Alarms were raised after observers noted that the proposed Bill C-8 would amend the Telecommunications Act to let the Industry Minister order telecom providers to prohibit or suspend service to any specified person and to impose a nondisclosure requirement on that order.
Under section 15, if the minister has “reasonable grounds” to believe action is necessary “to secure the Canadian telecommunications system against any threat, including that of interference, manipulation, disruption or degradation,” the minister may issue an order after consulting the Minister of Public Safety and others the minister considers appropriate.
This also authorizes an order to “prohibit a telecommunications service provider from providing any service to any specified person, including a telecommunications service provider.”
Further, the section also authorizes directing a provider “to suspend providing for a specified period any service to any specified person, including a telecommunications service provider.”
The bill’s scope and substance clause requires provisions of any order to be “reasonable in relation to the gravity of the threat,” while the succeeding section allows the order to “include a provision prohibiting the disclosure of its existence, or some or all of its contents, by any person.”
In addition to shutoff powers, the highlighted section empowers the minister to require “any person” to provide any information the minister believes on reasonable grounds is relevant to making, amending, or revoking an order under the previous sections above, or to verifying compliance or preventing non-compliance with such an order or regulation.
The bill text further notes the Statutory Instruments Act does not apply to an order made under said Bill C-8 sections, and it permits incorporation by reference of documents into such orders. A separate clause states “no compensation” is payable by the Crown for financial losses resulting from the making of an order.
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