26 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL WAR Amir: An Activist from Syria95 Amir was born in Syria and associates his early childhood in the country with fear and political repression. Amir’s family moved to Canada in 1992 and has remained there since. They became involved in political advocacy in relation to Syria after the 2011 Syrian uprising. Since then, Amir has been subjected to multiple means of digital threats. For example, in 2011, Amir started supporting and hosting media websites that promoted democracy in Syria. In 2012, his personal Gmail account was taken over. In mid-2013, his Canadian web-hosting business experienced extensive DDoS attacks from Russia. One of these attacks affected the company’s entire data centre. That attack caused severe damage to his business and had a significant financial impact. These attacks have affected Amir on a professional, financial, and social level. Amir explained that he “started to be more careful” and select friends “more carefully.” He did not want to interact with “anyone with ties to the dictatorship” or to inform anyone of what he was doing. He wanted to avoid being intimidated or have a business relationship with anyone linked to the Syrian regime. He also noted that after being the target of a digital attack, he started “choosing friends wisely, even choosing who to do business with wisely” and that he does not want to “support someone [or] give business to someone who supports the dictator [...] [because] basically, I’d be giving the price of the bullets to the dictator indirectly to kill people.” Amir is concerned with family members’ and fellow activists’ online security. Many of them have been subjected to various attempts to take over their accounts and leak documents, and Amir feels responsible for their digital security. Amir reported the DDoS attack on his business to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). However, Amir observed that CSIS was primarily concerned with understanding whether there were members of the Syrian community in Canada with ties to terrorist groups. Amir believes that the Canadian government needs to do more to protect and support dissidents and activists in Canada who face the same challenges as he does. 95 The participant has been assigned a pseudonym to protect their identity.