Certainly not an act of war.

First of all it would be legal for Citizen Lab to do the exact same thing exposing abuses of the Canadian government. As a Canadian I would expect them to if they discovered the Canadian government doing the exact same thing. This is something protected by internationally and nationally (Canada) recognized rights of free speech, not a crime.

Second acts of wars are between countries, the concept doesn't even make sense here. Citizen lab is not a government.