Government never consulted widely on contentious part of police search powers bill

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He said he was following the debate about the clause closely and noted it could be an area where the bill “can be tightened up” to assuage concerns about surveillance.

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“The minister said that the committee is going to do its work, and they’re open to reform. So, this could be an area where they could make reform,” he noted.

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In a briefing with National Post on Bill C-22, Public Safety Canada’s Shannon Hiegel said the metadata retention clause was raised “within more discreet discussions” as the legislation was being drafted.

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At first, the government considered punting the issue down the line and including it in regulations after the bill passed, but Hiegel said it was ultimately added into the text of C-22 “to be transparent.”

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“We will have to consider things like the cost of a company having to keep information, we have to then go through the privacy… charter challenge will also have to be done as well,” she noted.

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When he was an NDP MP, Rankin sat on the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) when it was stood up in 2017. After leaving politics in 2019, he was appointed as the first chair of the newly created National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA).

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He said that his experience on both watchdogs taught him that lawful access reform is desperately needed as Canada is a “laggard” when it comes to giving law enforcement tools needed to obtain evidence in the digital age.

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“As a Canadian, I was disturbed that we didn’t have anything along the lines that our allies did,” arguing that Canada “simply didn’t have the tools to pull our weight when it comes to terrorism or espionage, that kind of thing.”

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In Bill C-22, the government is proposing 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 for more information.

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The bill also proposes new obligations to electronic service providers to organize and retain various types of client data for up to one year in a way that makes it obtainable by law enforcement or CSIS with a warrant.

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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.

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National Post

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