Original author: Campbell Clark
Source: The Globe and Mail
URL: [link]
Date: October 11, 2005

OTTAWA - The federal government is demanding that the telecommunications industry build a wiretapping capacity into their networks that would allow authorities to conduct round-the-clock surveillance on the e-mail, Internet or phone use of more than 8,000 people at a time, sources say.

The major boost in interception capacity is in proposals the government has put forward in confidential negotiations with the telecom industry as it prepares new legislation on high-tech wiretapping scheduled to be introduced next month.

Government officials insist their proposals will bring Canada's laws on wiretaps -- drafted when people still attached alligator clips to telephone lines to listen in -- up to speed with new technologies.But privacy advocates fear an erosion of safeguards, and telecom companies worry the government wants them to build in a costly interception system.

In essence, the bill would require telephone, wireless or Internet-service providers to gradually build into their networks a capacity to duplicate their clients' Internet and phone use and transmit the data to the police.

But the bill also will set requirements for how many such wiretaps the companies must be able to conduct.

The latest government proposal would set complex rules that each service provider must eventually be able to conduct at least two simultaneous interceptions on each local network, even if it serves only a tiny rural area, and as many as 64 per local network in big cities, sources told The Globe and Mail.

That would be capped nationally at one "access point" per 5,000 subscribers - a ratio of Canada's roughly 41 million telephone, wireless, and Internet subscribers that adds up to a capacity to conduct more than 8,000 simultaneous interceptions around the clock, every day of the year.

In addition, even networks in small towns would have to be able to ramp up quickly to a far higher interception capability using special equipment if necessary - several industry sources said government officials cited a convention of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang as an example.

Currently, there are far fewer interceptions than the new system would allow: About 2,000 wiretap warrants are issued each year, and they must be renewed every 60 days.

Public Safety Department officials refused to provide details of the size of the interception capacity they have proposed.

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said no final decision has been made on the size of the intercept capability, and talks with the industry continue. In an interview, she said the scope is not too vast considering the operations of organized criminals, who might have many Internet accounts or mobile phones.

"At the end of the day, we cannot let technological change stand in the way of, for example, law enforcement agencies dealing with organized crime. They use technology to conceal what they do, to move their laundered money, to traffic in humans, to traffic in drugs, to traffic in guns, and we have to be able to intercept their communications to break up those kinds of networks."

She said Canadians often complain that authorities don't do enough to thwart organized crime or terrorist organizations, and wiretaps can be a key tool. Right now, networks have gaps, she said.

"In fact, part of our ability is limited in this country because of our lack of intercept capability for new technologies. The rest of the world has moved on this, we haven't."

Ms. McLellan noted that law-enforcement officials will still have to obtain a warrant from a judge to intercept e-mail or Internet transmissions, as they always have with telephone wiretaps.

The bill to increase interception capacity is part of a larger "lawful access" that will include a new law on obtaining warrants. Critics charge it will reduce the burden of evidence police require to obtain some kinds of information, like traffic data that could be used to track the movements of a wireless phone or computer user.

Privacy watchdogs have argued that building a larger interception capacity paves the way for abuses and say far greater public scrutiny is needed.

"All you need is the ability to do something and it will be abused if there's not enough scrutiny, and Canada has failed in that regard," said Darrel Evans, executive director of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. "And the more you have this kind of increased power, the more you need to increase the power of your watchdogs."

Industry observers say they are concerned about the cost - and they want government to pay it.

"Because it appears that they want us to build to allow for far more wiretaps in the future than we've done in the past, then the operational costs of staffing up to do all of those new procedures also has to be taken into account," said Parke Davis, a senior regulatory officer with Telus Corp. who is considered the industry expert on the issue.

"It's the operational costs of keeping people 7 by 24, 365 days a year, ready to carry out a lawful-access request."

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