any government organization, I am not here to spread propaganda, in fact I have worked for years with my government to attempt to address the unfortunate persecution I have been a victim of, of course, to no avail or level of accountability (that's Canada). I feel it is important to express my opinion here, to give you at least one persons experience of the "grass on the other side". I want to provide my 2 cents and to give a fresh perspective from what you may experience in the U.S, as alot of you do reside there.

I am a Canadian citizen, born and raised and I can openly say that the amount of civilian freedom that we have in Canada pales in comparison to what you have in the U.S. I have visited the U.S on numerous ocassions, in 5 different states in different areas of the country, each time greatly enjoying my intereactions with the friendly people there. I have enjoyed the fact that Americans say what they feel; they (you) are more direct, opinionated, honest and forthcoming. Furthermore, although the economy in the U.S is sputtering right now (ours isn't that much better I can assure you), you have the stronger protections to allow for economic creativity and efficiency. Canadians in general are great people, and I truly do love my country, but we do not enjoy many of the luxuries that a U.S citizen does based on the perverted interference by our own treasonous intelligence forces. In fact, we experience more interference per capita I imagine than you ever would, do some research and you may be appalled. We do not have the number of think tanks and support for varying opinions like Americans do, therefore, we are stifled as a nation, failing to grow as we should after 150 years of existence.

You are protected by strict amendments, which your country holds dear, especially the right to freedom of speech. This is a very important right, one which is not so welcome in Canada by various organizations (including our leaders for the last 40 years) snd in fact often times they will purposely assassinate your character and misrepresent your opinion to create a threat. Too many are not so open to frank, open discussions; so instead problems festor and become worse or remain stagnant as they attempt to paint anyone they care to a "concern". At least in America you attempt to address fears, worries and concerns, even if the discussions are passionate and there are disagreements, at least the ideas are tabled and addressed. You have your first Black president, this would not have been possible in my opinion without open discussion about race, just as one example. I may be wrong, but I think that this has to do with the fact that citizens in the U.S feel it is their God given right to express themselves, and to do so allows for a better, more free country. The CIA does not hamper this quality in the U.S, nor does it manufacture it as is done in Canada (by our intelligence forces), instead, the CIA assists in assuring this ability and these rights are available to it's citizens.

In American you have the CIA and FBI, we have the equals in our CSIS and RCMP. These organizations, like any intelligence agencies are not perfect, BUT, the difference is that the CIA deal with legitimate issues and there is no doubt that they protect your nation against legitimate threats and dangersthat truly exist. Kudos to their efforts, regardless of your opinion of them, they do a difficult job in a difficult enviornment. In Canada however, far too often the RCMP and CSIS (our two main intelligence agencies) are more concerned with manufacturing threats to essentially justify their existences and payrolls. You can trust me on this one as I speak from personal experience, the targetting of myself started when I was as young as 17 years old, I am now in my 30's and still a person of interest, though I am a strong supporter of capitalism and rights, nor have I been charged with a crime, nor have I raped, threatened, killed or interfered on anyone's rights. My situation has become so bad that I was forced to write a detailed book about my experiences, you can guess which nation's publishers had the most interest in this book (it wasn't Canada).

Yes, we have legitimate threats, but not enough to keep all of our "operatives" busy and to maintain such large budgets(proportionally speaking), therefore, they engage in entrapment, economic, political and civilian level interference often for thier own personal gain, at the expense of the people they publicly vow to protect. Some of the time they waste on certain illegitimate "non-threats" wouldn't even be on the radar in the U.S as your intelligence agencies are working hard to deal with legitimate concerns, not create them as is done here. Addressing of these legitimate concerns saves lives and allows you the freedoms that you hold so dear.

Thanks for your time, I would open to any discussion if any of you even care about my opinion or experiences as a Canadian. I just wanted to express this and I was hoping this forum would be somewhat therapeutic to allow this. I am a normal Canadian in an unfortunate point in time, like some of you I suppose. You are not alone in dealing with civil liberty concerns, and we each have our own situations, but at least you have some recourse and organizations to assist in righting what is wrong.

Keep up the good work, many more Canadians hope you succeed than those who hope you fail. Come visit us anytime and share that passion for freedom and justice with us.