A coalition of Canadian and European technology companies has sent an open letter to federal ministers renewing calls for further amendments to Bill C-22, the government’s proposed “lawful access” legislation, warning it could damage trust in Canada’s tech sector and undermine its ability to compete globally.
The letter, sent Thursday to the ministers of industry and public safety, was signed by a group of firms including Toronto-based Tailscale, Toronto-based Windscribe, logistics company Gobolt, Coinbase’s Canadian subsidiary, and Fredericton-based Beauceron Security. The signatories argued that the bill, as currently written, would erode trust in Canada’s technology industry and weaken its competitive standing.
What the Bill Would Change
Bill C-22 would grant law enforcement agencies and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service expanded powers to access Canadians’ digital information from service providers as part of investigations. The legislation would apply to digital service providers with subscribers in Canada regardless of where those companies are headquartered.
Since its introduction, the bill has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups, which say it hands police unprecedented surveillance capabilities, as well as from domestic and foreign tech companies that argue compliance would force them to compromise user trust. Windscribe and secure messaging platform Signal have both said they would consider withdrawing operations from Canada if required to comply with the bill in its current form. Tailscale has said it would need to restructure its corporate operations to separate its international business from Canada if the legislation moves forward unchanged.
Executives Voice Concerns
In a statement accompanying the letter, Tailscale CEO and co-founder Avery Pennarun said Canada should be able to support legitimate investigations without making secure systems more vulnerable to attack or putting Canadian companies at a competitive disadvantage as other countries pursue trusted, sovereign infrastructure.
Windscribe CEO Yegor Sak, who has previously spoken out against the legislation, said the bill would make Canada an untenable place for both foreign and domestic tech companies to operate.
The federal government has already made some revisions to the bill, including cutting the required retention period for users’ metadata from one year to six months. Despite that change, the companies behind this week’s letter say their core concerns remain unresolved.
Where the Bill Stands
Bill C-22 is further along in the legislative process than Canada’s separate privacy reform bill, C-36, which is intended to update federal privacy law and expand Canadians’ control over their personal data but has only completed its first reading. C-22, by contrast, is now under review in the Senate, putting it closer to becoming law even as industry pushback continues.
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