Civil liberties advocates are warning that a federal cybersecurity bill could let cabinet secretly cut off Canadians’ internet access without a warrant or due process.Bill C-8, now before the Commons public safety committee, would allow the industry minister to order telecom companies to block internet or phone service to anyone deemed a potential “threat” to Canada’s telecommunications system. No court order or public notice would be required.“It is dangerous to civil liberties to allow the minister the power to cut off individual Canadians without proper due process and keep that secret,” said Josh Dehaas, a lawyer with the Canadian Constitution Foundation. He told MPs the bill could be used against protesters or political activists who engage in online demonstrations.“Consider, for example, a protestor who the minister believes ‘may’ engage in a distributed denial-of-service attack,” Dehaas said. “The minister could order this dissident’s internet and phone services be cut off — and require that decision remain secret.”.Liberal MP Marianne Dandurand insisted the bill does not target personal opinions. “Censorship was not contemplated under C-8,” she said. But Dehaas countered that the wording is too broad, warning that it applies to “any threat” to the telecom system. “That is very open to interpretation,” he said.Sharon Polsky, president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada, told MPs the bill gives government “great power to order providers to do anything or refrain from doing anything,” with no checks on abuse. .“It lacks adequate safeguards to prevent ideological or political misuse,” she said.Polsky said the bill’s vague language makes it easy for officials to justify almost any action. “If someone feels threatened, it’s easy enough to find the evidence, make an allegation, and leave the person to defend themselves after the fact,” she said. “That’s dangerous.”A similar proposal, Bill C-26, was introduced in 2022 but died in the last Parliament after widespread privacy concerns.
