Canada's C-22 Surveillance Bill Heads to Senate
Original: Canadians are running out of time to oppose Bill C-22
Why This Matters
Backdoor mandates set precedents that ripple across global encryption policy.
Canada's Bill C-22 (Lawful Access Act) has passed the House of Commons and now faces Senate review. The bill would force digital services to enable backdoors, retain metadata for up to one year, and expand data-sharing with U.S. law enforcement.
Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act, is advancing through Canada's Parliament and drawing sharp criticism from civil liberties groups. The bill passed the House and now sits before the Senate, where Canadians still have a narrow window to push back.
At its core, C-22 lets Canada's Minister of Public Safety order companies—telecom providers, messaging apps, and others—to build backdoors for law enforcement access, provided it doesn't create a "systemic insecurity." Critics say that qualifier is nearly meaningless in practice, since any mandated backdoor weakens encryption for everyone.
The bill also requires mandatory metadata retention for up to 12 months, capturing who Canadians communicate with, their location patterns, and service usage—even for people under no suspicion. And it could expand sharing of that data with foreign law enforcement, including U.S. agencies, without requiring a Canadian court order.
Researchers at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) and Citizen Lab published a detailed constitutional and cybersecurity analysis, concluding that Part 2 of the bill—which establishes the surveillance and retention regime—should be withdrawn entirely, not patched. Several senators have already flagged constitutional concerns. CCLA is running a public petition urging Canadians to contact the Senate before the bill becomes law.