3 days ago
Chris Selley: Liberals wrap much-needed refugee reform in a terrible privacy-invading package
Once upon a time, not so long ago, the Liberals auditioned for government in Ottawa with a promise to do away with obnoxiously enormous omnibus bills, in which dozens of separate issues are crammed into the same legislation.
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The usual result, often by design, is that contentious issues don't get the scrutiny they deserve. The Liberals long ago having discovered that they only dislike omnibus bills when Conservatives draft them, the party's 2025 platform wisely did not promise any change on that front.
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And they're right out of the gate with a doozie of an omnibus bill: Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act, which seems likely to keep many lawyers gainfully employed for years fighting and defending it in court.
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There are two main objections to the bill: New restrictions on who can apply for asylum status in Canada; and making it easier for police to obtain your internet-user information. It's certainly conceivable that the latter might help police make the border safer. It could disrupt smuggling operations, be they fentanyl, drugs or human beings. But if you go look at the bill, you'll see these new measures aren't about the border. They're about everything.
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Section 487.0121 would allow police, without a warrant, to ask an internet service provider (ISP) if someone is a subscriber; whether the ISP 'possesses … any information … in relation to that subscriber' (though it wouldn't grant access to specific data); the city in which the ISP's services were provided; and when the services were provided.
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Police must only demonstrate they had 'reasonable grounds to suspect (that) an offence has been or will be committed under this Act or any other Act of Parliament ' (my italics).
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Producing additional data attached to IP addresses would require a warrant, but not in 'exigent circumstances.' Do you trust police and courts to assure exigency? I don't.
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You don't often hear Canadian police forces argue they have all the tools they need to fight crime. And there's a long history of Canadian governments, Conservative and Liberal alike, leveraging hot-button issues to try to broaden police or intelligence-service powers. Then public safety minister Vic Toews immortalized himself in 2012 defending internet-monitoring legislation by suggesting Canadians can either 'stand with us or with the child pornographers,' but other governments have used terrorism, 'revenge porn' and other justifications in the past.
