Metadata retention has emerged as one of the biggest lawful access concerns, with requirements that providers retain metadata for all subscribers for up to one year. As I argued before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security last week, when retained at scale, the retention becomes a comprehensive surveillance map of virtually every Canadian with information on where and when they go and who they interact with. Under Bill C-22, this data would apply to every subscriber regardless of suspicion. The government’s Charter Statement remarkably fails to address the regime, despite the fact that bulk retention frameworks of this kind have been struck down by the European Court of Justice in Digital Rights Ireland and Tele2 Sverige, and by Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court.
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