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The Orwellian hellscape described in the classic book 1984 is being put in place in Canada in the form of three pieces of legislation currently making their way through the House of Commons. There is far too little public attention being given to the federal government’s attempted power grab that will alter Canadians’ rights and freedom. The Carney government is stripping away individual rights that will effectively censor and restrain Canadians in what is being described as “a digital gulag” where Big Brother will control all that can be communicated. Consider the combined effect of the legislation Bill C-8 on cybersecurity, Bill C-9 on combatting hate, and Bill C-2 on secure borders.
Bill C-8 on cybersecurity
Last Friday, the cybersecurity legislation passed second reading in the House of Commons – MPs agreed on the principle of the legislation. It has been referred to a legislative committee where MPs will now review the contents and implications of the proposed laws. The Bill is intended to strengthen the security of the country’s telecommunications system. It does so by giving the federal minister of industry the authority to “direct telecommunications service providers to do anything, or refrain from doing anything, that is necessary to secure the Canadian telecommunications system.” A second part of the Bill introduces new cybersecurity measures to be imposed by the government on sectors considered vital to public and national safety.
The red flag in this legislation is the provision that allows the federal cabinet to “prohibit a telecom service provider from using all products and services provided to a specified person” in the name of cybersecurity. “Any threat” justifies an order. The Intelligence Commissioner of Canada warned in his testimony for a previous iteration of this legislation that the Bill would authorize warrantless seizure of sensitive private information. The Canadian Constitution Foundation warned that this legislation “poses serious risks to civil liberties…. This law could be used to secretly cut off political dissidents from their phone or internet service on the pretense they may try to manipulate the telecom system.”
Political commentator Dan Knight paints the Big Brother nature of this newfound authority: “Under C-8, the Minister of Industry can, at any moment, order Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, the companies you rely on to live and work to ‘do anything necessary’ to ‘secure’ the network. Translation: rip out equipment, block services, and yes, cut off an individual’s service entirely. No warrant. No judge. No independent tribunal. If the minister decides you’re a ‘threat,’ you’re gone. And here’s the kicker: you may never be told why.”
In a heated exchange in the House of Commons, Kitchener South-Hespeler MP Matt Strauss was accused of raising fear by the parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader, MP Kevin Lamoureux, “The opposite member tries to say the Liberal Party is going to take away the internet, take away cellphones and deny people the opportunity to do their banking.” MP Strauss shot back, “The member said it is a conspiracy that the Liberals might freeze bank accounts. They already did that.” Indeed, Canadians are forewarned.
Bill C-9 on combatting hate
The combatting hate legislation is currently in the justice committee and is expected to be reviewed and returned to the House of Commons for passage before MPs break for Christmas. This legislation is the reintroduction of the Trudeau government’s Bill C-63 that is intended to strengthen and expand hate crime laws. It adds four new hate-related offences to the Criminal Code, adds a new definition of “hate,” and removes the requirement for the attorney general’s consent before prosecuting hate propaganda offences.
While all Canadians want to see the government address the alarming rise of hatred and increased rates of hate crimes in our society, reviewing this legislation is akin to opening a Pandora’s box when it comes to the potential for civil rights abuses. There are four issues of concern with Bill C-9. 1) Civil liberty organizations have been highly critical of how vague and broad this legislation reads. 2) The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has warned that the intimidation and obstruction provisions in the legislation could criminalize peaceful protests and legitimate dissent. 3) The proposal that removes the need for Attorney General consent to proceed with hate charges will take away the litmus test for reasonableness – and this will make it open season for any Canadian to have charged any other Canadian. 4) By removing the word “extreme,” the legal threshold for the definition of hatred in the new law will be lowered and what is perceived to be offensive becomes more vague and subjective. So, taken together the changes in Canadian law proposed in Bill C-9 will open wide the floodgates for litigation – and will effectively kill freedom of expression in the public square.
To add to this, the government has signaled that it will reintroduce another “hate” Bill from the previous parliament, known as the online harms bill. This legislation will extend the country’s new state of victimology as set out in Bill C-9 to the internet, where Canadians will be able to accuse and charge other Canadians for their social media as well as their privately shared online thoughts. There is the expectation that the Carney government’s new online harms bill will go as far as the new U.K. hate laws where, today, citizens are being arrested for Facebook posts and pre-emptively arrested with an accusation that they might be offensive – hateful – at some time in the future.
Bill C-2 on secure borders
On Wednesday, the government reintroduced into the House of Commons sections of Bill C-2 as a new Bill C-12, after it received a fierce blowback on Bill C-2 for its massive overreach. The intent of the government’s secure borders legislation is to address the serious problems of fentanyl trafficking, money laundering, and illegal cross-border acts. However, buried in their Bill C-2, the government was given the ability to access Canadians’ personal information without a warrant. Government officials could demand of any service provider to access your personal information – to open your mail packages, and your computer files.
There were 40 organizations that called for Bill C-2 to be withdrawn. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association stated, “Law enforcement officials will be able to extract highly revealing information about people with these demands, including whether they’ve purchased something at any company, interacted with any website, or stayed at any hotel. These demands will occur in secrecy…” University of Ottawa Professor Michael Geist, perhaps the most knowledgeable expert on internet law, stated, “I think this [Bill C-2] represents perhaps one of the biggest overreaches we’ve seen from any government when it comes to Canadian privacy. This applies to any provider of a service in Canada and that means hotels, car rental companies, your gardener — it doesn’t matter.”
After five months of arguing that the government would not use these new powers to access information in such a secretive and heavy-handed manner, the public safety minister introduced its new Bill C-12 that has removed all provisions relating to the power to demand warrantless access to Canadians’ private information. This new legislation retained most of the other provisions and the government is calling for swift passage of Bill C-12; the old Bill C-2 remains as a “zombie bill” on parliament (left as a poignant reminder of what might have been).
Geist reflected on the government’s switcheroo in a blog post this week, “Good news aside, this embarrassing episode merits a few comments. First, the government has badly burned public trust and left the distinct impression that privacy is not a priority. It would be nice to think that it came to its senses on the privacy implications of its proposal. But the more likely rationale was that in a minority government situation, it could not find a partner to get the bill passed in its original form.”
He assessed, “…it will now be much harder to trust the government and its officials on future bills and policies with privacy implications. Canadians spoke out loudly against warrantless access and the dangers of Bill C-2. Reversing on lawful access must be the first step in a concerted, serious effort to prioritize privacy in Canada.”
Final word goes to John Carpay of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms who has been at the forefront of the debates in Ottawa, defending Canadians’ individual rights and freedom. His organization released a short video this week to alert Canadians on what is at stake with the legislation currently before the House of Commons. Carpay warns, “Canada will be a police state by Christmas if Parliament passes bills C-2, C-8, and C-9 in their current form. Our freedoms are fragile – it is imperative that every Canadian contact their Member of Parliament, whether your MP is Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Bloc or Green. Tell your MP to vote against Bills C-2, C-8, C-9 and tell them to not bring back the Online Harms Act.”
It is time for all Canadians to speak out – while there is still time, while we are still able.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.