The federal government will not proceed with plans for Bill C-30.
Known as the ‘Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act’ it was introduced by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews in February 2012.
Almost immediately, the Bill’s provisions came under fire, and the government spoke of revising or revamping its regulations.
But at a news conference on Monday, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Bill C-30 is dead, and its provisions discarded.
“We will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts we will have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain the measures in C-30 — including the warrantless mandatory disclosure of basic subscriber information, or the requirement for telecommunications service providers to build intercept capabilities within their systems,” Nicholson said.
Toews had come under harsh criticism for the Bill, and for comments he made in the House of Commons at the time, when he told a Parliamentary questioner that “[h]e can either stand with us or stand with the child pornographers.”
Several organized protests and online petitions decried the Bill, its contents and what was seen as a far too widely-cast net. National and provincial privacy authorities, as well as citizen’s action groups, said the Bill as written was invasive, excessive and costly.
For example, Section 17 of the bill would have forced Internet Service Providers to maintain potentially costly systems that would allow police to intercept and track online communications, and to turn over customer information without a warrant.
Online action group OpenMedia.ca coordinated a protest against the Bill, called the Stop Online Spying petition, which it said garnered the support of nearly 150,000 Canadians who opposed Bill C-30.