Episode 263: The Lawful Access Act Roundtable With David Fraser and Robert Diab

About this episode

The episode discusses the Lawful Access Act and its implications for privacy and surveillance in Canada.

Lawful access is back. The decades-long battle has entered a new phase with the introduction of Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act. This bill follows last spring’s attempt to bury lawful access provisions in Bill C-2, a border measures bill. The latest bill covers the two main aspects of lawful access: law enforcement access to personal information held by communication service providers such as ISPs and wireless providers, and the development of surveillance and monitoring capabilities within Canadian networks. To discuss the latest iteration of lawful access, I’m joined on the Law Bytes podcast by David Fraser and Robert Diab for a roundtable discussion of the key elements of the proposed legislation. David is one of Canada’s leading privacy lawyers and a partner with McInness Cooper in Halifax, and Robert is a law professor at Thompson Rivers University in BC and the co-author of a book on search and seizure law.

People in this episode

Host: Michael Geist

Guests: David Fraser, Robert Diab

Topics covered

• lawful access
• privacy law
• surveillance
• Canadian legislation
• communication service providers

Keywords

• lawful access
• Bill C-22
• privacy
• surveillance
• communication service providers
• David Fraser
• Robert Diab

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: McInnes Cooper, Thompson Rivers University

Books & works: Bill C-22, Bill C-2

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• Episode 270: Roundtable on the Bill C-22 Risks for Canadian Tech Companies Featuring VPN Services Tailscale and Windscribe · June 1, 2026 · 29 min
• Episode 269: Inside the Bill C-22 Committee Hearing for the Case Against Government’s Lawful Access Plans · May 25, 2026 · 34 min
• Episode 268: Sara Grimes on the Moral Panic Behind Banning Kids from Social Media and AI Chatbots · May 11, 2026 · 48 min
• Episode 267: Peter Nowak on Rogers, the Shaw Merger Aftermath, and the Limits of Canadian Telecom Policy · May 4, 2026 · 36 min
• Episode 266: Justin Safayeni on the Ontario Government's Overnight Evisceration of Access to Information · April 27, 2026 · 43 min