FIRST READING: New bill would allow police to turn personal tech into listening devices  

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“It’s kind of odd to me how (the bill) talks about how it’s not here to look at content, but that the ministerial orders can order these companies to provide the capabilities to turn on a remote microphone,” he said.

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Under current Canadian law, police are already able to intercept phone calls, text messages, emails and other digital information by obtaining warrants or other judicial orders.

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Bill C-22 steps this up by requiring service providers to tweak their systems to make it easier for law enforcement to access personal digital data when they need it.

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As the bill states in a preamble, “the purpose of this Act is to ensure that electronic service providers can facilitate the exercise of authorities to access information that are conferred on authorized persons.”

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This includes mandating that companies store user data for at least a year – even if the data isn’t something they would otherwise be keeping on hand for the purposes of their business.

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As privacy lawyer David Fraser summed it up in a detailed video breakdown, Bill C-22 was intended to address police complaints that there isn’t a “consistent interface for them to plug into and get data from all the (telecommunications firms) out there.”

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However, Fraser, who also testified before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, has noted that the bill is not limited to traditional telecom providers.

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Rather, Bill C-22’s provisions apply to “electronic service providers,” a category that includes any firm offering an “electronic service.”

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“The organizations that could be on the receiving end of these orders is anyone who provides services to the public, which includes a bank, a hospital, a grocery store, a hotel,” he told committee members.

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This week, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) called Bill C-22 a “serious threat to Canadians’ privacy rights.”

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The JCCF specifically zeroed in on the bill’s mandate “requiring electronic service providers across Canada to retain metadata, including location and transmission data, for up to one year.”

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In a statement, the JCCF noted that the Court of Justice of the European Union has struck down similar metadata retention laws as a violation of the “fundamental right to the protection of personal data.”

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West was in support of Canada adopting some form of update to its lawful access regime, noting that Bill C-22 was the ninth time that a such a bill had been attempted, including several tabled under the government of then prime minister Stephen Harper.

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“Our laws have not kept pace with modern criminal and national security threats,” she said, adding, “I believe deeply that Canada needs lawful access reform.”

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Nevertheless, she critiqued some of the broader aspects of the bill, including its mandate for companies to secretly retain metadata for at least a year.

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“It does create a chilling impact and has serious implications for how people view their right to privacy in Canada,” West said.

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IN OTHER NEWS

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This is a Monday post to the official X account of the U.S. Department of State opposing U.S. involvement in the Global Compact on Migration. It’s probably just a coincidence, but it comes only a few days after Canada announced that Louise Arbour would be its next governor general. In 2018, Arbour was serving as the UN Special Representative for International Migration when she was one of the signature creators of the compact in question.

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Dunkin Donuts appears to have just declared donut war on one of Canada’s most recognizable fast food brands.

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Tim Hortons’ public image has been on shaky ground for the last few years, a position which was probably best highlighted by a 2018 brand reputation survey that saw the coffee chain drop from 4th to 50th place in a single year.

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Of late, this has not been helped by the fact that the company has emerged as the public face of the Temporary Foreign Worker program.

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The Conservative Party has even singled them out both as one of the most prolific users of the program, and a keen lobbyist for its expansion.

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Their declaration calling for the end of the Temporary Foreign Worker program wrote that Tim Hortons had hired “over 1,100% more TFWs in only four years, shutting young Canadians out of entry-level jobs and vital work experience.”