Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says he wants Bill C-22, the controversial bill that allows police and intelligence agencies to intercept and collect personal information, to become law by June 19.
“My expectation is to get it done before we rise. I want this as law before we rise,” the minister told the National Post on Wednesday.
The House of Commons is set to rise for the summer break on June 19, and Anandasangaree’s message suggests that he will be putting pressure on both the Commons’ public safety committee and the Senate to get the bill through before then.
To add some context, Bill C-22 — also called lawful access — aims to make it easier for police and intelligence agencies to intercept private communications or personal data as part of an investigation.
Interestingly, the National Post noted that the minister has promised amendments to address the privacy and security concerns that people have surrounding the bill.
Conservatives have already tabled a motion to extend the study on Bill C-22 by another eight hours to hear from other ministers and experts, with witness hearings expected to wrap up Thursday. Other MPs, like Conservative MP Frank Caputo, accused the Liberal government of trying to “ram” the legislation through the committee and not giving MPs enough time to study the bill.
In the interview, Anandasangree argued that threats by companies like Signal and NordVPN to leave Canada if the bill goes through are “overstated,” noting that “every major democratic jurisdiction has a similar framework.” Adding more information to that, it is common in police work in the US to ping a device to see its location or to track cell phone records; it is commonly used in murder or missing persons investigations.
However, several tech companies argued that the bill could create a “backdoor” into their encrypted systems, creating vulnerabilities that could be exploited. However, Anandasangaree says, “Oftentimes, the concept of this ‘backdoor’ is what comes up repeatedly, [and] I think we’re going to clarify that there is no backdoor, no attempts to breach encryption,” which is a good sign for those concerned.
Source: National Post
Image Credit: Shutterstock
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