“The ultimate measure of a man” said Martin Luthur King Jr. “is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” King, a civil rights leader for which a US federal holiday is named in his honour, was pursued throughout the 1960‘s with almost fanatical zeal by the FBI calling him “…the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country.” King’s phones and those of his associates were tapped. Listening devices were placed in homes and offices. Shades of McCarthy’s communist witch hunt of the 1950′s? Fast forward to June 2013. Former American security defense contractor Edward Snowden reveals a massive effort underway by the National Security Agency to track cell phone calls and monitor e-mail and Internet traffic of virtually all Americans and many in other countries. “Even if you’re not doing anything wrong” Snowden is quoted as saying, “you’re being watched and recorded.” In 1975, US Senator Frank Church spoke of the National Security Agency in these terms: “I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.” Has that bottomless chasm now been crossed? Some think so, but if you live in Canada there is no need for worry. Defense Minister Peter MacKay is reported to have said that “legislation” protects Canadians from all this nonsense.”