Like many expansions of government power, Bill C-22 (dubbed the Lawful Access Act) arrives dressed in reassuring bureaucratic language. It speaks soothingly about “facilitating access” to “basic information” and “modernizing” certain provisions respecting the timely gathering of data. In reality, this legislation represents a significant step toward building the machinery of a surveillance state in Canada.
The bill would require major telecom companies such as Bell, Rogers, and Telus to retain detailed metadata on every customer’s communications for up to one year. This includes the date, time, duration, type of communication, device identifiers, and location data from cell towers and other signals. Authorities could use this information to reconstruct a person’s movements, associations, and daily activities over extended periods.
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