Whistleblower. Traitor. Trans rights crusader. Hero. Chelsea Manning has been called many things.
Just five years ago, the former U.S. Army intelligence analyst was sentenced to 35 years in a military jail for releasing classified documents.
Now free, she continues her complex story at the C2 Montreal conference.
“Everything we do every day has a political impact,” Manning told thousands under the big top at C2.
Just over a year ago, Manning was in a maximum-security prison in Kansas. On Thursday, she talked about her passions in front of an interested business crowd.
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“Supporting activists who are on the front lines, in a sense, is very important to me,” she said.
About a decade ago, Manning — then known as Bradley Manning — was a U.S. Army analyst deployed to Iraq. Manning leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks, including videos of airstrikes. She was eventually sentenced to 35 years in prison.
“People were there for me when I was in jail and that meant a lot to me,” she said. “Getting letters in prison gave me hope.”
Manning transitioned to a woman while she was incarcerated. She was released from prison because former president Barack Obama commuted her sentence. She spent seven years behind bars instead of 35. When she became a free woman, she didn’t like what she saw.
“Everything’s gotten worse, especially in the United States,” she said.
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Manning decided to speak out in defence of data privacy, and denounce companies and governments who use people’s personal data for marketing and surveillance purposes.
“When I got out of prison, I thought, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to hide for a while and kind of enjoy life a bit.’ But it was remarkable for me to see such a chance,” she said.
Lex Gill, who interviewed the activist on stage, said Manning’s message is particularly poignant because many attending C2 are in the social-networking business.
“When someone like Chelsea says we need to bake ethics in the tech we use, it’s absolutely those types of people she’s speaking to,” Gill told Global News.
Manning has two more appearances at C2 on Friday.