Pressure Systems edition
Parliament Pushes C-22 While Police Intimidate Surveillance Critics
October 26, 2026
What this edition shows
As the Canadian Parliament pushes Bill C-22 to expand lawful access mandates and weaken digital encryption, municipal police departments are aggressively fortifying automated camera networks like Flock. Law enforcement agencies are monitoring civic opposition at city council meetings and interrogating independent researchers who deploy counter-surveillance tools against patrol cars. This coordinated expansion hardwires surveillance into public infrastructure while actively penalizing democratic scrutiny.
Reporting and analysis behind this edition 10 sources
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Canadians Are Running Out Of Time To Oppose The Dangerous C-22 Surveillance Bill
Canada’s Parliament is debating a massive expansion of surveillance powers that will threaten the privacy and security of millions of people. Bill C-22, also called the Lawful Access Act, has already passed the House of Commons, and is now before the Canadian Senate. Canadians still have an opportun…
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Encryption Is Getting Squeezed From All Sides
Canada’s planned surveillance law is the latest grim step in a series of threats to encryption that are spreading around the world.
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Cops Warned to Look for ‘Suspicious Behavior’ From People Opposing Flock at City Council Meetings
A surveillance document tells cops to expect "emotional confrontations" at Flock city council meetings.
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Canadian YouTuber Visited By Cops After Building Mock Flock To Track Cop Cars
If most cops had a sense of irony, they wouldn’t be cops. By that I mean that there’s little in the job that attracts people with tons of self-awareness or a finely developed sense of humor. Both of those traits generally contain a sense of irony. And since most cops don’t have that, this is […]
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US won’t drop digital issues in trade talks, says former negotiator
While digital issues will continue to be a source of trade tensions with the United States, Canada can gain strength if it teams up with other allies that have similar interests, Canada's former chief trade negotiator said on Monday.
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An inquiry into alleged COVID-19 vaccine injuries fails to weigh the ethics and risks of Canada’s response
In early September, Conservative Party MP Dean Allison held a four-day independent, unsanctioned “inquiry” for “Canadians to share their personal experiences of injuries…from the COVID-19 vaccine(s).” The event heard testimony that alleged the response to COVID-19 was “a miserable failure,” not leas…
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MAGA Built The Censorship Machine It Spent Years Falsely Accusing Democrats Of Building
This is not a unique or new observation, but so many MAGA attacks on others are projection, claiming that Democrats were doing the very things that MAGA always knew they would do if they were in charge. We’ve certainly spent plenty of time talking about Donald Trump’s myriad and non-stop attacks on…
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Why the most dangerous AI may be the one we trust too much
Machines don’t have to become superintelligent to cause catastrophic harm. As artificial intelligence spreads through military decision-making, they just have to be wrong – and trusted by the humans in charge. In 1991, Terminator 2: Judgement Day gave us one of popular culture’s most enduring images…
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U.K. sanctions Canadian crypto exchange, says it’s helping Russian government
Court records indicate Vancouver-based Cryptomus did business with illegal market linked to pro-Russian paramilitary groups.
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Human rights could improve – or worsen – based on how nations use the UN treaty against cybercrime
International policing or international suppression of human rights? Nhac Nguyen/AFP via Getty Images The United Nations Convention against Cybercrime is the first international treaty aimed at combating criminal acts committed online and at supporting victims of those crimes. At the initial signing…