Michael Geist

Law Prof, CRC in Internet and E-commerce Law
@uocommonlaw @LawBytesPod
Mastodon: | @[email protected]

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

If you follow me for Canadian digital policy, copyright, and AI regulation, the deeper analysis lives on my Substack - including every Law Bytes podcast episode embedded in full.

Free to subscribe: https://t.co/JCjGx1Pgay

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

With Minister @gary_srp invoking "you're with us or with the criminals" language as the government seeks to shut down debate on Bill C-22, he would do well to remember how Liberal MPs reacted to that approach years ago on a different lawful access bill.
https://t.co/ZkewWmk38M

[Canadian Civil Liberties Association @cancivlib]

CCLA joined over 35 leading civil society groups and experts today in calling the federal government out for failing to apply privacy rules and oversight to federal political parties.

The risks here are real--just last month, a political party-enabled data breach exposed personal information of 2.9 million Albertans.

Federal political parties have gone to great lengths to avoid subjecting themselves to any meaningful privacy restrictions, even as political campaigning relies on more and more of our sensitive data. In fact, the federal government just tabled a bill updating our privacy laws earlier this week, yet failed once again to apply these rules to political parties.

Join us in calling on the government to apply effective privacy rules to federal political parties by signing this parliamentary petition:
https://t.co/H8ysdeUvC7

Read the letter:
https://t.co/xFB0OuU19O

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

“The new commission is still on the drawing board, but it is being overloaded with so many responsibilities that you have to wonder whether it will be crushed under its own weight before it can be stood up.”
https://t.co/3Smzy5MnGI

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Excellent masthead editorial on the flawed Online Streaming Act:
“the government would take money from web giants and give the money to struggling creators of Canadian stories and music. Unfortunately, like the tale of Robin Hood, it was mostly fictional.”
https://t.co/PV6EATayMd

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

With Minister @gary_srp invoking "you're with us or with the criminals" language as the government seeks to shut down debate on Bill C-22, he would do well to remember how Liberal MPs reacted to that approach years ago on a different lawful access bill.
https://t.co/ZkewWmk38M

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

In 2012, Liberals condemned Vic Toews for telling lawful access critics they could “stand with us or with the child pornographers." Now @gary_srp, shutting down Bill C-22 debate, tells critics to "choose" between police and victims. Same shameful playbook.
https://t.co/zkuI9i0b37

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

In 2012, Liberals condemned Vic Toews for telling lawful access critics they could “stand with us or with the child pornographers." Now @gary_srp, shutting down Bill C-22 debate, tells critics to "choose" between police and victims. Same shameful playbook.
https://t.co/zkuI9i0b37

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

That expert would be me. To see a Liberal cabinet minister adopt the Vic Toews’ “you’re with us or with the criminals” style language on lawful access should be the signal that the government has lost its way on Bill C-22.

[Globalnews.ca @globalnews]

A privacy expert told Global News the Liberals' push to fast-track the bill and limit debate was "staggering" and "astonishing."

https://t.co/O8oGqqfWJO

[David T.S. Fraser @privacylawyer]

Professor Geist is being polite. I'm watching the SECU hearings in real time and the Bill C-22 is exactly the same deeply problematic Bill that was tabled by the Minister. Not one word has changed. The spokesperson is full of shit.

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

In the last 24 hours, government has announced plans to eviscerate the Privacy Commissioner’s office, cut off debate on a lawful access bill that includes metadata retention, and reversed age verification privacy safeguards 5 days after introducing them.
https://t.co/1OjFH1yab2

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Privacy involves more than just AI and social media. How banks, retailers, airlines, etc. deal with our information matters too. To conceive of it as just an adjunct of the AI and digital file, explains a lot about how this government doesn’t get privacy.
https://t.co/HnHyTs0btx

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Gaslighting in the extreme: the government is literally cutting off debate on amendments to actually change in the bill, yet “a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, said the bill has undergone changes to address concerns.”
https://t.co/aPFJZE4njv

