Access Now, alongside several European civil society organisations, is urging Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, European Union commissioners, and members of the European Parliament to push for changes to Canada’s
Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act
.
The
highly criticised
Bill C-22,
threatens end-to-end encryption
, carries sweeping surveillance capabilities and blanket data retention mandates, and is not just a domestic privacy and data issue in Canada. Bill C-22 puts the privacy and data of millions of people in Europe, and elsewhere, at risk as it also applies to certain service providers and people outside of Canada. It allows Canadian authorities to compelEuropean-based companies to comply with demands relating to security and data of their customers based in Europe without oversight or transparency.
The European Commission cannot speak about Europe’s tech sovereignty and at the same moment, ignore Canada’s overreaching Bill C-22 threatening the privacy and security of people and businesses in Europe. The Commission must urgently initiate an honest dialogue with Canada and voice the serious concerns that academics and civil society on both sides of the Atlantic have raised regarding the bill.
Marcel Kolaja, Policy and Advocacy Director — Europe at Access Now
Bill-C22 could become law as early as October, 2026, therefore, the European Union must act now.
Canada’s Bill C-22 could undermine years of work in the EU, and around the world, to protect privacy and end-to-end encryption. The bill threatens to normalise excessive surveillance powers as routine obligations for service providers, and convert devices that work for people into devices that work against them. Steps must be taken to prevent it from becoming law.
Namrata Maheshwari, Global Encryption Policy Lead and Asia Pacific Policy Manager at Access Now.
The open letter calls on the European Union to:
Call for the removal of Bill C-2
… [more]
