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Canadian Bill C-22: Lawful Access Act

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On March 12, the Canadian government began readings of bill C-22, The Lawful Access Act.[1] The bill has been widely criticized by privacy advocates including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Citizenlab.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Background

Slightly less than a year prior to the proposal of Bill C-22, the federal government attempted to pass Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act. [9] Bill C-2 failed to pass and gained widespread condemnation from privacy advocates due to its broad lawful access provisions. [10][11][12] As a result, the government split the bill's provisions into Bill C-12 (border and customs related provisions) and Bill C-22 which reintroduced the lawful access provisions from Bill C-2.[11] According to Public Safety Canada, the federal government of Canada initially proposed Bill C-22 as a way to modernize Canada’s legal framework for lawful access to information. The bill's stated goal is to address gaps in existing laws that may prevent law enforcement agencies from obtaining information needed to generate investigative leads, identify suspects, and prosecute individuals or groups involved in serious criminal activity or national security threats.[13][14]

Controversial contents

As of 2025-05-19, the bill is still being updated in parliament. Compared to it's Bill C-2 predecessor, the new bill improved judicial oversight regarding access to internet subscriber information.[11] The primary sections of concern however stem around the mandatory retention of metadata which would be required to be kept for a full year. Moreover, the bill would allow for the Minister of Public Safety to demand that companies create a backdoor to their services to provide law enforcement access to data, so long as these demands don't introduce a "systemic vulnerability".[2][15] According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the vague definitions of encryption and systemic vulnerability would allow the government to make demands to circumvent encryption.[2]

Response from companies

Since the tabling of the bill, many civil liberty and privacy advocate groups (as well as tech companies) have spoken out against the bill [2][3][4][5][6][7]. In response to the legislation, Udbhav Tiwari, the vice-president of strategy and global affairs for the encrypted messaging app Signal, stated that Signal “would rather pull out of the country than be compelled to compromise on the privacy promises we have made to our users.”[7]. Similarly, Windscribe, a Canadian based VPN service, has threatened to leave Canada completely[4]. Popular VPN provider NordVPN has also threatened to leave Canada.[16] Apple has claimed that Bill C-22 would "allow the government to issue orders weakening encryption and create vulnerabilities that hackers and hostile nation states could exploit.".[17] Meta has also spoken out against the bill.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "An Act respecting lawful access". LEGISinfo. 2026-03-12. Archived from the original on 2026-03-16. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Klosowski, Thorin (2026-05-11). "Canada's Bill C-22 Is a Repackaged Version of Last Year's Surveillance Nightmare". Electronic Frontier Froundation. Archived from the original on 2026-05-13. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hatfield, Matt (2026-04-21). "Civil Society to Parliament: Kill Bill C-22". Open Media. Archived from the original on 2026-05-18. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Rene, Millman (2026-05-15). "Windscribe joins Signal in threatening Canada exit over controversial surveillance bill". TechRadar. Archived from the original on 2026-05-17. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Justice Centre launches national petition to stop Bill C-22". Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. 2026-03-20. Archived from the original on 2026-05-17. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Canadians Oppose Key Surveillance Powers in Bill C-22 and Want Strong Protections for Encrypted Communications". Center For Democracy & Technology. 2026-05-19. Retrieved 2026-05-19. {{cite web}}: |archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Woolf, Marie (2026-05-13). "Signal warns it would pull out of Canada if made to comply with lawful access bill". The Globe And Mail. Archived from the original on 2026-05-19. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  8. ↑ Severi, Misty (2026-05-07). "Exclusive: House GOP warns Canada its new cybersecurity bill could pose privacy risks to Americans". Just The News. Archived from the original on 2026-05-12. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  9. ↑ "An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of the border between Canada and the United States and respecting other related security measures". LEGISinfo. 2025-06-03. Archived from the original on 2026-04-27. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  10. ↑ Mullin, Joe (2025-07-25). "Canada's Bill C-2 Opens the Floodgates to U.S. Surveillance". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Archived from the original on 2026-05-12. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Ferguson, Christopher; Milton, Leslie (2026-03-26). "Bill C‑22: The Lawful Access Act Reintroduces Lawful Access in Parliament After the Government of Canada's Abortive Attempt to Do So in Bill C‑2, the Strong Borders Act". FASKEN. Retrieved 2026-05-19. {{cite web}}: |archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ↑ Robertson, Kate (2025-06-16). "Unspoken Implications: A Preliminary Analysis of Bill C-2 and Canada's Potential Data-Sharing Obligations Towards the United States and Other Countries". Citizen Lab. Archived from the original on 2026-05-13. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  13. ↑ "Backgrounder – Supporting Authorized Access to Information Act (Bill C-22 – Part 2)". Canada.ca. 2026-03-12. Archived from the original on 2026-05-11. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  14. ↑ "Proposed changes to laws on timely access to information (Bill C-22 - Part 1)". Department of Justice Canada. 2026-03-24. Archived from the original on 2026-05-08. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  15. ↑ "Bill C-22". Parliament of Canada. 2026-03-12. Archived from the original on 2026-04-28. Retrieved 2026-05-19.
  16. ↑ Karadeglija, Anja (2026-05-15). "Major VPN provider says it could leave Canada over lawful access bill". CTV News. Archived from the original on 2026-05-17. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  17. ↑ Tunney, Catharine (2026-05-06). "Apple argues Liberals' lawful access bill could put users' personal data at risk". CBC News. Archived from the original on N/A. Retrieved 2026-05-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |archive-date= (help)
  18. ↑ "Meta's Position on Canada's Bill C-22". Meta. 2026-05-07. Archived from the original on 2026-05-16. Retrieved 2026-05-19.


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