BY Lisa Goldman | Monday, July 23 2012

In February of this year, Canada's ruling Conservative party introduced Bill C-30, legislation that would give police the right to demand subscriber data from ISPs without having to obtain a warrant.

The Toronto Star's Michael Geist explains Bill C-30 in detail:

Bill C-30 requires Internet providers to acquire the ability to engage in multiple simultaneous interceptions and gives law enforcement the power to audit their surveillance capabilities. Should it take effect, the bill would create a new regulatory environment for Internet providers, requiring them to submit a report within months of the law taking effect describing their equipment and surveillance infrastructure. Moreover, they would actively work with law enforcement to test their facilities for interception purposes and even provide the name of employees involved in interceptions to allow for possible RCMP background checks. In addition to the surveillance requirements, the bill would also give the government the power to install its own equipment directly onto private Internet provider networks. Section 14(4) provides: The Minister may provide the telecommunications service provider with any equipment or other thing that the Minister considers the service provider needs to comply with an order made under this section.

Under the bill's provisions, ISPs would be forbidden from notifying their customers that they had handed over their data to the government.

The bill was met with substantial opposition amongst privacy experts and academics across Canada. Grassroots opposition was led by OpenMedia.ca, which spearheaded an online petition and listed all the Members of Parliament who were "pro-privacy" - i.e, who opposed the bill. It turned out that two-thirds of federal MPs opposed the bill.

Calgary TV news broadcast this report on Bill C-30:

The bill languished for a few months, but now its many opponents fear it is about to be revived. Richard Fadden, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) wrote a letter to the Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, in which the spy chief termed the bill"vital" to Canadian security. Toews is a proponent of the bill. Like his Russian counterpart, the minister claimed that the purpose of the legislation was to monitor child pornography online.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is monitoring Bill C-30 closely and has published some informative updates. The latest one is here.