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Apple and Google pushed the Canadian parliament on Tuesday to add strict judicial oversight to a pending online safety bill to protect user privacy from potential secret government orders.
Testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, representatives from both tech giants demanded explicit legal amendments to Bill C-22 to ensure that law enforcement cannot secretly force companies to break software encryption or build backdoors into their devices.
The corporate pushback targets the ruling Liberal Party’s proposed legislation, which mirrors sweeping enforcement measures already enacted in Britain and Australia.
Canadian authorities argue the law will help investigators detect security threats earlier and act faster against crime.
However, Apple, Google, and Meta Platforms counter that the current framework allows the state to issue covert surveillance mandates without public disclosure, severely undermining digital trust.
During the hearing, Google’s Canadian director for government affairs, Jeanette Patell, warned that secret orders clash with democratic norms and destroy transparency.
The stakes remain high for Canadian consumers; when a Conservative lawmaker asked Apple’s senior privacy director, Erik Neuenschwander, if the company would completely exit Canada over forced encryption backdoors, he declined to speculate but reiterated their intense focus on securing positive changes to the bill.
