Canadian e-petition urges Parliament to withdraw lawful access bill C-22

A Canadian e-petition asking the House of Commons to withdraw Bill C-22, the government's lawful access legislation, has gathered 20,880 validated signatures, according to the tally on the parliamentary petitions site. Petition e-7416 was initiated by Ben Egan from Calgary, Alberta, and is sponsored by Jenny Kwan, the NDP member for Vancouver East.

What the petition asks for

The petition calls on the House of Commons to do three things: withdraw Bill C-22, An Act respecting lawful access, or vote against it at all stages; remove all suspicionless bulk metadata retention requirements from any future lawful access legislation; and explicitly prohibit any future legislation from requiring the weakening or breaking of encryption.

The objections in the petitioners' words

In its preamble, the petition says Bill C-22 would authorise regulations requiring designated “core providers” to collect and retain metadata on all Canadians for up to a year without any individual being under suspicion or investigation, and would let the Minister of Public Safety impose the same requirements on any electronic service provider by ministerial order. Such metadata, it argues, can reveal patterns of movement, association, medical and political activity.

The text adds that the definition of an electronic service provider is broad enough to cover any online service, including encrypted messaging apps, VPNs, email providers, banking apps and cloud storage. The bill would also let the minister compel providers to implement interception capabilities or technical assistance measures that could weaken encrypted systems — vulnerabilities criminals and hostile foreign actors could exploit, as the 2024 Salt Typhoon attack on US telecoms showed.

The petitioners argue that suspicionless, indiscriminate bulk metadata retention raises serious concerns under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure. They also warn that the government could redefine terms such as “encryption” and “systemic vulnerability” by regulation without returning to Parliament.

Support across the country

The signatures are concentrated in the most populous provinces: Ontario accounts for 7,613, British Columbia 4,453, Quebec 4,221 and Alberta 2,109. The rest come from the smaller provinces and the three territories.

The petition opened for signature on 25 May 2026 and closes on 22 September 2026, and only validated signatures are counted. E-petitions are published by the House of Commons, but none is protected by parliamentary privilege until an MP presents it in the House, and no MP is obliged to do so.