Making Surveillance Policy Change in Canada: Slow Burns and Sudden Actions

Evan Light, a communication researcher at York University, describes a multi-year project to map state surveillance capabilities in Canada and the laws that govern them. Inspired by the EFF's Atlas of Surveillance, the team files access-to-information requests for federal procurement records. Federal requests proved cheap and fast compared with provincial and municipal ones, and many came back with few redactions. The talk also touches on exemptions in the radio communications act that let the RCMP operate outside interference rules during major events.

The central case study concerns mobile forensic devices sold by vendors such as Cellebrite, Magnet Forensics and Grayshift. Contract records showed more than a dozen federal agencies buying these tools, and in many cases the government had skipped the privacy impact assessments its own directives required. A journalist at Radio-Canada reported the findings, and a parliamentary committee quickly held hearings. Agency witnesses described their use, consent and warrant practices, and the committee heard that few agencies had meaningful transparency or reporting mechanisms.

In the closing section, Light outlines recommendations: give federal privacy regulators stronger enforcement powers and a role in procurement, retroactively inventory invasive tools, close the disclosure gap for product demos, and speed up information requests. He ends with practical advice for activists and researchers, including working with journalists and unions, and treating legislators as people who need expert evidence to govern well.