As the Canadian government gets closer to passing Bill C-59, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that there is no political will within Canada’s major political parties to fix the damage done by the Conservatives much despised, “Bill C-51 - Anti-Terrorism” law. The massive human rights and privacy concerns remain, and while the Liberal’s Bill C-59 softens some of the most blatant attacks, it tries to legalize and legitimize a whole new level of cyber surveillance that even the Conservatives didn’t dare try. The most alarming of these is the further enabling of the secretive Communications Security Establishment (CSE) to collect massive amounts of cyber data with little oversight or restrictions.
Secret Surveillance
The CSE is a secret spy agency created during the Second World War. The CSE remained a complete secret until a 1974 CBC documentary uncovered its existence. Despite being outed, its surveillance activities are still mostly unknown, but we are promised it focuses on foreign threats. However, as some revealed internal documents show, there is little to no discretion when it comes to data collection.
This government surveillance push is part of an overall trend regardless of which political party has been in power. The CSE now has a new $1.2 billion facility adjacent to the CSIS building in Ottawa, which covers a massive 84 acres. According to another CBC investigation, “CSE spends over $400 million a year, and employs about 2,000 people, almost half of whom are involved in intercepting phone conversations, and hacking into computer systems supposedly in other countries.”
While the CSE constantly says it does not target the data of people in Canada, CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden released secret documents which show:
- The CSE used information from the free Wi-Fi internet at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport to track the wireless devices of thousands of normal airline passengers for days after they travelled.
- The CSE program named “Levitation,” sifted through millions of videos and documents downloaded on file-sharing websites. Every single upload and download to was archived, collected and analyzed - regardless of whether the user was suspicious or not.
- The CSE has also been collecting millions of emails from Canadians and storing them for days, weeks or even years before deleting the records. According to a 2010 report, more than 400,000 emails were being obtained every day.
Not a Fix
So, if you use the internet, it’s more than likely the CSE has collected your data without justification. Prime Minister Trudeau is now trying to push this even further. As Micheal Vonn, Policy Director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Tim McSorley, National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group summarized “Bill C-59 also expressly empowers mass surveillance through the collection of bulk data and suspiciously non-defined ‘publicly available’ data. The terrible irony is that this means instead of reining in mass surveillance, the new oversight bodies will be giving an official seal of approval to mass surveillance.”
The Liberals promise C-59 creates more oversight with a new National Security and Intelligence Review Agency and an intelligence commissioner. However, the commissioner doesn’t have to be consulted or approve any use of the new cyber operations. They need only the approval of the Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs.
The Fight Continues
So, it’s no wonder that many civil liberties and human rights organizations have continued to voice concerns that Bill C-59 is far from the “fix” of Bill C-51 that PM Trudeau promised before he was elected. In Vancouver, the Working Group to Stop Bill C-51 has expanded its focus to include an emphasis on public education and protest of Bill C-59.
The group has continued its campaign of weekly actions, reaching 165 consecutive weeks by the end of April. Spring has been slow to come to BC, but through downpours as well as beautiful sunny days the group has still never missed a week. Banner drops have continued draw almost continuous honks from supportive drivers, and there is and ongoing and important level of scepticism regarding Justin Trudeau’s promises, especially regarding issues of privacy and national security.
Bill C-59 is not a done deal. It is still being reviewed in a parliamentary committee, and must be debated in both the House and Senate before becoming law. This creates time and opportunities to make the human rights and privacy case the Canadian government refuses to. The Working Group to Stop Bill C-51 will continue to mobilize to demand and immediate repeal of Bill C-51, and the complete scrapping of Bill C-59.
Repeal Bill C-51!
Prime Minister Trudeau – Respect our Human Rights!
Scrap Bill C-59!
Follow Thomas Davies on Twitter: @thomasdavies59
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