CANADA—Bill would require TSPs to facilitate lawful interception

On February 14, the government of Canada introduced a bill in the House of Commons that, if passed, will require telecommunications service providers (TSPs) to implement capabilities to facilitate lawful interception of information transmitted by telecommunications and to provide basic information about their subscribers. As stated in Section 3,

, entitled The Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, has as its purpose to “ensure that telecommunications service providers have the capability to enable national security and law enforcement agencies to exercise their authority to intercept communications and to require telecommunications service providers to provide subscriber and other information, without unreasonably impairing the privacy of individuals…” The bill requires TSPs to “provide intercepted communications to authorized persons” and “provide authorized persons with the prescribed information that is in the possession or control of the service provider respecting the location of equipment used in the transmission of communications.” This requirement extends to communication where the intercepted communication is “encoded, compressed, encrypted or otherwise treated by the telecommunications service provider.” In such a case, the TSP must provide the communications in the form it was before it was treated, but the bill provides an exemption if the TSP would be required to develop or acquire decryption techniques or tools.

All current and future software for any transmission apparatus must have the capability to meet the requirements of the bill. The minister, at the request of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), may order a TSP to comply with a number of obligations under the bill, including to meet an operational requirement in respect of transmission apparatus operated by the service provider that it would not otherwise be required to meet. In such a case, the bill provides that the RCMP or CSIS must pay the TSP an amount—that the minister considers reasonable—towards the expenses considered necessary—by the minister—that the TSP will incur to comply.

On written request by a designated person, which includes the RCMP, CSIS and police departments, the TSP must provide the identifying information in respect of the name, address, telephone number and electronic mail address of any subscriber to any of the service provider’s telecommunications services and the Internet protocol address and local service provider identifier that are associated with the subscriber’s service and equipment. In certain circumstances, such request may be made orally. No warrant or court order is required for a designated person to make such a request to the TSP.

Wilful violations of the obligation to implement the capability to intercept communications may result in fines up to a maximum of $500,000.

The bill has created, not surprisingly, a fair amount of negative reaction. The opposition parties strongly expressed their concern about this bill, and media coverage has generally focused on the warrantless intrusion into the online private lives of individuals. As the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a majority in both Houses, it is likely the bill will pass in much the same way it was tabled.