Actually it is not excessive. It is legal for CSIS to monitor non-citizens and it is even legal for them to investigate citizens if they may be assisting foreigners that Canada disapproves of. I was interviewed by CSIS because I did some technical work on a server for a foreign-born Canadian who was suspected of being involved in white-power/neo-nazi orgs. The goal of CSIS was to find out if a certain prominent foreign white-power speaker might sneak into Canada. There was a well-known leaky spot in the US border not far from the town where this guy lived.

This Nadim fellow is a suspicious guy doing suspicious things who travels to terrorist hot-spots and to the USA, which is also suspicious. And I bet that CSIS is reading every word on HN right now. After all, where do you think that CSIS finds the hackers to set up the kind of hacks that Nadim has described? Same goes for CIA, NSA, FBI, DHS.

> Actually it is not excessive. It is legal for CSIS to monitor non-citizens and it is even legal for them to investigate citizens if they may be assisting foreigners that Canada disapproves of.

Just because something is legal doesn't mean its not excessive. Just because the government does something, doesn't make it right.

> After all, where do you think that CSIS finds the hackers to set up the kind of hacks that Nadim has described?

From the description of what happened I'd guess probably at the local high school, by asking if anyone likes Bond movies.

> "And I bet that CSIS is reading every word on HN right now."

Well, on that off chance, let me be the one to say to our CSIS guys and gals: for fsck sake, don't do something like this. We could all use some better role models, and the number of comments and votes on this thread reflect how monumentally-offensive the suggestion is.

> "This Nadim fellow is a suspicious guy doing suspicious things"

Nadim is a smart guy working in computer science. What would the reaction be if he were Dr. Kobeissi and a computer science professor?