The Liberal government has introduced a new lawful access bill that it says will help police and security services track and identify people who may be using tools like social media or artificial intelligence to commit crimes or threaten national security.
This legislation is the government’s most recent crack at broadening the access law enforcement agencies have after Bill C-2, introduced last spring, raised concerns with civil liberties groups that the powers went too far.
Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree said the reforms in the bill will bring the country’s lawful access laws up to date, which he said are currently “woefully behind” Canada’s allies.
“Bill C-22 balances the needs of law enforcement with the privacy and civil rights that Canadians demand,” he said on Thursday.
“It is not about surveillance of Canadians going on about their daily lives. It is about keeping Canadians safe in the online space.”
In a technical briefing, government officials explained that Bill C-22 doesn’t give police or the security services access to people’s browsing or private social media history, but is limited to information that identifies who and where they are.
It will allow security services to compel telecoms like Bell and Rogers to provide them with a yes or no answer when asked if a suspected criminal uses their services.
If police want to get more information, such as a suspect’s email address, phone number or home address, they must convince a court that a crime has taken place, or will take place, in order to get a warrant.
The legislation also formalizes how Canadian law enforcement make information requests to foreign social media companies like Meta and artificial intelligence firms like OpenAI, which created ChatGPT.
The process does not compel AI or social media companies to share information identifying subscribers, but it provides a legal framework that government officials explained encourages these companies to work with police and security services.
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The legislation also does not require AI or social media companies to report suspicious or worrying activity to Canadian authorities.
The type of information law enforcement would be looking for from these companies include IP addresses of suspects who are using false identities on social media to commit crimes, the officials said.
The legislation also would require “core providers” — a term that will be defined later through consultations but will include telecoms — to maintain the capacity to geographically track the users of its products and services.
The government says that while the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) can already get a warrant to track a suspect’s mobile phone location, the mobile service provider is not required to track where all its users are.
Once that tracking is mandatory, Canada’s security services would be able to make a legal request to access that tracking software in order to investigate criminals and threats to national security.
Officials said that if CSIS wanted to track a terror suspect, for example, its agents are often forced to physically track them in person at great expense to the federal government, limiting how many operations they can undertake.
The changes, officials say, would also help emergency services locate people who are injured or lost more quickly than trying to triangulate them using cellphone towers.
Minister of Justice Sean Fraser said law enforcement needs the capacity to unearth who is behind an account that is being used to threaten public safety.
“This is going to help us catch up with most of our allies across the world, but most importantly it’s going to help the officers on the front line do more to keep communities safe,” Fraser said.
