Canada let NSA spy on G8 and G20 Ontario summits during week-long operation in 2010

The NSA used U.S. Embassy in Ottawa as command post during summits
Plans 'closely co-ordinated with Canadian partner' but no targets revealed
Details contained in documents leaked by ex-NSA worker Edward Snowden

PUBLISHED: 03:07 EST, 28 November 2013 | UPDATED: 03:07 EST, 28 November 2013

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Canadian authorities allowed the National Security Agency to spy in the country during the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario in 2010, it has emerged.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA used the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa as a command post for a nearly week-long spying operation while President Barack Obama and other foreign leaders were in Canada in June 2010.

CBC News reported that the documents don't mention precise targets of the U.S. spying operation but say that plans were 'closely co-ordinated with the Canadian partner.'

World leaders pose for a group photo during the G20 summit in Toronto, Ontario, in 2010. Canadian authorities allowed the National Security Agency to spy in the country during that summit and the G8 the previous week

Listening in: President Obama arrives for the G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario, in June 2010. The spying operation was 'closely co-ordinated with the Canadian partner', the documents say

The report on Wednesday did not publish the documents.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Jason MacDonald, said yesterday: 'We do not comment on operational matters related to national security.'

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A spokeswoman for Canada's equivalent of the NSA, the Communications Security Establishment Canada, said they could not comment on the operations of Canada or its allies.

'Under the law, CSEC does not target Canadians anywhere or any person in Canada through its foreign intelligence activities,' the spokeswoman, Lauri Sullivan, said.

'CSEC cannot ask our international partners to act in a way that circumvents Canadian laws.'

Whistleblower: Snowden (pictured) earlier this year began leaking top-secret documents detailing the NSA's collection of millions of U.S. communications records, among other practices

A Canadian civil liberties group, OpenMedia.ca, quickly objected.

'It's... clear this spying was aimed at supporting U.S. policy goals during a highly contentious summit,' executive director Steve Anderson said in a statement.

'This is sure to cause huge damage to Canada's relationships with our other G-20 partners.'

Snowden earlier this year began leaking top-secret documents detailing the NSA's collection of millions of U.S. communications records, among other practices.

Reports in other media have said the NSA allegedly monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone, swept up millions of French telephone records and hacked the computer network of Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras.

In response to the reports, the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee is expected to vote in the next week on a resolution to protect the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance in the digital age.