CROSSON: Senate must stop Ottawa from turning your phone into a surveillance tool

Randy Crosson is the Executive Director of Freedoms Advocate, a Canadian charity that supports constitutional and human rights litigation.Your phone knows more about you than most of your friends do. Every call, text, and app leaves a record. It shows who you contacted, when, and often where you were. A bill now before the Senate would let Ottawa order phone and internet companies to keep those records for up to six months. Police and CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, could then get at them. The Senate is the last chance to rein this bill in and protect Canadians’ privacy before it becomes law.The bill is C-22, the Lawful Access Act. Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor who holds a Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law, has been one of its sharpest critics since it came out in March. He has called forcing companies to store data “one of the most privacy-invasive tools a government can deploy.” When he spoke to MPs in May, he warned that records kept on almost every Canadian add up to “a comprehensive surveillance map.” He also told them the bill lowers the legal bar police must meet to get information about you, which he said puts it on shaky legal ground. Geist is now set to speak to the Senate committee studying the bill. That committee is where senators hear from experts and others before deciding if a bill needs changes, and many of them, Geist included, have not been heard yet.Even so, the government has already said it does not plan to change the bill. Geist pointed this out on November 10. The week before, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree told the National Post, “I don’t, at this point, anticipate amendments to be coming through the Senate.” He said this just days after two of the government’s own watchdogs told senators the bill still needs work.Think about what your phone records would reveal. They might show who you call late at night. They might show if you’ve been calling a doctor, a lawyer, or a counsellor. They might show which church you drive to on Sunday mornings. No one would need to read a single message to piece your life together..Under C-22, police and CSIS could ask your phone company if you are a customer without a warrant. A judge could order your information handed over if police have reasonable grounds to suspect something. The minister could also secretly order your provider to build surveillance tools into its systems and keep your records. In most cases, your provider would not be allowed to tell you.When the bill was introduced, the minister said it “is not about the surveillance of honest, hard-working Canadians going on about their daily lives.” But a law that makes companies keep their customers’ records, just in case police want them, is about ordinary people from day one. Almost everyone whose records would be kept has done nothing wrong.Some of the privacy apps Canadians use could also leave. In May, the messaging app Signal said it would pull out of Canada if the bill forced the company to weaken its users’ privacy. DuckDuckGo said it would stop offering its VPN here. Psiphon, a Toronto-made privacy tool used by about 20 million people a month, has started planning to move out of the country.The bill has also been rushed. The House of Commons passed it on June 18 using a special motion that cut debate short as MPs left for the summer. Some changes went through with no debate at all. Senator Denise Batters has asked if the government now expects “a speedy rubber stamp.”The Senate does not have to give it one. Senators can change C-22, and they should make five fixes. First, police should need a judge’s approval before a company hands over anything about a customer, even whether you are a customer at all. A judge should sign off only when there is a good reason to believe a crime is involved, not just a suspicion. Second, the law should list exactly which records companies must keep and require them to be deleted after a short time. Third, medical, legal, and religious information should be off-limits. Fourth, a judge should review every secret order from the minister, and the government should tell Parliament each year how many there were. Fifth, the law should state plainly that no company can be forced to weaken encryption or build a back door into its systems.None of these fixes would stop police from using the law. They would put a judge, a time limit and clear rules between the government and your private life.The government should have to explain why it needs to look. If senators pass C-22 as it stands, it could fundamentally change the privacy Canadians expect in a free country. If you’re concerned, tell your senators before it’s too late. Each province and territory has its own senators, and their contact information is on the Senate of Canada website at sencanada.ca. Ask them to amend C-22 before it becomes law.Randy Crosson is the Executive Director of Freedoms Advocate, a Canadian charity that supports constitutional and human rights litigation.

CROSSON: Senate must stop Ottawa from turning your phone into a surveillance tool

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