Since September 11, 2001, governments around the world have focused primarily on terrorism and terrorist acts. Harmful acts committed every day by individuals around the world are attributed to terrorism, even though there is nothing connecting the two other than seemingly random violence. Like many other countries, Canada is devoted to the "war on terrorism," regulating numerous agencies that monitor foreign communications and activities with the goal of stopping them before they happen. Are all procedures and operations carried out by the Canadian government justified or even legal? Canada is slowly implementing new laws and increasing budgets for agencies dedicated to fighting terrorism, but are the extreme costs involved, as well as the loss of freedom and privacy, really worth the slight increase in sense of security? The loss of privacy since 9/11 is not at all shocking. As governments seek to uncover the secret plans of terrorist organizations, they must have some sort of procedure that allows them to monitor the communications of suspected terrorists; however, why does this lead to the loss of privacy of Canadian citizens, are all Canadians suspected of terrorists? A form of legislation protecting the privacy rights of Canadians was introduced in 1985 called the Privacy Act, which "imposes obligations on approximately 250 departments and agencies of the federal government to respect privacy rights by limiting the collection, use and disclosure of personal information" (www.priv.gc.ca). This law protects citizens from the collection and improper use of their data; however, there are means that the government can use to overcome this obstacle. They do this by collecting something called "metadata." Below Canadian l...... middle of paper ......Nov. 2013. Security spending after 9/11. Huffington Post. Monday, November 25, 2013. Post-9/11 Security Spending Exceeds 92b. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Mon Nov 25, 2013. .Shade, L.R. “Reconsidering the Right to Privacy in Canada.” Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society 28.80 (2008): 80-91. Sagepub. Wednesday, October 29, 2013. .Statistics Canada. Government of Canada. Mon. 25 November 2013. Presentation of the three-year review of the anti-terrorism law. Canadian Bar Association. Mon. 25 November 2013. .Walby, K., Seantel AnaÏs. “Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), Secrecy Structures, and Ministerial Authorization after 9/11.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 27.3 (2012): 363-380. MUSE project. Network. October 29. 2013. .