National Security: Removing Barriers To Intra-Governmental Sharing Of Information

The House of Commons in Canada is back in session. The federal Conservative Government wasted no time in introducing sweeping anti-terrorism bill ( Bill C-51, the Anti-terrorism Act, 2015). I canvassed the legislative and political background to this anticipated legislation in a recent post for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (requires membership to access).

Much of the media attention on Bill C-51 has rightly focused on the creation of a new criminal offence of knowingly advocating or promoting the commission of terrorism offences and the new judicial power to remove terrorist propaganda from websites using Canadian Internet service providers. These have significant implications for freedom of expression. However, our multi-part review of the privacy implications of Bill C-51 begins with the new Security of Canada Information Sharing Act.