Privacy watchdog urges Senate to further amend Liberals' controversial lawful access bill

Source: CBC Politics
Date: 2026-11-02 23:20:09.0
Tags: [National, Public Safety, Justice, Technology, Governance]

Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne and Intelligence Commissioner Simon Noël urged the Senate's national security committee to further amend the Liberal government's Bill C-22, a lawful access bill that lowers the legal threshold for law enforcement and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to obtain basic subscriber information from 'reasonable grounds to believe' to 'reasonable grounds to suspect'. Dufresne warned that the broad definition of subscriber information threatens privacy expectations across sensitive sectors like health care, legal services, and financial institutions, while tech giant Apple argued the legislation undermines encryption and cybersecurity features. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree defended the bill during committee testimony, emphasizing that investigators require faster access to critical information, alongside amendments introduced in June that reduced metadata retention periods to six months and added decryption limits.