A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says he supports modernizing lawful-access powers to give law-enforcement agencies legal tools to fight organized crime and protect Canadians.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Ottawa is preparing to make changes to its shelved border-security bill to try to get it back on track, including removing provisions that would have given the police and the country’s spy agency warrantless powers to demand to know whether Canadians have consulted a doctor or therapist.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s Bill C-2 faced a backlash from civil-liberties groups, lawyers and tech experts, who accused the federal government of overreach and potentially breaching the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Opposition MPs said they would not support the bill, which included a lawful-access regime granting new powers to allow the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and police services to obtain electronic subscribers’ data.
In response to the backlash, Mr. Anandasangaree shelved the bill. He instead introduced a slimmed-down version that excluded some controversial passages from the original, including one that would have enabled Canada Post employees to open people’s mail. The revised version, known as Bill C-12, has been progressing through Parliament.
The minority Liberal government is now consulting on potential changes to the original border bill to try to get opposition support.
They are looking at refining powers in the bill giving the police the right to demand without a warrant whether somebody has used a service, including a hotel, car-rental company, doctor or other medical provider.
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NDP public safety critic Jenny Kwan last year said the bill was so broadly worded, it could allow the police to demand that a psychiatrist disclose the identity of a patient without a warrant.
The federal government, which has been meeting with opposition MPs and experts about the bill, is preparing to refine the wording to clarify that the new powers would not apply to obtaining Canadians’ medical information.
Bill C-2 also would grant the RCMP, local police services and CSIS what are known as lawful-access powers to obtain information from electronic services providers.
CSIS, along with police services, have for years been urging the government to grant them lawful-access powers, which they argue Five Eyes intelligence partners already have.
But Matt Hatfield of OpenMedia, which campaigns to keep the internet open and surveillance-free, said the definition of electronic service provider in Canada is broader than in any of the other Five Eyes jurisdictions – Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the United States. “It essentially includes anyone who handles data in Canada,” he said in an e-mail.
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Simon Lafortune, a spokesperson for Mr. Anandasangaree, said the minister supports modernizing lawful-access powers to give law-enforcement agencies legal tools to fight organized crime and protect Canadians.
But he said the minister is working on building a “broader consensus,” including by talking with opposition parties and privacy experts to “identify balanced solutions to further bolster public safety while also respecting the privacy of Canadians.”
“It is important to note that having access to Canadians’ medical records, for example, was never intended to fall under the scope of lawful access provisions in Bill C-2,” Mr. Lafortune said in an e-mail. “That is exactly why we look forward to this bill going through the usual parliamentary process of hearing recommendations from experts and considering amendments at committee.”
Records obtained through access to information law show that CSIS worked with the federal Public Safety Department on drafting sections of Bill C-2, including on lawful access, and welcomed the inclusion of the new powers in the bill.
Internal CSIS e-mails obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin show that CSIS director Dan Rogers was briefed by his officials on progress in the drafting of Bill C-2, which was introduced in June, 2025.
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On May 29, days before it was presented to Parliament, Nicole Giles, CSIS’s deputy director of policy and strategic partnerships, e-mailed Mr. Rogers telling him that the lawful-access measures were included in the bill. “THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!” she said.
On May 31, in another e-mail to the head of the spy agency about the provisions in the bill, Ms. Giles said: “The team did a great job on them!”
CSIS already has powers to demand basic information without a warrant, such as whether a person of interest has booked a room in a hotel.
Eric Balsam, a spokesperson for CSIS, said there were challenges faced by the agency, and “measures in Bill C-2 would help to address some of these challenges, in particular those related to lawful access.”
“The amendments proposed in C-2 would not grant CSIS new collection authorities, nor would it change its mandate,” he said in an e-mail, saying that the bill would ensure that its changes to the Criminal Code “do not result in an unintended degradation of CSIS’ existing authorities.”
“Canadians have expressed their views on C-2 and CSIS has taken note. Should amendments to Bill C-2 be put forward, CSIS will provide its best advice to the government,” he added.
Michael Geist, the University of Ottawa’s Canada Research Chair in internet law, said granting lawful access to subscriber information runs contrary to multiple Supreme Court of Canada decisions.
“In the case of Bill C-2, this was exacerbated by covering every service provider in Canada, whether telecom provider or hotel chain,” he said in an e-mail. “The result was an unprecedented violation of Canadian privacy rights unmatched in any other Five Eyes or G7 country. There is room for compromise to address law enforcement concerns, but the starting must be a system grounded in court oversight.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to CSIS as a law-enforcement agency. That reference has been removed. (Feb. 3, 2026) This article was further updated to clarify that CSIS, along with police services, have for years been urging the government to grant them lawful-access powers.