[R-G] New law to give police access to online exchanges

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090212.WIRETAP12//TPStory/Front

POLICING
New law to give police access to online exchanges
Canadians will be under surveillance, critics charge

BILL CURRY

February 12, 2009

OTTAWA -- The Conservative government is preparing sweeping new  
eavesdropping legislation that will force Internet service providers  
to let police tap exchanges on their systems - but will likely  
reignite fear that Big Brother will be monitoring the private  
conversations of Canadians.

The goal of the move, which would require police to obtain court  
approval, is to close what has been described as digital "safe havens"  
for criminals, pedophiles and terrorists because current eavesdropping  
laws were written in a time before text messages, Facebook and voice- 
over-Internet phone lines.

The change is certain to please the RCMP and other police forces, who  
have sought it for some time. But it is expected to face resistance  
from industry players concerned about the cost and civil libertarians  
who warn the powers will effectively place Canadians under constant  
surveillance.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan confirmed the plan yesterday  
during an appearance before a House of Commons committee and offered  
further explanation afterward.

"We have legislation covering wiretap and surveillance that was  
designed for the era of the rotary phone," Mr. Van Loan said.

"If somebody's engaging in illegal activities on the Internet, whether  
it be exploitation of children, distributing illegal child  
pornography, conducting some kind of fraud, simple things like getting  
username and address should be fairly standard, simple practice. We  
need to provide police with tools to be able to get that information  
so that they can carry out these investigations."

Mr. Van Loan said there have been situations where the police want to  
act quickly to stop a crime, but can't because of the current laws.

"In some of these cases, time is of the essence," he said. "If you  
find a situation where a child is being exploited live online at that  
time - and that situation has arisen before - police services have had  
good co-operation with a lot of Internet service providers, but there  
are some that aren't so co-operative."

Although police agencies have been calling for such a law since at  
least the mid-1990s, this would be the first legislative effort in  
this direction by the Conservatives.

The reaction can be predicted, however, because Paul Martin's Liberal  
government faced stiff resistance when his public safety minister,  
Anne McLellan, introduced a "lawful-access" bill in November, 2005,  
shortly before that government was defeated.

The Conservative justice critic at the time, Peter MacKay, who is now  
in the Conservative cabinet, expressed concern with the bill, and  
Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart went further, saying there was  
no justification for such a law.

The concern of critics is that unlike a traditional wiretap that  
cannot commence without judicial approval, lawful-access legislation  
in other countries has forced Internet providers to routinely gather  
and store the electronic traffic of their clients. Those stored data  
can then be obtained by police via search warrant.

"That means we're under surveillance, in some sense, all the time,"  
said Richard Rosenberg, president of the B.C. Freedom of Information  
and Privacy Association. "I think that changes the whole nature of how  
we view innocence in a democratic society."

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said yesterday the lack of such  
legislation is causing problems for police.

"We're speaking generally about the development of technology that is  
difficult or impossible to wiretap," Mr. Elliott said after appearing  
alongside Mr. Van Loan at the House of Commons Public Safety and  
National Security Committee.

"In the old days, for a wiretap it was pretty simple. You sort of  
clicked onto the physical wires. So we have some instances where the  
court authorizes us and other police forces, for example, to intercept  
communications, but we don't have the technical ability to do that. So  
certainly the RCMP is supportive of changes of legislation that would  
allow those kind of intercepts."