Minister Open to Shortening Data Retention Period in Lawful Access Bill

Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 30, 2026. The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said he would now support shortening the year-long period that electronic service providers need to keep digital metadata under a proposed bill meant to help police and spy agencies gain easier access to private datea, days after saying he was not open to it.

Anandasangaree told The Canadian Press on June 9 that following discussions with stakeholders on Bill C-22, he was open to shortening the one-year maximum time frame of holding data.

In May, Anandasangaree said the legislation would not be changed to allow for a shorter data retention period, as it would impede law enforcement’s ability to do effective investigations.

Bill C-22, An Act respecting lawful access, would allow law enforcement to ask an electronic service provider if it offers services to a specific individual, based on “reasonable grounds” that a crime has been or will be committed. Law enforcement could then seek judicial authorization for a production order to obtain a range of data on the subscriber.

The second part of the bill would mandate that digital service providers retain metadata about user activities—but not the messages themselves—for up to a year. It would also compel telecommunications and online service providers to grant authorities access to user data.

The Liberal government has said the bill would give law enforcement agencies more legal tools to respond to crime in a way that is compliant with the Charter, while the Conservatives have raised concerns that the second part of the bill would negatively impact privacy rights. University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist has also told the House of Commons public safety committee that the storing of metadata, which includes location data, would amount to “a comprehensive surveillance map of virtually every Canadian.”

Anandasangaree previously said on June 3 that the Liberals were “very comfortable” with the balance between the two sections of Bill C-22, and would not be splitting it.

Conservative MP and shadow public safety minister Frank Caputo sent Anandasangaree a letter on June 9 again saying the Tories wanted to pass the first part of Bill C-22, which would give law enforcement many of the tools they requested, before the summer break.

Conservative MP Rhonda Kirkland tabled a motion during a House of Commons public safety committee meeting on June 2 to recommend to the House that the committee be given the power to divide the bill into Bill C-22A and Bill C-22B.

Caputo said in his letter that the second part of the bill gave “substantial latitude” to the public safety minister with limited scrutiny, and the powers should be “carefully defined, narrowly tailored, and subject to robust oversight.”

Several tech companies have come out against Bill C-22 in its current form, including Signal, Proton VPN, NordVPN, and WindScribe. Conservative MP Jacob Mantle pointed out on May 15 that Signal—a messaging app that has threatened to leave Canada over the bill—is used by “every member of Parliament in the country” to communicate.