In April 2004, the Liberal government released a report on Canada’s National Security Policy that included plans to establish a public-private cybersecurity task force. More than two years later, it appears that the Conservative government is preparing to follow through on that commitment by launching its own task force. Although the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness does not list any information about the task force on its site, GEDS, the government’s electronic directory service, was recently updated to include a Cybersecurity Task Force Secretariat. The Secretariat apparently at least includes an Assistant Deputy Minister and a senior policy analyst (Allan MacGillivray, who most recently worked on the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel). With staff in place, can the task force be far behind? Will it include full representation of privacy and civil liberties interests? With movement on cybersecurity, can a reintroduction of lawful access legislation be far behind? Important questions for an issue that could generate considerable controversy later this year.
Canada to Launch Cybersecurity Task Force?
May 24, 2006
Share this post

Law Bytes
Episode 278: Ben Waldman on Gander Social and the Challenges of Building a Sovereign Social Network
byMichael Geist

August 10, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 278: Ben Waldman on Gander Social and the Challenges of Building a Sovereign Social Network
Canada’s Campus Antisemitism Crisis: National Survey Finds Antisemitism Nearly Everywhere and University Responses Nowhere
Why the Answers to Hateful Content Online are Hiding in the Platforms’ Own Rules
From CCH to ChatGPT: How Canadian Copyright Law Played the Key Role in Deciding a Leading AI Training Data Case in India
Starting Over: Court Filing Confirms the CRTC’s Streamer Contribution Decisions Are Dead With a Full Online Streaming Act Reset to Come
