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Canadian officials refuse to say whether they monitored Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry
Brazil’s foreign affairs minister summoned Canada’s ambassador to the country to explain spying allegations, a Canadian official confirmed to CBC News Monday.
The summons, a serious diplomatic measure, comes the day after a Brazilian television report said the Communications Security Establishment Canada used phone and email metadata to map the communications of Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry.
Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado summoned Jamal Khokhar, Canada’s ambassador in Brasilia, on Monday.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff tweeted Monday that her country’s Foreign Affairs Department would demand an explanation from Canada regarding the allegations, Reuters reported.
Canadian officials have refused to respond to questions by reporters about the allegations by TV Globo that the Communications Security Establishment Canada used phone and email metadata to map the communications of Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird confirmed that Khokhar met with Brazil’s foreign affairs minister, but wouldn’t say he had been summoned.
“It is my understanding that Canada’s ambassador to Brazil spoke with the foreign ministry today, as he does on a regular basis,” Rick Roth said in an emailed statement to CBC News.
“I won’t get into the details of the meeting, as we discuss our bilateral relations between governments, not through the media.”
‘Cyber-warfare’
In an interview with CBC Radio’s As It Happens, the reporter who collaborated with the news agency on the story suggested more details will surface.
Glenn Greenwald, who reported on spying by the U.S. National Security Agency, said he has more documents relating to Canadian spying around the world.
“There’s a lot of other documents about Canadians spying on ordinary citizens, on allied governments, on the world, and their co-operation with the United States government, and the nature of that co-operation that I think most Canadian citizens will find quite surprising, if not shocking, because it’s all done in secret and Canadians are not aware of it,” Greenwald said.
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