Public attention in Canada is appropriately focused on proposed omnibus security legislation (Bill C-51 [2]) that, from most expert accounts [3], appears to unnecessarily weaken privacy protections [4] and threaten civil liberties [5] to give Canada’s spy agencies, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP in particular, new powers of preventative arrest, surveillance, and information sharing with foreign governments.
Though the CCPA does not have a full-time security expert on staff, we wanted to contribute to the important debate on C-51, and decided that a compendium of this month’s C-51 hearings—the testimony presented and the responses of government and opposition MPs—on our Behind the Numbers [6] blog could be useful to our supporters and the public. We will include links to presenations to the committee (where they're available), news articles, videos, and other relevant material. We hope you follow along at www.behindthenumbers.ca [7].
Read a legal primer on Bill C-51 by Clayton Ruby and Nader R. Hassan in the March issue of The Monitor [8].