ICYMI - Team with Canadian military intelligence unit data-mined social media accounts of Ontarians during pandemic
Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter accounts were scanned by the five-person group called the Precision Information Team or PiT. The team was provided specific terms to search for and all of the data gathered by the PiT team was publicly available, the Canadian Forces said.Article content continued
Brig.-Gen. Conrad Mialkowski, who had PiT assigned to his headquarters during the Canadian Forces pandemic response, said the team did not break any laws or violate military regulations. “There was information collection on publicly available websites,” he said in an interview. “We would find information but we never turned it into intelligence against Canadian citizens.”
“The need for any particular activity is informed by the situation on the ground,” the Canadian Forces noted in a statement in response to questions about whether PiT operated in Quebec. “As such, it is possible that activities carried out in support of the same operation may differ from region to region.”
Mialkowski said PiT was installed in the intelligence cell in his Toronto headquarters because the group which would usually do such a social media monitoring job was busy. In addition, a senior intelligence officer could provide oversight for such a data collection role, added Mialkowski, commander of Joint Task Force Central.
Rear Adm. Brian Santarpia said the military is non-partisan in its collection of the public’s views and data. “We were never looking to take action against individuals and their views,” said Santarpia, who until recently was chief of staff for Canadian Joint Operations Command which coordinated the military response to the pandemic. “We were just trying to understand the space.”
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