C-51 reforms
- Details
- Published on Monday, 26 June 2017 12:00
- Written by editor
Hi Paov,
Finally - after YEARS of pressure, the first reforms to notorious spying bill C-51 have been announced.1
In all our years of action on C-51, this is the most critical time in our campaign to protect online security and privacy in Canada.
The good news is that we’re closer than ever before to winning — the reforms so far that include strong oversight of intelligence activities are a huge sign that we forced the government to listen to ordinary... Canadians.
But these reforms still don’t address many of the fundamental privacy concerns Canadians have voiced: an end to out-of control information sharing, the protection of our right to encryption, and an end to warrantless mass Stingray spying.2
MPs are on their way back to their ridings right now — and we need your messages about these issues to be at the top of their inboxes.
At every stage for the past two years, we have forced the government to listen to us on this issue, and this will be no different.
We’ve pushed them to hold an enormous consultation on C-51, then we flooded that consultation with over 15,000 pro-privacy messages. We successfully pressured them into making the results public, and then crowdsourced the results of the consultation before the government made its report public. And in the end, they admitted:
“Digital surveillance and investigation was seen by most participants as having the greatest potential to directly impact their personal privacy, rights and freedoms.
A clear majority of participants oppose giving government the capacity to intercept personal communications, even if a court authorizes the interception, and oppose any moves to weaken encryption technology. Even those who support broad powers of interception think it should only be allowed under rigorous judicial authorization and be limited in scope.”3
They know this is what we’ve demanded. And they know that we will be the loudest voice holding them to account to their promise to listen to Canadians. Let’s make it happen:
Send a 1-click message to your MP
Our actions have already had huge, tangible effects: For months now, newspapers have been reporting that the government was considering “broad new powers to allow national security agencies to obtain Canadians’ data without a warrant, crack and hack cellphones, force companies to decrypt communications, and mandate interception powers for telecommunications providers.”
None of these powers have appeared in the legislation, which has been reported as being due to the overwhelmingly negative responses to these ideas.4
Now, this is what we need: a promise to protect our right to encryption, freedom from invasive, warrantless Stingray spying, and an end to reckless information sharing.
When these reforms (called C-59) are debated in the fall, we need these crucial privacy issues on the top of the list. Let’s get it done!
Thank you so much,
Victoria with OpenMedia
Footnotes
[1] The roses and the thorns of Canada’s new national security bill: Macleans
[2] National Security reforms: major step forward, but fail to tackle many of Bill C-51’s biggest problems: OpenMedia
[3] National Security Consultations: What We Learned Report: Public Safety Canada
[4] The Trudeau government peels back bill C-51 — mostly: r32 If you no longer wish to receive our r46 to unsubscribe.