A new Senate bill marketed as a way to protect children from pornography is actually a “Trojan horse” for sweeping internet surveillance, according to tech policy expert and University of Ottawa Law Professor, Michael Geist.
The bill, known as Bill S-209, cleared a key Senate committee review this week with almost no changes. Despite years of warnings about privacy and equity risks, the committee mostly sat in silence, ignoring concerns that the law would extend far beyond adult websites to cover social media, search engines, and AI services.
Geist warns that Bill S-209 represents “online harms at its worst” and has described the legislative push as a “moral panic disguised as being ‘for the kids’.” He argues that if the legislation were truly about pornography, it would be drafted specifically for those sites.
Instead, it creates a massive regulatory framework that grants the government “unprecedented power to condition access to lawful websites in Canada.”
The framework could force Canadians to show government-issued ID just to use everyday sites like X, Reddit, or ChatGPT. Geist says the bill’s language “confirms that it grants government unprecedented power” to mandate age verification, with websites that fail to comply facing “potential court-ordered website blocking.” He also warns the system would require Canadians to send sensitive identification documents to third-party providers outside Canada, where domestic privacy laws have limited reach. Because AI-based age estimation is not fully reliable, companies would likely default to collecting government ID to ensure compliance.
Geist also flags major equity risks with so-called “age estimation” technology, noting that it “doesn’t work for this case” and often leads to further personal information disclosures when errors occur.
Senator Paula Simons was the lone voice raising concerns during the review, noting that regulating general social media is a massive leap from protecting children from adult content. The bill is expected to face a full Senate vote later this month. Here’s a clip of Simons bringing some common sense to the review, noting its scope is far too wide:
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Carney continues on his path to create Tory Lite out of the Liberal Party.
He continues to talk about making Canada self-sufficient and different from the US, while placating the worst elements of Trump’ism there and in this country.
Time for Canadians to take responsibility for their own actions, without offering their personal information for free to Five Eyes. Or those who profess to talk for religious moral beliefs – that in itself an oxymoron.
Many of Canada’s most significant expansions of the security state happened under Liberal governments (including the response to the FLQ crisis and various post-9/11 measures).