The Honourable Jean-Yves Duloc, P.C., M.P.
Chair, Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear chair,
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) joins legal, privacy and technical experts in expressing serious concerns about Bill C-22, An Act Respecting Lawful Access, in its current form.
The CAJ is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides advocacy and professional development for journalists across Canada, and serves as the national voice of Canadian journalists.
The CAJ champions press freedom, access to information in the public interest, and journalists’ right to protect confidential sources.
While the CAJ recognizes the importance of law enforcement and national security agencies’ legitimate need to access information to investigate crime, this access requires judicial oversight and must be limited to what is necessary and proportionate to prevent overreach and abuse. It must also be balanced with the Charter rights to privacy and freedom of the press.
Bill C-22 in its current form fails to get this balance right and is a sledgehammer approach to addressing issues identified by law enforcement that compromises the privacy and security of all Canadians. The consequences for journalists, vulnerable sources and whistleblowers are especially acute.
Of particular concern is the requirement in Bill C-22 for electronic service providers to retain metadata for up to one year without having to provide specific justification. Cybersecurity experts have rightly pointed out this is overbroad and unnecessary, conflicts with user data retention requirements in ally countries, and could exacerbate the consequences of security breaches.
These are not concerns without basis. In Australia, which has a mandatory metadata retention scheme, law enforcement has unlawfully accessed citizen’s data more than 3,000 times, including by targeting journalists.
Even without the expanded powers under Bill C-22, there have already been documented cases of police overreach when it comes to journalists in Canada including unauthorized surveillance, illegal arrests, and monitoring of electronic devices to identify journalistic sources.
Cybersecurity and privacy experts have also raised concerns that provisions in Bill C-22 could be used to weaken or break encryption, and that the proposed legislation lacks explicit protection of end-to-end encryption, a measure used by journalists to protect communications, sources and other important information. These are vulnerabilities that could be exploited by bad actors.
Signal, a messaging application used by many journalists for its end-to-end encryption, has warned that it would rather end operating in Canada than be “compelled to compromise on the privacy promises we have made to our users.”
A further concern is that Bill C-22 could be used to circumvent judicial oversight, an essential safeguard against overreach and abuse that ensures balance and transparency.
For example, the ministerial order framework enables sweeping executive powers to issue secret orders outside of the court process and permanently gag companies from disclosing that an order exists, preventing accountability. The proposed legislation would also limit a judge’s ability to dismiss information requests that rely on weak evidence, and reduce judicial discretion to limit access orders to information that is relevant to an investigation.
Other issues with Bill C-22 include that the definition of subscriber information is too broad, and the use of the lower threshold of “reasonable grounds to suspect” rather than “reasonable grounds to believe” as the basis for new powers risks unconstitutional privacy invasions, including the risk of abuse from foreign investigations.
Another issue with Bill C-22 is its use of the lower threshold of “reasonable grounds to suspect” rather than “reasonable grounds to believe” as the basis for new powers, risking unconstitutional privacy invasions.
Also of concern is that the definition of subscriber information is too broad, which could result in the unnecessary disclosure of sensitive personal information.
A lot is at stake. Any legislation that authorizes state search and seizure of citizens’ information needs to be done right and carefully consider privacy and press freedom rights.
The CAJ is urging committee members to recommend amendments to Bill C-22 to ensure these rights are protected. The CAJ strongly opposes Bill C-22 in its current form due to unacceptable risks.
Sincerely,
The Canadian Association of Journalists
The Canadian Association of Journalists is the country’s largest professional organization that serves to advance the interests of journalists from coast to coast to coast. The CAJ’s primary roles are public-interest advocacy work and professional development for its members.
For further information: Brent Jolly, president, Canadian Association of Journalists, brent@caj.ca
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