Indeed, you can get a general idea of the relative budgets of the CSEC vs. the NSA by comparing their headquarter buildings: CSEC: http://upload.wikimedia.org/

Indeed, you can get a general idea of the relative budgets of the CSEC vs. the NSA by comparing their headquarter buildings: CSEC: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Tilley_Building.JPG http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Tilley_Bu... NSA: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/National_Security_Agency_headquarters%2C_Fort_Meade%2C_Maryland.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/National_... Indeed, the CSEC building actually looks much better in that picture than in real life. I see it every day because it's on my commute, and it's actually quite run-down. Mind you, as you said, you can do a lot of damage even with a small amount of money. I also completely agree that Canadians should be deeply concerned about how much of our communications fall under American jurisdiction simply because of the architecture and governance of the Internet. The NSA is well within its rights, without warrants of any kind and without consulting any Canadian authorities, to intercept virtually all Internet traffic that Canadians produce. Most of it either goes to the States (because most major sites are hosted there), or goes through the States on its way to somewhere else in the world (even elsewhere in Canada).