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OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree kiboshed a Conservative request to split his controversial lawful access bill in half, as a former CSIS director called the lack of such a regime for Canadian police and intelligence agencies “absolutely unacceptable.”
The day after Conservatives tabled a motion requesting the Liberals split Bill C-22 on lawful access, Anandasangaree was categorical that that wasn’t happening.
“No, we’re not. Lawful access, Bill C-22 as presented, we are very comfortable with the balance between part one and part two and we are not prepared to split that bill,” Anandasangaree told reporters.
“These are stalling tactics that are now coming forward to derail and delay the bill itself,” he said, adding that he suspects the move is because there is discord within the Conservative caucus over supporting the reform.
On Tuesday, during a committee hearing studying the contentious bill, Conservatives promised to help pass the first part of C-22 by the summer recess if the Liberals agreed to split the bill, allowing for further study of the more controversial second part.
Bill C-22 aims to reform Canada’s lawful access regime, which regulates the most intrusive powers afforded to police and intelligence agencies. The new regime would make it easier for police and intelligence agencies to intercept private communications or personal data as part of their investigations.
The bill is divided into two parts. The first proposes that police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) be able to approach telecommunications companies and ask them if, yes or no, an individual is a client before having to get a warrant. It then sets out a new path for authorities to obtain client information from the companies with the appropriate warrant.
The second part of the current bill proposes new obligations to electronic service providers to organize and retain various types of client data — some for up to one year — in a way that makes it obtainable by law enforcement or CSIS with a warrant.
That means that if passed, the bill would compel electronic service providers to store and make information like device locations or cameras available to police or CSIS with the requisite warrant. That could be used to track a person’s live location in case they pose a threat to national security or are considered to be in danger, the government cited as examples.
The reform has faced fierce and growing pushback from opposition parties, tech giants, privacy and civil liberty groups, who argue it does not do enough to protect Canadians’ privacy and encryption services.
Some companies, such as encrypted messaging application owner Signal, have even threatened to leave the Canadian market if the bill as drafted becomes law.
But the reform is strongly supported by police and intelligence agencies, who argue that their investigations are increasingly hampered or even stalled by the lack of necessary legal tools to obtain evidence in the digital age.
On Tuesday, recently retired CSIS director David Vigneault told attendees of an event at the University of Ottawa that it is embarrassing that Canadian law enforcement has to rely on tips from foreign allies to know what threats are happening in Canada because outdated laws don’t allow them to obtain the information themselves.
Vigneault headed CSIS for seven years until his retirement in July 2024.
“Bill C-22 absolutely needs to be debated, but I can tell you from experience, the number of times that we had to essentially rely on foreign sources of information about what was happening in our country is absolutely unacceptable,” he said at an event organized by the university’s Centre for International Policy Studies.
“We owe it to our citizens to find that right balance. The status quo, Canada being the only advanced country, democracy, government with the rule of law, that does not have an adequate regime for lawful access is completely unacceptable,” he added.
On Wednesday, the three largest police associations issued a joint statement calling on MPs to pass the bill “without delay” because it is “long overdue.”
They argued that the bill does not give police new investigative powers but ensures that companies have the information police seek after successfully obtaining a warrant from a judge.
“For police officers and investigators, lawful access is not an abstract policy debate. It can determine whether authorities can quickly locate a missing child, identify the source of a livestreamed sexual assault, or intervene before online extremist threats become real-world violence,” reads the statement by the heads of National Police Federation, the Canadian Police Association and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
National Post
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