The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) joint civil society in submitting a letter (FR) submitted to the House Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) today, endorsed by over 75 civil society groups and individuals, calls on the government to withdraw problematic elements of Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act.
The letter notes that Bill C-22 proposes the “most expansive invasion of Canadian privacy rights in modern history” and will put the cybersecurity of everyone in Canada at risk.
It paves the way for the adoption of international agreements that would expand information-sharing with the US and other countries that have a documetned track record of repressing diaspora communities through global police cooperation tools. This expansion of information-sharing will come at a time where transnational repression is on the rise while Canada’s framework for preventing abuse of cross-border policing is no longer fit for purpose.
The letter also raises significant concerns regarding part 2 of Bill C-22, which would enact the Supporting Authorized Access to Information Act (SAAIA), a regime that would allow the government to force digital providers to build new surveillance tools into their services. SAAIA is highly intrusive and riases significant cybersecurity concerns because the doors it creates into digital services for police and national security agencies to lawfully use in the course of their work can be compromised by malicious actors.
It’s been barely a year since Salt Typhoon, a persistent threat actor associated with China’s Ministry of State Security compromised US Internet Service Providers and, once on those networks, comandeered a government-mandated surveillance back door to conduct intrusive espionage. SAAIA, if passed, will allow the government to impose similar back doors in a wide array of digital services, undermining the cybersecurity of everyone.
CCLA emphasized a number of these core themes in its testimony before the House Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) yesterday.
Given the multiple ways that privacy and security on digital services can be undermined, SAAIA puts a powerful in the government’s hands while failing to ensure this tool will not be abused. CCLA’s testimony pointed to SAAIA as creating a perfect storm of open-ended powers, flexible safeguards and a permissive but secretive oversight framework.
It concluded that SAAIA and other offending parts of Bill C-22 should be withdrawn, as it is unlikely these can be effectivley fixed in light of the rushed legislative process the government is imposing on proposal.
The civil society letter, which was initially sent to the government on April 21 but left open to endorsement, has now been signed or endorsed by leading civil society organizations including Access Now, Amnesty International (Canada Section), the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), the Canadian Anti Monopoy Project (CAMP), the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council (CMPAC), the Centre for Free Expression (CFE), the Clinizue pour law justice migrante, the Community Justice Collective, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, Ligue des droits et libertés, Migrant Workers Alliance for Chang, OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, OpenMedia, the Privacy & Access Council of Canadians (PACC), Réseau Koumbit, the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), Technologists for Democracy and the Tech Workers Coalition Canada.
The letter was also endorsed by a number of highly notable experts, including Safiyya Ahmad, Noura Aljizawi, Steven Anderson, Brent Arnold, Jane Bailey, Alejandro Mayoral Banos, Colin Bennett, Andrew Clement, Cory Doctorow, Ron Deibert, Lex Gill, Pantea Jafari, Michael Karanicolas, Kate Robertson, Teresa Scassa, Rowen Shane and more.
Read the letter in French or English.
Read CCLA’s testimony to SECU.
Read CCLA’s explainer on cross-border information sharing with the United States.
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