Edward Snowden speaks to Toronto students, urges caution on new terror bill

WATCH: Edward Snowden, speaking to a group to Toronto teens, cautioned against Harper’s new anti-terror bill.

TORONTO – The man wanted for leaking U.S. security documents in 2013 says Canadians should be “extraordinarily cautious” in reference to an anti-terror bill proposed by the Harper government.

Legislation tabled last Friday would give the Canadian Security Intelligence Service powers to actively disrupt threats, not just collect information about them.

Edward Snowden, who remains in Russia after leaking U.S. National Security Agency documents, says citizens of any country should be “very careful” of this type of legislation. Snowden says the process is easy to begin at a time of fear and panic, but very difficult to stop after the fact.

READ MORE: Are you already violating the feds’ new anti-terror bill?

Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney has said he believes that the Security Intelligence Review Committee has the expertise to keep an eye on CSIS.

Glenn Greenwald, who received documents from Snowden and reported about them for The Guardian newspaper, says Canadians have a greater chance of dying by being struck by lightning or by slipping in a bathtub than from a terrorist attack.

Snowden – a former NSA analyst – and Greenwald shared their knowledge of privacy rights with more than 900 high school students via video link at the annual World Affairs Conference at Upper Canada College in Toronto on Monday.