Canadian Net surveillance plan
p2pnet.net News:- A plan, parts of which were first revealed at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) in 2002 and which would give police and security agencies sweeping powers to monitor of the Net, is being given serious consideration by the Canadian government.
“For those who have not followed the issue, lawful access envisions creating significant new network surveillance powers that would be embedded directly in the network,” says Canadian law professor Michael Geist. “Moreover, ISPs would be required to retain traffic data for significant periods of time.
“Not only does the proposal (at least as it was presented privately to several groups in the spring) create new surveillance powers, but it actually reduces the level of privacy protection and oversight associated with that surveillance.
“For example, one proposal floated in the spring would require ISPs to disclose subscriber information within 30 minutes to law enforcement authorities on a 24 hour, 7 day per week basis. Incredibly, law enforcement authorities could make such a request with only a phone call under certain circumstances.
“No judicial oversight. No advance paperwork. No privacy.”
Justice minister Irwin Cotler disclosed the plan during a speech to a conference of police boards, says the CanWest News Service.
“He told reporters he and Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan are preparing a memorandum to cabinet following months of discussions with police, privacy experts and the Internet industry.
“Cotler said law-enforcement agencies have lagged behind as use of the worldwide web exploded over the past decade.”
In 2002, p2pnet wrote:
Private and anonymous Canadian Net accounts will be wide open to Canadian police and intelligence agencies if a plan revealed at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) goes through.
The scheme – floated in a ‘discussion draft’ – also suggests creating a national database of every Canadian with a Net account.
Dressed up as a way of, “keeping our laws current so that the police can do their job and keep Canadians safe,” the plan was offered to the CAP meeting at the end of August by Lawrence MacAulay, at the time, Canada’s Solicitor-General, Martin Cauchon, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and Minister of Industry Allan Rock.
This October, MacAulay was forced to resign over a contract scandal.
Involved in ‘lawful access consultations’ are the Department of Justice Canada, Solicitor General Canada, Industry Canada, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Competition Bureau.
“A central element of these proposed options would require all wireless, wireline and Internet service providers to have the technical capability to provide access to communications and information, under legal authority, to law enforcement and national security agencies,” said a ‘backgrounder’, continuing: “Proposed Criminal Code amendments include the creation of production and preservation orders for data as well as other amendments to modernize the law to deal with new technologies.”
In a media release, MacAulay, Cauchon and Rock said, “Lawful access is the lawful interception of communications, and the search and seizure of information by law enforcement and national security agencies. Updating lawful access legislation is essential to a broad range of investigative bodies, in their continued efforts to fight crimes such as terrorism, child pornography, drug trafficking, smuggling, Internet and telemarketing fraud, price fixing and money laundering.
“Lawful access can only be exercised with a lawful authority, and is well entrenched in laws such as the Criminal Code, the Canadian Security Intelligence Act, the Competition Act and other Acts of Parliament. Lawful access legislation also recognizes the privacy rights of all people in Canada and their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“This consultation process will involve key stakeholders including law enforcement, telecommunications companies, civil liberties and privacy organizations. The public will also be given the opportunity to consider lawful access issues and options for change by obtaining a consultation paper, which is available at www.canada.justice.gc.ca/en/cons/la_al. Those wishing to respond may send their submissions to la-al@justice.gc.ca before November 15, 2002.”
‘Eavesdrop on telephone conversations’
“Cotler said the government is aware of objections around the impact on privacy as well as the effect the surveillance could have on the legal rights of citizens,” says the CanWest story. “Under current law, it is illegal to intercept and open letter mail, but it is unclear whether e-mails are in the same legal category.
“The Defence Department’s Communications Security Establishment has the ability to intercept all telephone communications within Canada and calls across the border, but must obtain ministerial permission to intercept and record telephone calls in which at least one Canadian citizen is involved. And police need court permission to eavesdrop on telephone conversations.”
Cotler is quoted as saying he hopes to come up with a memorandum to cabinet, “that can protect human security in the sense that we will put law enforcement people on the same level playing field as criminals and terrorists in the matter of using technology and accessing that technology, and at the same time we will protect the civil libertarian concerns that are involved.”
CanWest has Geist saying Lawful Access, “really re-shapes what Canada’s Internet looks like, creating a real surveillance network. The provisions we’ve seen extend as far out as the Competition Bureau. This will create a significant basket of new rights for all manner of law-enforcement authorities.
“It envisions a dramatically new Internet, new kinds of surveillance powers for law enforcement, new kinds of surveillance capabilities for network providers and requirements for network providers to disclose information about Canadian Internet users, often with little or no judicial oversight.”
Maybe it should be renamed Awful Access.
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See:-
first revealed – Canadian ISP’s would be forced to become Net spies, if new plan goes through, October 28, 2002
Michael Geist – Here Comes Lawful Access, August 18, 2005, August 18, 2005
CanWest News Service – Security law would unlock Net, August 19, 2005
August 19th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
maybe we should rename Canda – America Junior, and just have a paycheque go from the Bush admin straight to Irwin Cotler and Anne McLellan….
TT
This is very foreboding and unsettling…..
August 19th, 2005 at 10:48 pm
“The more you squeeze, the more systems will slip through your fingers…”
We need a world-wide popular revolution NOW!
August 20th, 2005 at 12:34 am
Noo….Call It now… The Big Canadian Brother. The big Canadian brother is watching you!
August 20th, 2005 at 8:18 am
Why not just put a government mandated video camera in every home and be done with it? Don’t forget the thought police on every corner too!
August 20th, 2005 at 6:43 pm
Wow, interesting plan. We are fast becoming the illegitamate war child of the good ‘ole US of Idiots. How pathetic! Next we’ll all be herded to check stops to register finger prints and eye scans for identification as well as implants to let our Canadian Military State know where we are and what we are doing all of the time. Give your head a shake Canada!
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:00 pm
Quote:
“Under current law, it is illegal to intercept and open letter mail, but it is unclear whether e-mails are in the same legal category.”
The deliberate confusion over catergory here is pathetic. Furthermore, this shows how brazen they have become, and how weak we have become.
The laws that exist to protect citizens from goverment abuses and intrusions though the listening in of private phone calls and the reading of private correspondence, is being challenged based on nothing but the method of correspondence.
What if the mail was made of recycled paper? the law doesn’t specifically state we can’t open and read those, so it must be an “unclear” area, as recycled paper is a different “category”. This is the same as saying it’s ok to murder someone by whacking them 70 times with a baseball bat, and then claiming you didn’t use a gun. Protecting citizens from murder is the purpose of the law, and it doesn’t matter what “category” the weapon might fall into.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson. “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
September 9th, 2005 at 5:50 pm
Martin is so familiar with the way China runs its Country and he makes so much profit from his shipping company there that he wants to turn Canada into another China, Communist Russia, or Nazi Germany. The laws the Liberals have been passing over the last few years means they are getting ready to become a totalitarian government. If the passive Canadian people do not stand up now they will never stand up and therefore they deserve what they get.
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:50 am
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