Canada’s cyber-security Bill C-26: Yet Another Government Power Grab

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39 points·StuntPope··5 comments

> authorize the Governor in Council and the Minister of Industry to direct telecommunications service providers to do anything, or refrain from doing anything, that is necessary to secure the Canadian telecommunications system.

I don't know how much I can trust the source, but the idea that a law can be passed with no restriction on what ("anything") is, is worrying. It seems to imply that there is no due process, no oversight, no nothing. If the gov says "block that person's Internet" or "Send us a copy of all person's X traffic" without a warrant of any kind the telecom have to do it.

That is precisely the concern. Listen to the Law Bytes podcast with Michael Geist and Brenda McPhail - Geist is a University of Ottawa law professor and undisputed privacy expert - and they talk about exactly this.

(Or you could read the legislation itself, but Canadian bills are hard to read because they are these kind of Frankenstein concoctions of lines that are stricken from other acts and new lines that are added).

It's almost like the same government that would extrajudicially freeze your bank accounts and get reelected feels invincible.

They're on such shaky ground they had to form a coalition with the NDP, and rely on their support to remain functionally in power. They don't have to be popular when the Conservatives are worse.

No opinion.

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