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

The Privacy Commissioner is a professional who would never publicly say otherwise on the day a bill is introduced, but the government’s plan to eviscerate his Office and remove responsibility for private sector privacy regulation is hardly to be welcomed.
https://t.co/L2Bq0kdmLB

[Evan Solomon @EvanLSolomon]

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner welcomed key parts of Bill C-36, including stronger protections for children, privacy impact assessments and stronger enforcement powers:

“I am pleased to see many of my recommendations reflected in the new Bill. In particular, I welcome proposals to recognize privacy as a fundamental right, an explicit recognition of the best interests of children, requirements to conduct privacy impact assessments, and stronger enforcement powers.

Protecting privacy is one of the paramount challenges of our time, and modernizing Canada’s privacy laws is essential to protect Canadians and meet the challenges of today’s data-driven world.”

Bill-C36 “represents a pivotal step for privacy in Canada.”

- Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne

[Josh Tabish @jdtabish]

Great breakdown of the government’s plan to ram through Bill C-22 from @mgeist https://t.co/SDlKadd1j3

[Mark Goldberg @Mark_Goldberg]

Bill C-22 is 72 pages long: https://t.co/rFDeAAuv8Q

It raises serious privacy and civil rights issues.

No worry: the government is going to give #SECU Committee 30 minutes to review it, and then each party gets 20 minutes to raise concerns in @OurCommons.

What could go wrong?

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Here’s the basic question for the government: how does eliminating the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s role in regulating private-sector privacy and replacing it with a super-regulator with less independence and less expertise improve Canadians’ privacy?
https://t.co/1OjFH1yab2

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Privacy involves more than just AI and social media. How banks, retailers, airlines, etc. deal with our information matters too. To conceive of it as just an adjunct of the AI and digital file, explains a lot about how this government doesn’t get privacy.
https://t.co/HnHyTs0btx

[Lucy Hargreaves @lucyhargreaves4]

https://t.co/cWe6g3JTJR

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

It is dizzying to see @EvanLSolomon and Liberal MPs tweet about the importance of privacy even as they prepare to vote to shut down lawful access hearings and stop debating (or making public) amendments to safeguard privacy.
https://t.co/UWaAE0D6Ik

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

🚨The government is moving to shut down lawful access hearings and consideration of amendments on mandatory metadata retention, security backdoors, and weakened encryption today. All amendments to Bill C-22 would be kept secret and voted on without debate.
https://t.co/sxgD7dsZ3r

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

The government recognized the risks of age verification with its social media ban in Bill C-34 by mandating that the Commission consult with the Privacy Commissioner when setting the standards. Five days later, it repealed the safeguard in Bill C-36.
https://t.co/6dYV60v7Xf

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

My first post on Bill C-36 and the seismic shift in Canadian privacy. The bill marks the end of the Privacy Commissioner's role in private-sector privacy law and the arrival of a super-regulator with astonishing powers to regulate online speech and privacy
https://t.co/HnHyTs0btx

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Yesterday, the government introduced privacy reforms that shuts down the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s role in private sector privacy regulation. Today, it is shutting down hearings into one of the biggest privacy threats in years.
https://t.co/sxgD7dsZ3r

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Government’s vision of social media, AI and privacy regulation: Super-regulator that strips power from Privacy Commish and leaves 5 people to set the rules, enforce, investigate, litigate, and advocate with their own rules of evidence and less independence
https://t.co/6dYV60v7Xf

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

My first post on Bill C-36 and the seismic shift in Canadian privacy. The bill marks the end of the Privacy Commissioner's role in private-sector privacy law and the arrival of a super-regulator with astonishing powers to regulate online speech and privacy
https://t.co/HnHyTs0btx

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Public Safety Minister @gary_srp committed to amendments to Bill C-22 in light of concerns about security risks, encryption and metadata retention. Instead, the government is shutting down the hearing with no further debate on changes to lawful access.
https://t.co/sxgD7dsZ3r