Research by the Citizen Lab and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) on Bill C-22 and on its predecessor Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act, which contained the same provisions concerning foreign data sharing, indicates the current legislation might quietly pave the way to giving U.S. law enforcement unprecedented access to personal data stored in Canada, even if held by Canadian companies

One is a potential agreement under the U.S. CLOUD Act, whichwould allow U.S. law enforcement to request personal data directly from Canadian technology companies, bypassing authorization by Canadian courts. This would have detrimental impacts on human rights, in particular, privacy, equality and free expression, while potentially leading to subordination of Canadian constitutional law to the U.S.’s lower legal standards.

At the outset, U.S. government actors face many fewer constraints than their Canadian counterparts on their ability to collect and use personal data in ways that may be illegal, unconstitutional or would violate human-rights laws in Canada.

while any CLOUD Act agreement might restrict the U.S. to targeting only U.S. citizens and residents, Canadian data might still be incidentally collected – for example, a Canadian user’s texts or private messages with someone investigated or charged in the U.S.

Or, if U.S. law enforcement issued to a Canadian service provider a keyword or geofence “reverse warrant” — where the request is for a list of all individuals who searched certain terms or all individuals who were at a specific location at a given time — it could also capture large swaths of personal data that is Canadian, even if the targeted person is not.

Second, invasive surveillance practices normalized in the U.S., such as a higher likelihood of being forced to turn over one’s social media history, can impact those trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border.

If there is already little to stop U.S. law enforcement from seizing people in Canada or demanding private details about those living in Canada with no substantial ties to the U.S., we should at least not encourage or sanction this level of encroachment within our own laws as well.