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House Hansard - 164

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 6, 2023 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 164 - Mar/6/23
Mr. Alistair MacGregor
  • Mar/6/23 1:01:30 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-26 
Madam Speaker, there have been serious concerns about how, within the telecommunications infrastructure, Bill C-26 would allow Canada's national security and spy agencies to permanently implant themselves within that infrastructure, have access to all kinds of sensitive data and possibly share it. I do not know what the specifics are at this point. I think the committee will be empowered to look at that. I want to make sure that, everywhere in Bill C-26 where ministers are able to issue these types of orders, or if they are kept secret, there would be accountability mechanisms built into the bill. Can we give the standing joint committee on regulations the ability to review those orders, since they could be prevented from being published in the Canada Gazette? That is one particular example, but there are many others. I agree with the premise of the member's question in that there is a lot of work that needs to be done with Bill C-26 at committee.
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Context: House Hansard - 164 - Mar/6/23
Mr. Ted Falk
  • Mar/6/23 1:48:03 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-26 
Madam Speaker, I am just going to read an excerpt from the bill, because it really encapsulates the answer to the member's question. It states the bill would authorize the Governor in Council, which is cabinet, “to designate any service or system as a vital service or vital system”. It would also authorize the Governor in Council “to establish classes of operators in respect of a vital service or vital system”. It also “provides for the exchange of information between relevant parties”. We cannot currently do that. Our security and law enforcement agencies cannot transfer information without a judicial warrant. Why would we allow the government and cabinet to do that?
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Context: House Hansard - 164 - Mar/6/23
Mr. Glen Motz
  • Mar/6/23 5:36:47 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-26 
Mr. Speaker, we all know that cybersecurity issues are a fast-moving target and how they change almost monthly. One thing that I can be confident in is our national security agencies that deal with some of these issues on cybersecurity. They are working diligently on our behalf. I would agree that there would be very few of us in the House who would have the technical capacity to understand much of what we ask our defence agencies, our national security agencies and our cybersecurity agencies to do for us on behalf of our country. I would encourage the government, as was indicated by my colleague, to enlighten the House and to provide briefings by those technical experts in government and from our public servants. We would all benefit, not only from the study of this bill but also from the ability to answer our constituents who have cybersecurity questions. We could answer them more intelligently.
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