Stop the Surveillance State: Reject Bill C-22

Friends,

While the right-wing establishment media obsesses over John A. Macdonald and Parliament pretends to be busy, the Carney Liberals are quietly doing something truly dangerous.

Bill C‑22, the deceptively named “Lawful Access Act,” is moving through Ottawa with almost no public debate. If passed, it will force every telecom and tech company in this country to:

• Store your private data for at least one year.
• Build permanent location‑tracking capabilities directly into their networks.
• Hand over that information to the state under secret orders, with minimal oversight.

This is not targeted law enforcement. This is mass data collection.

The government is treating every single Canadian as a potential suspect. The principle of innocent until proven guilty? Gone. Instead, the Ottawa wants a permanent digital dragnet—your metadata, your movements, your associations—ready to be searched whenever they decide they want it.

And who will be holding the net? The same telecom giants and Big Tech platforms that already answer to shareholders, not citizens. Bill C‑22 compels them to become unpaid, unaccountable extensions of the RCMP and CSIS.

Once location tracking and data retention are baked into the network, they won't be used only against "criminals." They will be used against all of us. By default.

Parliament is counting on your silence. The press is counting on your distraction. But we don't have to give them either.

We have to stop this now.

The Provincial Times has launched a petition to demand that Prime Minister Carney scrap Bill C‑22 and respect our fundamental right to privacy. It's one of the few tools left to show the political class that people are watching.

Stop the Surveillance State: Reject Bill C-22

Bill C-22, the so-called “Lawful Access Act,” is nothing less than a blueprint for a full-blown surveillance state in Canada. The Carney Liberals are ramming through legislation that would force telecom giants and tech platforms to stockpile your personal data, bake location-tracking capabilities directly into their networks, and hand everything over to the police under secret orders with vanishingly little oversight. If passed, C-22 will treat every single Canadian as a preemptive suspect. The principle of innocent until proven guilty? Discarded. Instead, the government wants to build a permanent digital dragnet, ready to be cast whenever it suits them. And telecom giants and tech platforms will be legally compelled to act as unpaid extensions of the RCMP and CSIS. This legislation creates infrastructure designed for abuse. Location tracking, metadata retention, secret orders—these are the tools of authoritarian regimes, yet here in Canada, the government is pushing them through as though they were routine maintenance. If this passes, your digital footprint and your physical movements will be monitored by default, not because you’ve done anything wrong, but because Ottawa has decided it wants the option. This is not the country our grandparents fought for. They didn’t defeat fascism abroad to see a surveillance apparatus built at home that can be turned against anyone who dares to challenge power. Make no mistake: once this infrastructure is in place, it won’t be used just against the “bad guys.” It will be used against all of us. We have to stop this now. Sign the petition. Tell Mark Carney to scrap Bill C-22. Refuse to trade our freedom for the illusion of security. The surveillance state is not inevitable, but only if we fight back.

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Add your name today. Then share it widely—with your union local, your neighbourhood association, your student group, your book club. Make noise.

The surveillance state is not inevitable. But it will win if we stay quiet.

My very best,
— Will Adams
Editor, The Provincial Times