Jim,
>>Back in the 80s I regularly saw those snooping vans parked on German streets. The government was listening in regularly looking for terrorists. The same is not true of Canada? Perhaps because Canada never experienced the same threat?
>
>Oh, I suspect the same DOES go on in Canada, a-la-mode of "snooping vans" or their equivalent.
>And I do know that we have official legal ways for security agencies or police to wire-tap and possibly open mail.

In the pre 9/11 area the american journalists would have been much more likely to finger such attempts than their german counterparts - even while I think there is a larger element of blustering and "besides the point posturing" in the american journalistic culture they were more likely to question the government than in germany. So the picture we are seeing might be slanted - and I can say openly I have no idea whatsoever about Canadian practices.

regards

thomas