We Spoke to Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister in Germany, Where No One Taps Phones

Things are going great in Germany, says Canada's foreign affairs minister.

"The mood was very affable and agreeable," Rob Nicholson told VICE on a phone call from Lübeck, Germany, that totally wasn't being tapped by the National Security Agency.

Nicholson is there for a G7 foreign ministers conference that definitely isn't being closely watched by the American signals intelligence community.

During meetings with his counterparts from France, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, the UK, and the European Union—which he was quite convinced wasn't being listened in on by agents of a foreign government—leaders discussed how to deal with the Islamic State (harshly), what to do about Yemen (endorse bombing it), if the Palestinian public relations campaign around obtaining statehood is a good thing (it is not), whether or not the G7 should embrace or exclude the Kremlin (the latter), and how to feel about the progress on nuclear negotiations with Iran (good).

The summit was also a chance for the foreign ministers to put their heads together and try to find a solution on how to stop the steady flow of foreign fighters from the West to the Islamic State. News came out this week that Canada's main spy agency, CSIS, has been passing along travel details about suspicious characters to its allies inside, and outside, the Five Eyes network.

The Five Eyes is a shadowy club comprising Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The quintet share intelligence, and promise not to spy on each other. (Except when they do.)

Expanding the partners who can get that sort of intelligence is good news for G7 countries like Germany and France, who are usually just the targets of spying.

Forums like the G7 often become useful coordination points for intelligence sharing, which is something that Ottawa has placed a high priority on. They also serve as important venues for the NSA and its Canadian counterpart to record and log the communications of world leaders.

VICE asked Nicholson if he was at all worried about having his private phone calls collected, and whether he was taking precautions to thwart the NSA's data collection.

"No, I've got complete trust in my colleagues," Nicholson said.

"I can tell you that, you know, the mood was very affable, and you know, very agreeable. And this is my first one as foreign minister. I've been to others, of course—starting as justice minister. But you know, there was a good relationship between all of us. We're all on the same page."

Nicholson probably has no reason to worry—the Canadian government buys a lot of secure phone lines with encrypted channels. The top-of-the-line communications equipment is so good because it comes straight from the NSA.

While in Europe, Nicholson will also be attending a conference on cyberspace at The Hague, where he will be discussing online freedom, fighting online crime, and defending state systems against state-based cyber attacks (like the ones the NSA launches.)

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