Carney's Proposed Laws Give Sweeping Powers to Law Enforcement and Circumvent Democratic Oversight, Critics Warn

Why are Bill C-2 and Bill C-5 so worrying?

Buried in a sweeping new omnibus bill involving border security— Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act—are new government powers that critics warn will “erode personal privacy and breach Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

According to a recent article by Marie Woolf of the Globe and Mail, the new powers would “allow the police and CSIS to request information on whether people have accessed services from abortion clinics, doctors, hotels, and other entities.”

All without a warrant or court oversight, for a crime that hasn’t yet been committed.

Woolf writes:

The bill would give CSIS and the police, or a “public officer,” the power to demand the basic information without a warrant if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a crime could be committed, or that any breach of a law passed by parliament may take place. A draft form for making the information demand says to help with the investigation of an offence, the information must be provided “as soon as possible.”

The bill would gag the provider from saying they had received such a demand.

According to Tamir Israel, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s (CCLA) privacy, surveillance and technologies program, “with these powers, any official tasked with enforcing a federal law could go to the company you rented a car from or the hotel you stayed at and paint a detailed picture of your activities simply by confirming the various companies you interacted with.”

Bill C-2 would give law enforcement authorities the authority — again, without a warrant or judicial oversight — to demand disclosure from anyone who provides a service to the individual in question, and the information sharing would include US law enforcement officials.

Screen grab of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaking during a press conference. He is flanked by Dominic LeBlanc, minister of U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy, and Chrystia Freeland, minister of Transport and Internal Trade. Source

According to Kate Robertson of Citizen Lab, Bill C-2 “would open the door to information sharing with law enforcement authorities in states like Mississippi, Idaho, or Tennessee, by compelling warrantless access to information about whether a person has obtained services from an abortion clinic in Canada,” for instance.

“This [Bill] would foreseeably expose public and private entities in Canada to data demands directly from US intelligence agencies, without the involvement of the Canadian courts,” writes Robertson.

She further warns that Bill C-2 “would significantly expand law enforcement surveillance powers, by eliminating or watering down existing protections in Canadian law… It is difficult to overstate the reverberations that such an agreement would have on the Canadian landscape.”

Michael Geist is Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law
at the University of Ottawa. He writes that the new “warrantless information demand powers” are “the most dangerous lawful access proposal yet” from any Canadian government, “exceeding even the 2010 bill let by Conservative public safety minister Vic Toews” under Stephen Harper.

Geist quotes NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who stated in debate on June 11, 2025:

“Bill C-2 is a sweeping attack on Canadian civil liberties. It would allow the RCMP and CSIS to make information demands from internet providers, banks, doctors, landlords and even therapists, without judicial oversight. This is not about border security. It is about government overreach and Big Brother tactics, plain and simple. It is a violation of our privacy, and it will be challenged in court.”

There are also alarming similarities to another startling piece of recent legislation from south of the border. The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act will dramatically expand warrantless surveillance and allow intelligence agencies to “conscript any service provider” to help surveil individuals of interest, essentially instituting a “spy draft,” according to one press freedom watchdog.

According to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the new US law could also “allow the government to order commercial landlords who rent space to media outlets, or contractors who service newsrooms like electricians or HVAC technicians, to help it spy on American journalists’ communications with foreign sources.”

Michael Geist is Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law
at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. Source

Bill C-5: Liberal minority government trying to ‘circumvent legal protections and democratic oversight,’ warns Canadian Civil Liberties Association

In an open letter published yesterday, Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, the CCLA’s Fundamental Freedom Program Director calls on MP Dominic Leblanc — President of King’s Privy council and the Minister responsible for Canada-US trade — to “reverse course” on Bill C-5: An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act. If the Bill does not undergo an overhaul, the CCLA is calling for members of parliament and senators to vote against it.

The CCLA says the Bill is being “rushed” through and is not receiving the “detailed and meaningful scrutiny it requires.”

According to the open letter, the CCLA is mostly concerned about the proposed Building Canada Act, which grants the executive branch of government “unfettered discretion in designating ‘national interest projects,’ as well as sweeping powers to override federal laws that would otherwise apply to such projects.”

These powers would enable Cabinet to handpick projects for which important legal safeguards could be disregarded, without Parliament being able to intervene. While the delegation of such power to the executive branch is always concerning, it is particularly worrying when it allows a minority government to circumvent the usual democratic dialogue, as is the case here. Such extraordinary powers should only be introduced and invoked in the most exceptional circumstances—such as wars and pandemics. Even then, the exercise of these powers must be subject to stringent checks and balances. While the Bill includes some safeguards, such as a 5- year time limit and an explicit requirement for consultation with Indigenous peoples, these are wholly insufficient. If Parliament chooses to go forward with this Act, at the very least, the notion of “national interest project” should be clearly and narrowly defined, and Cabinet should be required to justify to Parliament on an annual basis the continued necessity of the extraordinary powers—otherwise they would expire.

The CCLA charges that Carney’s minority government is trying to avoid public scrutiny on the extremely contentious bill by limiting parliamentary debate and restricting the House Committee’s study of Bill C-5 to two days. Similarly, the Senate has, to date, scheduled only three days of consultation on this bill, says the CCLA.

“While fostering Canada’s economy, sovereignty and security is an important goal, it should not be pursued at the expense of people of Canada’s right to an accountable government,” writes Bussières McNicoll.

“The arbitrary exercise of government power to circumvent legal protections and democratic oversight should not be normalized, especially in the absence of stringent checks and balances.”

[The Quaking Swamp Journal will continue to follow this story]