The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) joined in a statement denouncing the government’s move to end debate on Bill C-22, a controversial legislative proposal that will significantly expand surveillance in Canada for years to come.
The statement reads as follows:
In a late night vote forcing a last minute committee session, the government has forced a vote without debate on Bill C-22 before the House Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU), completing the legislative study of this contentious legislation.
The move to stiffle debate on Bill C-22, which enacts numerous new police powers and a complex regulatory regime
Twenty-one civil liberties organizations, privacy groups and individual experts are deeply alarmed that, late last night, the federal government cut off debate at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on the very controversial Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act.
Bill C-22 raises significant privacy and security concerns, including that it will:
- Grant police easier access to our personal information;
- Allow the government to force companies to create backdoors so police and spy agencies can scoop up our personal data and communications, making online protections like encryption meaningless;
- Allow the government to order companies to hold on to our personal information for up to a year, creating a treasure trove of data that would serve as a digital map of everyone in Canada, and could be misused, leaked, or targeted by hackers; and
- Risk more of our information being shared with US intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including for the investigation of acts that are legal in Canada.
MPs have received several thousands of emails from Canadians opposing the bill. Many companies, such as Google, Apple and Meta, have sounded the alarm, especially regarding mandated backdoors into their system that would break encryption. Several, such as Signal, DuckDuckGo and NordVPN, have even threatened to leave Canada if the law passes.
It is even more troubling that the government has passed another undemocratic motion to stop debate on a rights-threatening bill when it faces more than 100 amendments, with only a fraction having been discussed before debate was cut off. The government promised to bring its own amendments to address criticisms of the bill, but they were never fully revealed before the vote, and, because of this motion, did not receive any actual debate at committee.
Bill C-22 is too complex and its impacts too significant to be rushed through. The government should not have used this draconian measure, should have allowed the study of the bill to run its course, and should have ensured that all government and opposition amendments were given full consideration and scrutinized in public. We are urging MPs to denounce the passage of the motion, and the government to change course on C-22 and its undemocratic ways.
Citations :
“This legislation presents one of the greatest threats to privacy in Canada of the past two decades. Its provisions will weaken the rules governing police access to personal information, all while facilitating a vast expansion of government surveillance. This is another clear case of the decades-long trend of governments using national security as an excuse to erode civil liberties and human rights. We are encouraging all members of parliament to oppose these new powers.” –Tim McSorley, National Coordinator, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
“Breaking our own privacy with mandated backdoors is a terrible idea at the best of times; and Canada has chosen one of the worst possible moments. Frontier AI has become so good at finding software vulnerabilities that the US government just pulled the most capable model off the market worldwide because of what it could find. While other countries race to patch their vulnerabilities, Canada is poised to do massive self-inflicted damage to our economy and security, unless we drop Part 2 of C-22.” –Matt Hatfield, Executive Director, OpenMedia
“Let’s be clear: the current government’s handling of this bill is an affront to democracy. All Canadians should be concerned about what the Carney government has in store for us with the highly controversial C-22 and numerous other bills that lay the groundwork for a surveillance state in which the primacy of “security” trumps civil liberties and privacy protections. Not only is the government abruptly cutting short the committee debate—and thereby ignoring the serious concerns raised by both privacy advocates and businesses—but it is also hiding behind misleading rhetoric that claims opposing C-22 means siding with criminals rather than victims! Such statements are an insult to the intelligence of Canadians. The Ligue des droits et libertés calls on members of Parliament to oppose these anti-democratic practices and to vote overwhelmingly against this bill.’’ –Dominique Peschard, Spokesperson and activist for the Ligue des droits et libertés
“People in Canada deserve legislation that respects and protects their privacy rights, and legislators deserve the opportunity to satisfy themselves that they fully understand the true consequences of Bill C-22 on informational privacy, cybersecurity, and cross-border information sharing before they are called to vote on it for the last time. It is frankly irresponsible to curtail the committee study process on such a comprehensive and consequential piece of legislation.” –Aislin Jackson, Policy Staff Counsel, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
“By curtailing committee study of Bill C-22, the government has accelerated a rapidly decaying democratic process and left us with a sparse legislative record to accompany an intrusive and complex surveillance regime. Bill C-22’s flaws are many and difficult to address through such an attenuated process. We are now left with a proposal that will let the government reshape our digital services to suit its surveillance demands in secret and without public debate. Canada deserves better.” –Tamir Israel, Director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s Privacy, Surveillance and Technology Program.”
Signataires :
- Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
- OpenMedia
- Ligue des droits et libertés
- Conseil canadien de la protection de la vie privée et de l'accès
- Le Centre de Réfugiés / The Refugee Centre
- Centre pour la liberté d'expression
- British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA)
- Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI)
- Conseil canadien des affaires publiques musulmanes (CMPAC)
- BC Freedom Of Information and Privacy Association
- Clinique pour la justice migrante / Migrant justice clinic
- Start Point Organization
- Association canadienne des libertés civiles (ACLC)
- Council of Canadians
- IFEX
- Ümit Kiziltan, researcher
- Safiyya Ahmad, Lawyer
- Kate Robertson, Senior Research Associate, Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
- Ron Deibert O.C., O.Ont., Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
- Noura Aljizawi, Senior Researcher, Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
- Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
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