OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Conservative MPs have blasted the Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney for planning to ram through a “dystopian” Liberal internet censorship bill, which would demand that people’s data be kept for potential police review.
On Monday, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon put forward a motion that will, in effect, put an end to all debate on Bill C-22 or “An Act respecting lawful access.”
Conservative MP Andrew Lawton warned in an X post that what the Liberals are doing means that they are going to “force Bill C-22 through committee and the House of Commons in just days.”
“This is an insane abuse of parliament to ram through a bill fraught with privacy, security, and civil liberties concerns,” he wrote.
Lawton said that the Liberal motion “curtails committee scrutiny, limits MPs’ ability to debate and amend the bill, and rushes Bill C-22 through Parliament on the government’s timetable rather than allowing full parliamentary review.”
The Liberals’ motion means that all third-reading debate on Bill C-22 is limited to only one MP from each party.
The majority Liberal government is pulling out the “guillotine” for one of its most contentious pieces of legislation, moving to give MPs until Friday to pass its controversial bill facilitating police and intelligence agencies’ ability to intercept and collect personal information.
The Liberals plan to pass the motion as early as Thursday, meaning that they could ram through Bill C-22 on Friday, which is the last day the House sits before the summer break.
Such government motions are known as a “guillotine” motion, as they force all debate into a condensed time frame.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Bill C-22 was recently introduced by Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Gary Anandasangaree. It gives bold new powers to police, as it permits them and government officials to open and examine Canadians’ personal mail and would also have banned cash donations over $10,000.
The bill mandates that telecom and internet companies ensure that their systems include surveillance and monitoring capabilities, which could be shared with police and intelligence agencies.
Recently, tech giants Google and Apple warned that Bill C-22 would lead to a “surveillance infrastructure” in Canada.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) has issued many warnings about Bill C-22. It said that the bill, as written, clearly “violates” the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Bill C-22 has caught the attention of some U.S. politicians. Recently, the chairmen of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees, Republicans Jim Jordan and Brian Mast, sent a letter to Anandasangaree warning about the bill.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, after pressure from the world’s largest tech giants, such as Meta and Google, as well as VPN providers, the Liberal government now says that it will amend C-22.
Recently, a petition with over 42,000 Canadians’ signatures demanding a stop to Bill C-22 was delivered to federal authorities.
Apple and Meta and top VPN providers have also warned that Bill C-22 could affect cybersecurity in North America.