Toronto-Based VPN Provider Plans to Quit Canada Over Lawful-Access Bill - The Citizen Lab

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is urging the Prime Minister to split in two his government’s lawful-access bill, warning that the current version of the legislation would put Canadian businesses at a competitive disadvantage with the U. S. and EU – and could even drive them to leave the country. In a letter to Mark Carney this week, the chamber warns that the bill risks undermining growth and economic progress. Considering the U. S. trade war with Canada, the letter says, “the timing couldn’t be worse.”The lawful-access bill, known as Bill C-22, would require telecoms, internet companies and other electronic service providers to make changes to their systems to give surveillance and monitoring capabilities to police services and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. CSIS and law enforcement have long argued that Canada is lagging behind its Five Eyes intelligence partners – the U. S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand – in not having such a lawful-access regime to aid investigations.

EP Plenary session - September 2026 - Formal sitting with Mark CARNEY, Canadian Prime Minister © European Union, European Parliament , via Wikimedia Commons Given concerns about what the U. S. envisioned for “digital trade alignment,” consider the possibility that the package required Canada to keep its cloud market open to U. S. companies, gave them equivalent access to government procurement, and restricted the implementation of a “Buy Canadian” approach to sovereign cloud. The U. S. would also set the standard for Canadian privacy law, Canadian law enforcement and security agencies would not wield powers over cloud providers that conflict with U. S. rules on government access to data, and the U. S. could suspend or revoke the deal if it concluded that Canada no longer met its standards. In return, the deal would allow Canadian companies to compete for sensitive U. S. government cloud contracts on the condition that the data centres, the data and the staff were U. S. based, staff were U. S. citizens, and the Canadian government was restricted from accessing the data in the U. S.

The first frost doesn’t mean you can stop checking for ticks. In Nova Scotia, adult blacklegged ticks, the kind that can carry Lyme disease, are most active in the spring and fall, and the province says they stay active until temperatures are consistently below 4°C. That keeps leaf raking, trail walks and dog walks squarely in tick season this month. Ticks don’t need summer heat, either. The Public Health Agency of Canada says they can be active whenever the temperature is consistently above freezing and the ground isn’t covered by snow, and at any time of year when conditions are right.