Canada’s police and security forces would get greater access to the Internet and wireless telecommunications records of millions of Canadians under a bill tabled Thursday by the federal Conservatives.
On the eve of the summer parliamentary break, the government introduced another attempt to modernize electronic surveillance laws — one that privacy advocates fear might still go too far.
“This legislation is about gaining power to get information which previously you needed a warrant to get,” said Richard Rosenberg, a spokesman for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and president of the province’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.
“I think that is a blow with respect to individual privacy interests.”
Privacy rights advocates were not included at an elaborately staged news conference where two federal cabinet ministers, flanked by child protection advocates and municipal police officers, said they had struck the right balance between crime fighting and individual privacy.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan pitched the changes as key to “getting the bad guys” in the 21st century.
Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart’s office, which criticized similar previous federal proposals, said she would be carefully examining the new changes to see if a better balance has been struck than the last time Ottawa proposed changes.
The “lawful access” bill creates a sliding scale of powers for police, Canadian spy agency CSIS, and the Competition Bureau.
