New powers in the government’s border bill would allow the police and CSIS to request information about services provided to people from abortion clinics, doctors, hotels, and other bodies without a warrant from a judge. Civil liberties groups, researchers, and opposition MPs have raised fears that the new “snooping powers” would erode personal privacy and breach Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They say they could give the authorities access to personal information about people’s lives, including medical help they have sought or online services they use, without judicial approval.

The government has yet to publish an analysis of whether Bill C-2 – the Strong Borders Act – is consistent with the Charter, as it has done with other bills.

Concerns Raised by Civil Liberties Groups

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association expressed concern about the scope of a clause in the bill that would allow CSIS, the police – or a public official enforcing a law – to ask “a person who provided services to any subscriber or client” if they control “any information” about client or subscriber, and the date on which they began providing the services. The bill would give them the power to ask for information without a warrant if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a crime could be committed, or that any breach of a law passed by Parliament may take place. The bill would gag the provider from saying that such a demand had taken place.

“With these powers, any official tasked with enforcing a federal law could go to the company you rented a car from or the hotel you stayed at and paint a detailed picture of your activities simply by confirming the various companies you interacted with,” said Tamir Israel, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s privacy, surveillance, and technologies program.

Concerns Over Privacy Implications

Kate Robertson, senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, said the government had not been open about the extent of the powers the proposed law confers on law enforcement, without judicial oversight. She mentioned that the bill could reveal deeply personal information about individuals' lives without proper safeguards.

Analysis and Criticism

An analysis by Citizen Lab published on Monday said the bill could “open the door” to information sharing, with law enforcement authorities in U.S. states such as Mississippi about whether a person has obtained services from an abortion clinic in Canada. The bill would also grant CSIS, the police, and other law enforcement agencies the right to demand information about internet subscribers – including the municipality where they subscribe – without a warrant from a judge.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said after the bill was launched that its warrantless provisions are limited in scope and expressed confidence that they are compliant with the Charter. However, the analysis of Bill C-2 by the Citizen Lab said the new provisions would “substantially dilute the legal threshold police must meet for accessing sensitive categories of Canada including subscriber data, despite Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence stating that these types of data requests engage ”significant privacy interests."

Concerns Over Data Sharing with the U.S.

NDP public safety and immigration critic Jenny Kwan said she was very concerned by the broad powers, which she said could be used to obtain a good deal of personal information about people – including which medical services they are accessing and when they started doing so – without a warrant. The bill would allow the police to ask someone providing a service if they knew of any other services provided to a client or subscriber. She predicted the measures would face legal challenges.

The Citizen Lab report also raises concerns that the bill could enable the United States to get more access to data from Canada. It says the bill “does not explicitly state that it is paving the way for new and expanded data-sharing with the United States or other countries” and it refers to the potential for “agreement[s] or arrangement[s]” with a foreign state.

Expanded Powers for CSIS

Ms. Robertson said the bill would give fresh powers to CSIS to obtain data. In reply to a question at a technical briefing by Justice Canada officials on the bill when it was launched earlier this month, she said she was told that the intent of certain provisions within Bill C-2 was to enable Canada to implement and ratify a new data-sharing treaty, publicly known as the “Second Additional Protocol” to the Budapest Convention (“2AP”) and that other cross-border “co-operation” tools were foreseeable.

“The 2AP would specifically authorize searches and seizures of private data, in circumstances that fall short of international human rights obligations requiring independent authorization and review for just cause,” the Citizen Lab report said.

Source: The Globe and Mail