Government Calls Bill C-22 Critics “Paranoid” Following Passage

The Canadian governments streak of not listening to others continues with Bill C-22 passing the House of Commons.

Critics of the Online Streaming Act were accused of being part of a “Big Tech” conspiracy to get platforms out of “paying their fair share”. Critics of the Online News Act were ignored altogether. Both wound up being right about pretty much everything as the problems of both keep piling up.

That trend of the government not listening to others is continuing with Bill C-22. Last month, the government said that they were open to amendments while still insisting that the warrantless wiretapping legislation will pass anyway. As we would later find out, those comments was little more than gaslighting as the government would later shut down debate to ram this bill through.

Indeed, as readers have been pointing out to me (thanks for that), the legislation has now passed the House of Commons and is making its way to the senate. So, just for context, the legislation was at first reading on March 12th, 2026. It passed third reading on June 18th, 2026. That is less than 4 months to sail through the House of Commons. If this was a universally supported bill or a must-pass bill, this wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. The problem is that this is a hugely controversial bill for all the right reasons, yet it is being forced through the process.

Other bills do not go through the legislative process this quickly. For instance, Bill C-10 was tabled in September of 2025. It still hasn’t made it out of the House of Commons. Another example is Bill C-21 which was tabled in February. It is only on the second reading at the House of Commons. Bill C-20 was tabled in February of 2026 and it made it to the Senate in June. So, I think it’s safe to say that Bill C-22 is on an accelerated timeline despite the heavy controversy.

While the House has risen for the Summer, the flurry of activity has been quite difficult to keep up with. We are just now getting to this bit of news after all. As Bill C-22 was passed in the House of Commons, the Canadian government seems to be up to their old tricks and attacking anyone who is critical of their lawful access bill. From Global News:

Liberals are dismissing the privacy concerns surrounding the government’s lawful access bill as “tinfoil hat” and “paranoid” conspiracy theories, even after amending the controversial legislation to address some of those issues.

The House of Commons passed Bill C-22 on Thursday before breaking for the summer, a day after approving a motion to fast-track the bill and end debate at the public safety committee, which was then forced to approve it just before midnight without debating dozens of outstanding amendments.

The amended bill will now head to the Senate.

At a press conference outside the House of Commons on Thursday, Government House leader Steven MacKinnon accused Conservatives of “obstruction” during the committee’s debate while defending the decision to fast-track the bill.

“It used to be that Conservatives were the law and order party,” he told reporters. “This is a very real set of reforms in terms of criminal justice. What it has met from the Conservatives is this wall of conspiracy theory, frankly paranoia, that I know many other Conservatives bristle at.

“I hope that the conspiracies and the tinfoil hats are something that will fade away over time, but we can now safely say that it is the Liberal Party that’s the party that’s most clearly for law and order in the country.”

The legislation would require the retention of data for a year. That is not a conspiracy theory, that is a fact. The legislation is a threat to encryption. That is not a conspiracy theory, that is a fact. The legislation would subject all Canadians to warrantless surveillance regardless of suspicion. That is not a conspiracy theory, that is a fact. The legislation is a constitutional mess. That is not a conspiracy theory, that is a fact. So, when the MacKinnon makes these asinine comments, what he really is doing is dismissing fact as conspiracy theory.

This tracks with the timeline of other digital messes. Criticism is dismissed as inaccuracies and legislation gets passed with all the problems that are in tow. Then, when things start hitting the fan, the government quickly goes into hiding. That’s exactly what happened previously – especially with the Online News Act. Criticism that it would be subject to trade dispute, that Meta would pull news links off of their platforms, and that it would make the media industry worse off were dismissed as silly comments by critics that would never actually happen. Well, Meta dropped news links as they said they would and the whole sector has been far worse off ever since – depending entirely on taxpayer funded bailouts following plummeting web traffic. The strategy for the government ever since then is to basically go into hiding and pretend that none of this is really happening.

This is the direction we appear to be heading with Bill C-22. It’s unfortunate for a whole bunch of reasons. First, it shows that the Liberal party has learned nothing from past tech boondoggles. Second, it means more basic civil rights are going to be on the chopping block sooner rather than later. Third, when the inevitable litigation gets underway, there’s going to be even more taxpayer money getting flushed away in legal costs fighting entirely avoidable lawsuits. Fourth, this is going to open the door for plenty of companies to pull their services out of Canada altogether which is going to harm Canadians in multiple ways (financial being just one of them). It’s frustrating and disappointing to see this, but at least things are on pause for the Summer break. So, there is going to be a temporary reprieve in all of this.

Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Bluesky and Facebook.