Bill Allowing Government to Block Internet Access for ‘Specified’ Persons Won’t Be Used for Censorship: Industry Department

A director general from the Industry Department said Bill C-8, which would allow the government to prohibit telecom providers from providing internet services to individuals in certain circumstances, would not be used to censor Canadians’ free speech.

“Individual speech has no bearing on the ability of Bell Canada or Rogers to maintain their network or reliability of their services,” Andre Arbour, the Department of Industry’s director general of telecommunications and internet policy, testified at the House of Commons public safety committee on Oct. 28.

Bill C-8, An Act respecting cyber security, would allow the government to “prohibit a telecommunications service provider from using all products and services provided by a specified person” if it “believes on reasonable grounds that it is necessary to do so to secure the Canadian telecommunications system against any threat.”

The proposed legislation would allow for Ottawa to order internet providers such as Rogers, Bell, and Telus to block specific services for users or shut down an individual’s right to access the internet or phone networks in certain circumstances. The Liberal government has said the bill is necessary to protect Canada from foreign interference and threats from hackers and ransomware fraudsters, while the Conservatives have said the bill will be used to police online speech.

Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis said during a House of Commons debate on Oct. 3 that the legislation would give the government “sweeping powers” that would contravene Sections 7 and 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Liberal MP Jacques Ramsay said the bill is needed to protect Canadians from cyber threats from adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

As originally reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, Arbour said the “unprecedented powers” given to the government through Bill C-8 would not be used for censorship purposes. “The authorities are scoped in terms of needing to protect the Canadian telecommunications system … That means individual commentary of Canadians or their ongoing traffic online is not germane to that, just in practical terms,” he said.

Arbour said these powers would be used in circumstances like a denial-of-service attack that prevents users from accessing the internet. “The use of that authority needs to be reasonably necessary,” he said.

Conservative MP Sukhman Gill said the bill would give the industry minister “sweeping power with virtually no checks or balances,” and Canadians could be denied internet access without a warrant or trial. He questioned what safeguards would be in place to prevent the government from using cybersecurity as a pretext to censor Canadians. Arbour replied that the “policy objective specifies the protection of the telecommunications system.”

Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne told the ethics committee on Oct. 6 that he had not been consulted on Bill C-8, and that his office is “not consulted on specific pieces of legislation before they’re tabled” in Parliament. He also said criteria on necessity and proportionality need to be added to the legislation to ensure the bill achieves the result it aims to achieve.

Paul Rowan Brian and Olivia Gomm contributed to this report.