Bill C-22’s Clause-by-Clause Problem: The Government Includes Agencies Seeking Lawful Access Powers But Blocks the Privacy Commissioner’s Return

Major tech companies threaten to leave Canada over radical internet surveillance bill

Signal, DuckDuckGo, and NordVPN are considering limiting or shutting down services in Canada if Bill C-22 becomes law.

Privacy debate grows as Parliament reviews Bill C-22

OTTAWA — Several privacy-focused technology companies say they may leave the Canadian market if proposed federal legislation requiring the retention of user metadata becomes law, as opposition parties call for further scrutiny of parts of the bill. Bill C-22 would require internet service providers, messaging platforms, email providers and other digital services to retain certain user metadata for up to one year and provide lawful access to that…

Bill C-22’s Clause-by-Clause Problem: The Government Includes Agencies Seeking Lawful Access Powers But Blocks the Privacy Commissioner’s Return

The House of Commons public safety committee started its clause-by-clause review of Bill C-22 last week, the stage at which the lawful access bill’s actual statutory language is settled and the privacy safeguards are either written in or left out. The witnesses the committee included said a lot about the government’s commitment to addressing privacy concerns and to ensuring a balanced bill. Clause-by-clause reviews typically include departmental officials as witnesses, who provide support to the committee by answering technical questions. Years ago, officials were viewed as non-partisan, but today officials invariably defend the government’s position and subtly (or not so subtly) argue against amendments. Including non-departmental witnesses is very rare since they have already had the chance to make their case to the committee. Yet the RCMP and CSIS, the agencies that have lobbied for these powers and will wield them, were on hand last week to guide members through the Bill C-22 amendments. Those witnesses will be unlikely to support potential privacy-focused amendments. Even more astonishing, efforts to include Philippe Dufresne, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, whose recommendations several of the amendments under consideration are drawn from, were rejected by Liberal MPs on the committee.