Government spying on non-nuclear movement in Canada

In his book CANADA'S DEADLY SECRET: Saskatchewan uranium and the global nuclear system (Fernwood Publishing, Canada, 2007), Jim Harding documents Canadian government spying on the anti-nuclear movement. He discussed it in the context of documenting a secret, $2.5 million pro-nuclear propoganda and disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Canadian [federal government's] "Crown corporation" Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd. (AECL), mandated to promote nuclear power, and carried out by the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA):

"The cynical use of clandestine tactics by the nuclear industry is demonstrated by the fact that, while this CNA "public information" campaign was occurring, the AECL was creating a secret database on the personnel, funding and vulnerabilities of about a hundred anti-nuclear groups across Canada. This "Database of Anti-Nuclear Groups" was published for "Restricted Commercial" use by the AECL in January 12, 1988. It was done by the Ridley Research Group of Toronto and was leaked to several anti-nuclear activists across Canada including myself. As this nuclear offensive continued, it felt like the non-nuclear forces were on the receiving end of a counter-insurgency campaign to push back the gains made over the previous decade. Shutting down the nuclear industry was not going to get any easier." [from Chapter 5, "Corporate Agenda," page 75]

Pro-nuclear attack on freedom of speech in Alberta, Canada

An article by Canadian anti-nuclear activist, researcher, and author Pat McNamara documented a pro-nuclear attack on an anti-nuclear billboard in Alberta that occurred in 2009. The attackers defaced an anti-nuclear message by painting profanity and a Nazi swastika on it (see photo at left), as well as lodging a Molotov cocktail at it in an apparent attempt to burn it down. Fortunately, the attack did not result in physical injuries. 

EDF fined millions & its senior staff sentenced to years in prison for spying on Greenpeace France

Greenpeace International has blogged about the larger implications of a French court's conviction of Electricite de France (EDF) and two its senior staff for "complicity in computer piracy": hiring a private investigator to hack into Greenpeace computers and steal 1,400 documents. The court has fined EDF 1.5 million Euros ($2 million), ordered it to pay 500,000 Euros ($682,000) in damages to Greenpeace France, and an additional 50,000 Euros ($68,200) to the Greenpeace campaigner whose computer was hacked and confidential documents stolen. The court has sentenced two senior EDF officials, and two officials at the private investigation company, to 2-3 years of jail time each, as well as fining three of them thousands of Euros each. World Nuclear News has reported on this story.