As Bill C-22 — the Lawful Access Act — moves through committee this week, NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) argues the Carney government’s surveillance bill fails to balance modernized policing powers against privacy and civil liberties. The bill, introduced by the Liberal government in March, would expand the access of law enforcement and CSIS to digital data and metadata.
Kwan accepts that lawful-access rules need modernizing, but says effective policing “can and should operate within a robust legal framework that preserves judicial oversight and limits data collection to what is strictly necessary.” In her assessment the bill instead lowers the threshold for accessing personal information, expands executive authority over digital infrastructure, mandates large-scale data retention, and increases the exposure of private communications.
She frames C-22 as a repackaging of the earlier Bill C-2 — a sweeping post-election package combining surveillance provisions with immigration measures that drew objections from more than 300 organizations before the government shelved it. The government, she says, failed to learn the lessons of that backlash and did not consult the Privacy Commissioner during drafting, calling that a failure of “Drafting Legislations 101.”
Kwan notes the opposition extends well beyond the NDP: civil-liberties organizations describe the bill as one of the most significant expansions of state surveillance authority in Canada in decades; the Canadian Chamber of Commerce came out against it over the breaking of encryption; and tech companies including Apple and Google have raised concerns. She emphasizes the salience of metadata — “who we talk to, when we talk to them, where we are, how often we interact” — describing it as “a skeleton of a person’s private life.”
The article notes that federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis posted his own concerns about Bill C-22, warning the legislation “would allow police to pull information on who we talk to, when and where, all without a warrant.” Kwan has sponsored an official petition to withdraw the bill, which had gathered more than 8,400 signatures as of Tuesday morning. She also ties the bill to her broader critique of the Liberals’ newly secured majority: “back door seems to be their thing nowadays with floorcrossers.”
Kwan says she has dozens of amendments prepared but expects the Liberal majority to vote them down and push the bill through; even if it fails, she anticipates the government will “come back with yet another round.”