Faced with growing criticism of Bill C-22, the government this week mounted a coordinated defence, with senior officials from CSIS, the RCMP, and Public Safety Canada sitting for on-the-record briefings with the Globe and Mail, the CBC, and others. While officials tried to make the case for lawful access, they failed to make the case for Bill C-22, as their use cases reveal a consistent pattern of overreach. Indeed, whether the issue is metadata retention or the technical capabilities the bill would mandate, the powers it would grant extend well beyond the targeted needs the officials describe, resulting in a disproportionate bill in need of significant amendment.
Post Tagged with: "metadata"
How Much Further Will Lawful Access Go?: Police Chief Tells Bill C-22 Hearing That Three Years of Metadata Retention Would Be “Ideal”
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.
Make It Make Sense: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Bill C-22’s Lawful Access Plan
Fresh off appearing before a Senate committee on AI on Wednesday, yesterday I provided expert testimony to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security as part of its study on Bill C-22, the government’s latest lawful access plan. Appearing alongside David Fraser and Robert Diab (the same trio that discussed the bill on my Law Bytes podcast), I opened my remarks by noting that technologies change, the governments may change, but the challenge with lawful access has always been the same: to give law enforcement and security agencies the tools they need to address serious crime while respecting Canadians’ privacy rights and the constitutional framework the Supreme Court has built around privacy in decisions such as Spencer and Bykovets. I focused on three major concerns with the bill, including mandatory metadata retention, the inadequacy of the systemic vulnerability safeguards, and the lowering of the production order threshold for subscriber information. My full opening statement is embedded below.
Wilful Blindness?: How the Lawful Access Charter Statement Skips Bill C-22’s Most Constitutionally Vulnerable Provisions
The committee hearings on Bill C-22, the lawful access bill, kick off later today with an appearance by Justice Minister Sean Fraser and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, who will presumably use the opportunity to affirm their support for the bill and reject concerns that certain elements are inconsistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That position reflects the government’s Charter statement on the bill, which was released late last month. The statement walks through the Charter implications of new provisions such as the confirmation of service demand, yet what makes it particularly notable is that it avoids addressing some of the bill’s biggest concerns altogether with scant or no attention paid to mandated metadata collection and the risks associated with systemic vulnerabilities. Indeed, it is as if the government believes that if it ignores the potential violation of fundamental rights, the issue magically disappears.
Lawful Access Heads to Committee: The Opposition Found Its Voice, the Government Never Found Its Defence
After several days of debate in which the opposition to lawful access seemed half-hearted at best, the Conservatives woke up on Monday. MP after MP rose to argue, correctly, that Bill C-22 represents an unprecedented surveillance threat: mandated metadata retention (including location information) for up to a year, security vulnerabilities built into the interception architecture the bill requires, and a weakened legal standard for access to subscriber information. After days of debate with the government visibly struggling to defend its own legislation, this is precisely what the opposition should be targeting (coverage from day one, day two, day three).
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The Government Tries to Make the Case for Bill C-22: Why Its Own Use Cases Reveal Disproportionate Overreach 
Tech Exodus: Why Bill C-22’s Privacy and Security Risks Will Drive Digital Services Out of the Country 
The Lawful Access Two-Headed Surveillance Monster: How Bill C-22 Went Off the Rails 
How Much Further Will Lawful Access Go?: Police Chief Tells Bill C-22 Hearing That Three Years of Metadata Retention Would Be “Ideal” 
Bill C-22’s Groundhog Day: Why the Government’s Dismissal of Signal, Apple and the U.S. Congress Concerns Runs Back the Disastrous Online News Act Playbook
