CIPPIC speaheaded a group of privacy experts comprised of academics and public interest organizations today in calling on the government to rethink a set of legislative proposals (innocuously dubbed 'lawful access') that threaten to seriously undermine online privacy. In doing so, the group of privacy experts have added their voices to the 46,000+ Canadians who have already signed an online petition, Charlie Angus and Jasbir Sandhu (NDP Privacy Spokesman and Public Safety Ciritic, respectively), the BC Civil Liberties Association, as well as to Canada's federal and provincial privacy Commissioners, collectively, all of whom have already stated grave concerns with respect to the proposed erosion of online privacy.
Presented as merely an application of existing powers to the evolved technological landscape, in the words of Canada's Privacy Commissioners, "it would be misleading to suggest that these bills will simply maintain capacity." In fact, as previously introduced, the legislation represents a serious increase of power that the privacy experts have referred to as 'chilling' and, in addition there is the "everpresent threat of abuse." This type of expansion in surveillance power should only be undertaken with great care and where demonstrably necessary. Again, in the words of Canada's Privacy Commissioners, "at no time have Canadian authorities provided the public with any evidence or reasoning to suggest that CSIS or any other Canadian law enforcement agencies have been frustrated in the performance of their duties as a result of shortcomings attributable to current law, TSPs or the manner in which they operate."
