BILL C-51: Gvt. confirms Cdns. demand full repeal

BILL C-51: Gvt. confirms Cdns. demand full repeal

Postby Oscar » Tue May 23, 2017 8:10 am

Government report on National Security consultation confirms Canadians are demanding a full repeal of Bill C-51

[ https://openmedia.org/en/government-rep ... ull-repeal ]

By Victoria Henry May 19, 2017

Responding to the government’s consultation loud and clear, Canadians call for robust privacy protections.

This morning Public Safety Canada released its much-anticipated report [ https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrc ... n.aspx#a02 ] summarizing the results of its national security consultation, and Bill C-51. The results confirmed what has long since become a familiar refrain – Canadians have significant concerns regarding privacy and government accountability with sensitive data, and are asking for C-51 to be completely repealed.

Although the government has demonstrated that it has overwhelming evidence that Canadians are deeply skeptical about almost every part of Bill C-51, its report does not address the big question about whether or not it will be repealed.

Our own crowd-sourced analysis showed that over 88% of the first round of National Security Consultation submissions that mention Bill C-51 support its repeal.
[ https://openmedia.org/en/press/over-88- ... 51-support ]

The results of this consultation are incredibly encouraging. Canadians spoke up loud and clear in support of strong privacy and security. But this report states the obvious, and what we’ve known all along — Canadians did not want C-51, and are still awaiting its repeal. All eyes turn to Minister Goodale now to see if and when repeal legislation will actually be introduced.

This consultation has given the government its mandate: stand up for privacy. Now it’s time for the government to get it right — not only to correct the mistakes of previous administrations by repealing Bill C-51, but to actually step up and provide Canadians with the strong privacy protections we all want and deserve.

Highlights from the report:

- A clear majority of participants oppose giving government the capacity to intercept personal communications, even if a court authorizes the interception, and oppose any moves to weaken encryption technology.

- The vast majority of responses — more than four in five — show that the expectation of privacy in the digital world is the same as or higher than in the physical world.

- More than two-thirds of online responses called for increased safeguards, including greater oversight — preferably by a third party — to ensure that Canadians’ Charter rights and freedoms are always protected.

Most online responses (68%) opposed imposing a legal requirement on domestic communications service providers to keep telecommunications data for a specified period so it can be made available (with court authorization) to law enforcement and national security agencies to help with investigations.

As a part of the consultation process, we've been crowdsourcing our own analysis of on the consultation submissions at crowdsourcec51.ca. [ https://crowdsourcec51.ca/ ]
Oscar
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Re: BILL C-51: Gvt. confirms Cdns. demand full repeal

Postby Oscar » Tue May 23, 2017 8:17 am

Over 88% of the first round of National Security Consultation submissions that mention Bill C-51 support its repeal

[ https://openmedia.org/en/press/over-88- ... 51-support ]

May 5, 2017 From our Privacy pillar

A crowdsourced analysis reveals that 88.7% of submissions that mention Bill C-51 support the repeal of the controversial surveillance legislation

The vast majority of submissions to the government’s consultation [ https://www.canada.ca/en/services/defen ... urity.html ] on National Security that mention Bill C-51, call for the repeal of the controversial surveillance legislation passed by the Harper government. That’s according to a crowdsourced analysis of the first tranche of submissions published on the government’s website. [ http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/5 ... 1474921806 ]

The analysis also showed strong support for the protection of Canadians’ privacy, and deep concern about the sharing of personal information with Canadian agencies or foreign governments. Organizers at OpenMedia, which built an online tool [ https://crowdsourcec51.ca/ ] to enable the public to assess the consultation submissions, say that although these are early results, they are a strong indication of the public’s appetite to repeal the legislation.

“It’s clear from these results that Canadians want to wipe the slate clean and completely repeal this unpopular spying bill,” said Victoria Henry, privacy campaigner with OpenMedia. “These findings should give Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale pause for thought — merely tinkering around the edges of Bill C-51 with modest amendments will not satisfy Canadians. Minister Goodale needs to listen to the tens of thousands of Canadians who have taken part in his government’s consultation and commit to repealing Bill C-51 entirely.”

Initially the government refused to make the consultation submissions public, but finally agreed [ https://openmedia.org/en/press/statemen ... nsultation ] to do so after an open letter was published in the National Observer from over 30 civil society organizations and experts. [ http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/12 ... ges-bill-c ] A second tranche of consultation submissions was published recently, with a further round still to come. The government has also promised to publish their own summary of the findings, and to bring forward proposals to amend Bill C-51 before Parliament rises for its summer break in June.

The influential House of Commons Public Safety Committee this week recommended [ https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/201 ... rties.html ] significant changes to Bill C-51, including stronger measures to hold security agencies accountable, and a dedicated agency to review national security activities across government. A number of MPs on the committee also urged the government to go further and completely repeal the controversial legislation. The House of Commons Ethics Committee also recently released an official report strongly criticizing C-51’s information sharing provisions, and calling for significant amendments. [ http://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer ... I/report-5 ]

Canadians can take part in analysing the over 59,000 public comments submitted as part of the National Security consultation at CrowdsourceC51.ca

Contact:

David Christopher
Interim Communications and Campaigns Director
CANADA, Vancouver
Time Zone: -0700 (07:04 am now)
+1 (888) 441-2640 ext. 1
david@openmedia.org

-30-
Oscar
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