Instead of building trust with allies, The Bureau warns Bill C-22 will jeopardize the security of all Canadians and open the door to adversaries like Beijing.

By Probe International

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Instead of targeting the real threats posed by Chinese Triads and Mexican cartels, a recent editorial by The Bureau argues Ottawa’s proposed Bill C-22 imposes blanket surveillance on ordinary Canadians, leaving criminal networks untouched.

By not addressing the legal barriers that allow these criminal organizations to operate with impunity and turn Canadian cities into operational hubs for crime, the Bureau declares Bill C-22 misses the mark entirely. It warns the legislation confuses the expansion of state power with the enforcement tools needed to combat organized crime, and the consequences could be dire.

The messaging app Signal, Canadian tech powerhouse Shopify, along with U.S. lawmakers echo The Bureau’s concerns, pointing out that this legislation could compromise user privacy and national security, while failing to tackle the actual issues at hand—including the judicial blockages that prevent effective law enforcement against cartels.

The Bureau cites Derek Maltz, former chief of the DEA under President Donald Trump, who describes Canada’s legal capacity to confront the cartels and Triad alliances running fentanyl, money-laundering, and encryption platforms across the country as “antiquated and archaic,” made worse by a fundamental failure of information-sharing with American partners.

The Bureau notes experts from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP who stress that Beijing’s ability to collect encrypted messaging data from Western users is progressing alongside the efforts of China’s universities and state-linked hackers to advance quantum computing technologies powerful enough to break into private communications.

The Bureau advocates for targeted reforms—racketeering laws and precise cyber tools—to dismantle these networks, rather than a mass surveillance regime that harms innocent citizens, and presents a gift to adversaries like the Chinese Communist regime.