On June 18, 2025, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association sent an open letter to members of parliament and senators urging them to protect voters’ privacy in political campaigning by removing parts of Bill 4, the Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act.
Bill 4 seeks to shield federal political parties from provincial privacy laws while failing to provide effective federal protections. It places no limits on what intrusive measures political parties can take when campaigning as long as these are covered by their published privacy policies.
In an era of rapidly evolving data-rich campaigning, it is more important than ever to ensure voters’ fundamental privacy rights are respected.
The proposed exemptions do not stop at future violations of provincial privacy laws, but purport to immunize political parties from historical ones as well, stretching back to the year 2000. British Columbia courts are currently considering the degree to which the province’s privacy laws apply to federal parties, making this attempt at retroactive immunity all the more concerning.
These troubling legislative developments are being fast-tracked through both houses with minimal debate as an add-on to a Bill that is focused on passing urgent affordability measures.
The privacy-related parts of Bill C-4 should be dropped and the government should commit to adopting strong privacy protections for federal political parties.
Read CCLA’s letter addressed to the Senate and to members of the House Standing Committee on Finance.
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