What is the federal governments rationale for increased surveillance powers?
The lawful access proposals have been justified on three main grounds: • The need of Law Enforcement Agencies for more effective tools to investigate criminal acts in the digital age (see above). • Canada’s desire to ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cyber-Crime. While not a member of the Council of Europe, Canada was involved in drafting this treaty, has signed it, and wishes to ratify it. In order to ratify, Canada must implement certain measures such as Preservation Orders and Production Orders. • The need to update certain Criminal Code sections in order to reflect technological developments (e.g., change “telephone” to “telecommunications”; specify how email should be treated: as a communication that is intercepted or as a record that is searched?). See the Justice Canada FAQ on Lawful Access for more explanation of the rationale for these proposed changes.
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