Submission to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on its study of Bill C-22, An Act Respecting Lawful Access

The Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P.
Chair, Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0A6

Thank you for the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (the Committee) on May 26, 2026, in support of its study of Bill C‑22, An Act Respecting Lawful Access. In anticipation of that appearance, my Office has prepared the present submission, which identifies what I consider to be among the most notable privacy risks in this bill. For the benefit of the Committee’s deliberations, I have also proposed related amendments, which I will be happy to discuss further, in addition to any other matter put to me, during my upcoming appearance.

The question as to what constitutes an appropriate balance between the fundamental right to be free from unreasonable intrusions into one’s private life, on the one hand, and the legitimate needs of the state to access private information for law-enforcement and national-security purposes, on the other, is a matter of significant debate.

As the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians recognized in its 2025 Special Report on the Lawful Access to Communications by Security and Intelligence Organizations, the interception of communications and the search and seizure of information are among the most intrusive forms of power that the state can bring to bear. This is so not only because of the reasonable expectation of privacy that we may have in such information as individuals, but also because of the impacts that its collection and use by state actors may have on our ability to exercise and enjoy other fundamental rights as members of a free and democratic society.

There is no doubt that Bill C-22 meaningfully improves upon its predecessor, Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act. However, in my view, further changes would help achieve the appropriate balance between lawful-access needs and privacy rights.