What's On at the Library

As part of Toronto Public Library's Freedom to Read Week activities, well-known investigative journalist Andrew Mitrovica will be talking about the importance of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations (Deer Park February 27, 6:30 pm). In his talk, entitled Edward Snowden: What He Should Mean to You, Mitrovica will rebut the powerful forces that have sought to dismiss, disparage or diminish the meaning and consequences for Canadians of Snowden's extraordinary revelations about global surveillance networks.

As Snowden's story shows, for the truth tellers these days, there are no rewards. He has temporary asylum in Russia, but he could face decades in prison in the U.S. on charges of espionage. Julian Assange has been locked in the Ecuadoran embassy in London. Chelsea Manning was jailed for35 years. The editor of the Guardian was forced to destroy vast quanities of data, smashing up the newspaper's own laptops under the watch of the British police. All this because they slightly lifted the veil on government secrecy.

Today's Guardian offers another angle on the consequences of such exposure. "Writing The Snowden Files: 'The paragraph began to self-delete'" by Luke Harding recounts how, as he worked on a book about Snowden, many strange things began to happen to him. Perhaps the strangest was this: "The paragraph I had just written began to self-delete. The cursor moved rapidly from the left, gobbling text. I watched my words vanish." This kept happening, and only stopped after an article about it appeared in a German newspaper!

Many people know Andrew Mitrovica as the author of Covert Entry: Spies, Lies and Crimes Inside Canada's Secret Service. Today Mitrovica's columns can be read in the Toronto Star, iPolitics, a news and politics website, and other media outlets. Check out The Ballad of John and Edward Snowden where he takes on Snowden's detractors.

Other Freedom to Read Week events include a not-so-tongue in cheek series of talks by librarian Kara Miley which steps into the wierd and crazy world of the book banners, How to Ban a Book in Ten Easy Steps. You can hear Kara Miley at the Jane/Dundas Branch on Wednesday night, 7 pm, and at the Weston branch on Thursday, 2 pm. Science writer Alanna Mitchell will deliver a talk at North York Central Libraryon Wednesday night at 7 pm. Her talk, entitled Burning Books, Creating Darkness, will explore the history of burning and banning books, and the record of repression and violence against truth.