Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law. He writes on digital policy and hosts the Law Bytes podcast.
DI has documented statements by Michael Geist on Canada, Cybersecurity, and Law Enforcement, among other topics. Read the quotations, original sources and related cases below.
Role at the time: University of Ottawa law professor
Condemned
Statement summary
Geist argues that the Senate is being asked to approve a framework whose operational requirements remain unknown. He warns that ministerial orders could impose obligations on individual providers before any public regulations are established.
“secret orders could be imposed on individual providers before public regulations are even established.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Geist questions secret orders and delayed regulations under Bill C-22Discussion of commencement, ministerial orders and parliamentary review
Why we used this label
The reference point is Bill C-22's Part 2 lawful-access framework. The speaker expressly criticizes its capability, privacy or oversight provisions.
Baltej Dhillon defends Bill C-22's lawful-access capability framework. Paula Simons, Yuen Pau Woo and Robert Diab question its privacy, cybersecurity and oversight safeguards. The House-passed text caps metadata retention at six months. As of October 24, 2026, it was before a Senate committee.
