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On 23 June 2026, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness hosted a webinar ‘Backdoors and Blowback: What Bill C-22 Means for Canadians‘.
Lawful access reform is being presented as a modest update to police powers for the digital age. Bill C-22 is more than that. Accessing data a company already holds is one thing; requiring companies to redesign their systems so private messages can be unlocked on demand is another. That requirement risks creating unintended security consequences.
Serious bad actors can move to foreign or self-built tools that sit outside Canadian law. The security burden falls instead on families, businesses, and professionals using mainstream services that would now be required to build in access points. Canada’s own Centre for Cyber Security has long urged Canadians to protect themselves with stronger encryption. Bill C-22 moves in the opposite direction.
The virtual panel examined what Bill C-22 would actually do, why building in backdoors tends to introduce new security risks rather than contain them, and what a more targeted approach could look like.
SPEAKERS
Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia – Executive Vice President, Public Policy, TECHNATION
Natalie Campbell – Senior Director, North American Government and Regulatory Affairs, Internet Society
Michel Liboiron – Head of Public Policy and Government Relations, Shopify
HOST / MODERATOR
Lawrence Zhang – Head of Policy, Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness, ITIF
#Encryption #Cybersecurity #LawfulAccess #BillC22