Canadian Lawful Access Legislation

EvilAlien writes "In Canada, existing legislation covers access to telephone records, disclosure of customer information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and other means compelling the release of information. However, the laws regulating access to these networks for Canadian law enforcement and national security groups are only under development. The Department of Justice has released their Lawful Access Consultation Document to get feedback from all the stakeholders including industry, civil liberties groups, and the legal community."

Comments

Response from Canadian ISPs

[Penguinista!]

Can I claim "First worthwhile post"?

I'm going to ignore comments thus far as generally just not representative of Slashdotters, most of whom can find Canada on a map.

This story is a duplicate post on Slashdot, but parts of the story haven't really been covered yet: additional links are to be found in this story, which you can follow to find out more info on the issue, including some sample response from Canadian ISPs, one of which I represent. We're also CAIP members and I can tell you that the only comments I've seen on the members' mailing list so far are all negative, so you can probably expect resistance on our part, as the stories linked indicate. Any Canadian Slashdotters (believe it or not, not everyone here is American - I wonder if there are any geographical /. stats?) should make their views known now during the process leading up to the draft of the law that will result following the consultation process. Unfortunately the document as far as I've read it does not describe a process for doing so as an individual, but it does Identify the three government agencies involved, and industrious persons can probably take it from there.

Contrary to one informationally-ignorant prior post, as Canadians we do have Rights and Freedoms, and as in every other country (yes, including the USA) sometimes we need to speak up to exercise them and make sure that they aren't clawed back from us.

-brt

Re:Response from Canadian ISPs

[EvilAlien]

My apologies for the dupe, I didn't see a previous post on the Lawful Access Consultation. I am also taking part in the process, representing another Canadian ISP which is a CCTA member.

The paper doesn't provide much detail on making your views known as a private citizen. It is geared towards industry associations such as CAIP and the CCTA, civil liberties groups, etc. Notice the emphasis on "group". God forbid the average citizen should be listened to...

At any rate, the news release on this matter includes the email address the DoJ wants submissions sent to:

Those wishing to respond may send their submissions to la-al@justice.gc.ca before November 15, 2002.

Re:You know what the problem is?

[EvilAlien]

Who you need to talk to is the Privacy Commission, not puny little MLAs. Our Privacy Commissioner is very much an advocate for the people. I've had a change to attend a course on privacy which he spoke at. That would be the appropriate venue for your concerns.