There was quite a bit of excitement at McGill University this evening, as students, faculty and other community members descended upon Leacock Hall to listen to Edward Snowden deliver a remote lecture from Russia, where he lives in exile. Only around six hundred of the several thousand who queued up were eventually allowed inside the lecture hall, the largest on the school's campus.
The address had originally been scheduled to start at 7:00, but was temporarily put on hold after AMUSE, McGill's casual workers labour union, blockaded the entrance to the auditorium in protest, leading to chaos in the crowds. By the time security had removed the protestors from the building and begun to allow attendees to filter in, it was nearly 8:00. And once the teleconference finally began, it was interrupted ten minutes in by technical glitches, cauisng organizers to hang up and re-dial Snowden.
Despite the difficulties, Snowden delivered powerful remarks on cybersecurity and privacy in the online age. He also waded into the controversy surrounding the SPVM's phone-tapping of LaPresse reporter and CJAD 800 contributor Patrick Lagacé, saying "spying on a journalists phone for the specified reason of uncovering the sources of their journalism is a radical attack on the operation of the free press."
Snowden closed his remarks to a standing ovation, and in what was perhaps a poke at the US government (which has laid charges against him for revealing state secrets), he quipped, "Next year, I hope I can come and speak to you in person."