Liberals' first border bill 'imperfectly' tried to give law enforcement more warrantless power: minister

OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree admitted Thursday that his government’s first attempt at major reform of police and intelligence agencies’ warrantless search powers was imperfect.  

But he told MPs on the Commons Public Safety committee that he was still committed to getting law enforcement new lawful powers to obtain or intercept information without a warrant that were first suggested in the Liberals’ spring “Strong Borders Act” bill C-2.  

C-2 has come under heavy fire from privacy and civil rights advocates for proposing police and intelligence agencies be able to compel any service provider — be they doctors, lawyers, therapists, clinics or banks, etc. — to say if they’ve served an individual, when, where and the “nature of the services” provided. All without a warrant.  

Another controversial section proposed a new law that compelled electronic service providers to create what many called a “digital back door” that would make it easier for police and intelligence agencies to access their data with the appropriate warrant.  

“Canada is the only Five Eyes country that does not have a lawful access regime, and C-2 tries to address that, and I would admit, imperfectly,” Anandasangaree told committee members Thursday.  

“We will work with law enforcement, and we will work with all parties, to ensure that a lawful access regime that is in line with Charter principles will be passed by this House,” he added.  

The ability to obtain Canadians’ information and intercept communications, known as “lawful access,” is one of the most intrusive powers afforded to police and intelligence agencies.  

Lawful access rules are perennially in the middle of a tug-of-war between the needs of law enforcement to investigate threats and Canadians’ rights and expectations of privacy.  

Intelligence and police agencies have long complained that they face “significant challenges” in securing lawful access because existing rules are antiquated and poorly adapted to the digital world.  

A recent report studying lawful access by an intelligence watchdog committee of parliamentarians largely agreed with those concerns. The report called on the government to give law enforcement the “tools, policies, and lawful authorities they require” to investigate threats in the digital age.  

“If left unaddressed, these challenges will undermine Canada’s national security in the long term by increasingly hampering the ability of CSIS and the RCMP to fulfil their respective mandates,” read the report.  

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government took a first stab at the issue in the spring with C-2. But as opposition parties pushed back on the bill, the Liberals tabled a new version of C-2 (numbered C-12) without the controversial lawful access portions on Wednesday.  

But C-2 remains in Parliament and will still eventually be studied in committee.  

On Thursday, Anandasangaree said many police forces told him they were “deeply disappointed” to see the lawful access sections removed from C-12.  

Speaking to reporters after the committee meeting, RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme said he would continue pushing for lawful access rules.  

“I’m confident that the minister and I and other police forces will do everything we can to get lawful access back in there,” Duheme said.  

After multiple rounds of grilling by Conservative MPs on crime rates across the country Thursday, Anandasangaree also accused many municipalities of underfunding local police services for up to two decades.  

“Over the years, funding for policing have not kept up with the demands of policing and the evolving nature of what police have to do today, which includes mental health issues around drugs, issues around addictions,” he told the committee.  

“Frankly, I think for the last two decades or so, we have not been investing in policing,” he added.  

The underfunding is “very much at the local level,” he noted, although there is a “growing realization” that municipalities need to invest in policing.  

National Post

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