Edward Snowden speaking at Queen's

On Thursday November 12th, the Queen’s International Affairs Association (QIAA) is presenting Edward Snowden as keynote speaker for the Queen’s Model United Nations Invitational.

The talk runs from 6:30 pm to 8pm – doors open at 6pm – with a 45 minute keynote address by Snowden about the changing nature of surveillance and current state of espionage, followed by a 35 minute question period moderated by Dr. David Lyon of the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen’s.

According to the QIAA, the conference is expected to host 250 delegates from North America and over 100 staff.

Edward Snowden is a former CIA employee and National Security Agency (NSA) government contractor. In 2013, he leaked documents to journalist Glenn Greenwald that revealed detailed secret NSA programs and capabilities being used to collect and store personal communications from within the U.S. and abroad.

Snowden is now a privacy activist and Director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. He can also be found on Twitter at @Snowden.

Edward Snowden’s video address will take place at Queen’s University in Kingston in Grant Hall. The event was originally intended to be streamed to other halls on campus as well, but is now going to be live streamed and available to the public online. Learn more at the QIAA Event page on Facebook.

Individuals or organizations interested in helping to fund or sponsor this conference can contact the Queen’s International Affairs Association.

The QIAA website describes itself as a student run, not-for-profit organization which originated from the Model United Nations (MUN) program. Its flagship initiative is the Queen’s MUN Team which travels to conferences throughout North America.

It is an umbrella organization of eight different initiatives and serves as a hub for students, faculty and members of the Kingston community who are interested in engaging in debate and dialogue about current events, foreign affairs, global politics and international issues in general.

http://kingstonherald.com/news/snowden-queens-university-2010315259