Lawful Access provisions too broad, says CIPPIC

The first phase of the federal government's "lawful access" initiative was unveiled on Tuesday, in the form of Bill C-74, the Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act (MITA). The MITA would force telecom service providers, among other things, to hand over basic identifying subscriber data to the police upon request. CIPPIC opposes this move, arguing that the gathering of such data is in the nature of a search, and should be subject to the same safeguards, including judicial authorization and reasonable and probable grounds to suspect criminal activity. CIPPIC News Release PSEPC backgrounder on Bill C-74