“The battle over the way law enforcement agencies can get telecommunications companies to hand over subscriber information went into Question Period on Wednesday,” IT World Canada reports, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper “deflecting heated questions from Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair.” Harper said, “There is independent surveillance, independent oversight to make sure that these laws are respected.” The report cites Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier’s announcement that “agencies made 1.2 million requests for information in 2011 alone.” A Bell Canada executive said, “we don’t know how far we can go in providing very specific, detailed information” on the customer data the company gives to government agencies because it could affect investigations. Bernier told a Senate committee “she would like federal privacy laws changed so that service providers have to break out statistics,” CBC News reports.
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