Signal told a parliamentary committee studying Bill C-22 on Tuesday that it will pull out of Canada before it ever builds surveillance into its app, and the testimony came amid growing chaos over how the government is handling the bill.
Udbhav Tiwari, VP of Strategy and Global Affairs at Signal, laid out clearly what will happen at the non-profit when it comes to Bill C-22. “Signal will not build infrastructure into our service, and we will also not build surveillance into our service. If we are ever forced to choose between betraying the people who rely on us and leaving a market, we will leave.”
The backdrop to the testimony was almost as striking as the testimony itself. Legal experts and MPs are raising alarms that the government is rushing the bill through committee without even completing basic procedural steps. Conservative MP Frank Caputo revealed that at least 70 amendments have been proposed, and that briefs submitted to committee members two weeks ago still haven’t been translated, despite amendment deadlines already passing.
Caputo didn’t hold back on X: “UNACCEPTABLE. We are studying Bill C-22 – a very contentious bill in Parliament. During Committee study now, we learned that briefs submitted to members TWO WEEKS ago have not yet been translated. Problem: amendments to the bill were due YESTERDAY. How can we do our jobs?”
Law professor Michael Geist echoed that frustration, posting that “briefs aren’t translated, amendments aren’t translated, but government still wants to rush ahead anyways.”
During the testimony, the committee chair cut Tiwari off with about ten seconds left, telling him MPs would likely give him time to continue. Conservative MP Caputo immediately stepped up: “You can use my time to finish up your opening statement, sir. Go ahead.”
Tiwari, who worked at Mozilla prior on global product policy, used that time to lay out three conditions he called non-negotiable for any amendments to Part Two of the bill: prior judicial authorization before any order to alter a security system, independent technical scrutiny of feasibility and security, and a hard prohibition on degrading encryption or forcing metadata collection.
On the substance, Tiwari warned the committee that Bill C-22 could force Signal to do things like “silently create hidden accounts and slip them into private group conversations” and “manufacture a participant the other members cannot see.” On forced metadata retention, he pushed back on the idea that metadata is harmless: “Metadata is the 2 a.m. phone call, the clinic you contacted, the lawyer you retained, the organizer you met and the journalist you trusted.”
He also pointed to Australia’s experience with similar legislation in 2018, which required over 150 amendments before passing and was still found incompatible with privacy and free expression rights by Australia’s own Parliamentary Human Rights Committee.
When Caputo asked whether any amendment could satisfy Signal’s concerns about Part Two, Tiwari was direct: “Part Two, the way that it is currently drafted, is incompatible with the fundamental human right to privacy. It is why our primary recommendation is that it be scrapped entirely.”
The Liberal government wants to push Bill C-22 through by June 19, ahead of Parliament taking its break for the summer.
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