Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree has rejected a call to shorten the time electronic service providers would be required to keep digital metadata under a bill intended to help police and spies. The proposed legislation would allow for regulations requiring service providers to retain metadata — digital traces of a communication, but not the email […]

The federal government will amend its controversial lawful access bill to address concerns about encryption and metadata, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Wednesday. “The encryption issue is one we will clarify because this bill was never meant to breach encryption,” Anandasangaree said. He said the government’s understanding of the language in the bill on systemic vulnerabilities […]

The Quebec government has proposed new legislation to permit disclosures of personal information to individuals who believe their intimate partner or ex-partner may pose a risk to their safety or that of their child. “I want to make sure the same services will be provided across the whole province,” said the bill’s author, vice-premier Ian […]

Ontario’s new and more restrictive freedom-of-information laws have quashed another request, this time for documents that may have given a glimpse into potential hospital cuts. More than 70 per cent of Ontario hospitals are forecasting deficits, and Health Minister Sylvia Jones has told them to come up with three-year plans to balance their budgets. Any […]

Just one day after Premier Doug Ford’s government passed extensive changes to Ontario’s Freedom of Information (FOI) law, Hastings–Lennox and Addington Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Ric Bresee defended the overhaul as a matter of “clarity,” not reduced access — even as critics warn the changes could significantly limit what the public is allowed to […]

The Liberal government proposes making it easier for federal agencies to share and reuse the personal data of Canadians through a major overhaul of the Privacy Act. The act governs how federal agencies collect, use and disclose personal information, and gives people the right to see and correct data about them the government holds. The […]

What do conservation authorities, a downtown Toronto parking lot and freedom-of-information requests have in common? On the face of it, nothing — but provincial legislative changes are coming to all three, and they are jammed into an omnibus budget bill tabled Thursday by Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy. The province’s plan for doling out taxpayer […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Friday that Congress should “preempt state AI laws” that it views as too burdensome, laying out a broad framework for how it wants Congress to address concerns about artificial intelligence without curbing growth or innovation in the sector. The legislative blueprint outlines a half-dozen guiding principles for lawmakers, […]

At the beginning of next year, voters will no longer be able to see if groups of people who work for the same company are contributing to a politician’s campaign. West Virginia lawmakers passed legislation this year redacting employer information from registered political donations more than $250. Previously, if a dozen employees of “Rick’s Pork” […]

The federal government has tabled legislation in the House of Commons it says would help law enforcement and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service investigate threats. Here’s what the new bill proposes: Confirmation of service demand: The bill would require internet and phone companies to tell authorities whether they provide a service to a particular person […]

As other countries move toward banning social media use for some teens, the Liberal government has confirmed it’s working on new legislation to address online harms.  So could Canada follow Australia and implement a social media ban? Here’s what we know:  What are the rules in place now for kids under 13?  Canada has no […]

Advocates of more federal transparency are concerned a federal review of the Access to Information regime will not fix long-standing problems, and that it could even make things worse. The Treasury Board Secretariat announced the government review, which takes place every five years, in a news release last June. For a $5 fee, people can […]