{"id":10773,"date":"2025-10-03T05:02:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T09:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10773"},"modified":"2025-10-03T05:02:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T09:02:52","slug":"bill-c-8-would-give-cabinet-minister-power-to-order-telecom-to-cut-you-off-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10773","title":{"rendered":"Bill C-8 Would Give Cabinet Minister Power to Order Telecom to Cut You Off The Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">L<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/app-link\/post?publication_id=2459708&amp;post_id=175141953&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=q2hjw&amp;token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0Mzc4NjA3NiwicG9zdF9pZCI6MTc1MTQxOTUzLCJpYXQiOjE3NTk0Mzc2OTQsImV4cCI6MTc2MjAyOTY5NCwiaXNzIjoicHViLTI0NTk3MDgiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.KbTx_SLoHhbjVHk1aGSm1kmB7h1mwtIKygd4MKKjvjY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iberals Push Bill Giving Ottawa Power to Cut Off Your Internet Without a Warrant<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@afcvalerie\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFC<\/a>Oct 2<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@afcvalerie\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/bb8f03d4-2cb6-4e5e-9b05-6dda8ac9a6f7?j=eyJ1IjoicTJoancifQ.AVoqWBk4RGhXFqdWW6qVpIVMFALIsiwyXvfm_IJ9AbQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"414\" height=\"232\" src=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-42.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10774\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-42.jpeg 414w, https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-42-300x168.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 414px) 100vw, 414px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Bill C-8, now before Parliament, would hand Ottawa sweeping new powers over Canadians\u2019 internet access. Buried within the bill is a clause amending the Telecommunications Act, which <strong>hands the industry minister\u2014now M\u00e9lanie Joly\u2014the authority to order telecom giants like Rogers or Telus to cut off internet access for \u201cany specified person.\u201d<\/strong> No warrant, no court approval, no oversight before the fact. <strong>A citizen could be cut off from the online world entirely on the minister\u2019s say-so<\/strong>, with judicial review only possible <em>after<\/em> the order is executed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Carney government justifies the bill as a tool to defend against cyber-attacks, hackers, and foreign interference. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree argues it\u2019s about stopping ransomware and hostile state actors. But the scope goes far beyond that. The bill allows the government to direct telecoms to <strong>\u201cdo anything or refrain from doing anything,\u201d wording critics say could be used to impose mass surveillance, weaken encryption, or force companies to hand over data on Canadians<\/strong> without their knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not an isolated measure. Bill C-8 follows a series of Liberal-championed laws that have steadily tightened federal control over the digital sphere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Online News Act (2023)<\/strong> forced social media platforms into deals with news outlets and led Facebook to ban news sharing in Canada altogether.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>Online Streaming Act (2023)<\/strong> put podcasts, YouTubers, and streaming platforms under Canadian content rules \u2014 requiring platforms to artificially boost some content while burying others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>While Canada has signed international declarations that internet access is a fundamental human right and even helped found the Freedom Online Coalition to oppose state restrictions, <strong>the government is now moving in the opposite direction\u2014claiming emergency powers to decide who can access the internet at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bottom line:<\/strong><br>Bill C-8 isn\u2019t just about cybersecurity. It\u2019s about control. By granting ministers unilateral authority to pull internet access and compel telecoms to cooperate in secret, the bill creates a framework for surveillance, censorship, and political targeting. <strong>It puts the very foundation of digital freedom in Canada at risk, and it does so under the guise of \u201cprotecting\u201d Canadians.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blendr News\/October 2, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liberals Push Bill Giving Ottawa Power to Cut Off Your Internet Without a Warrant AFCOct 2 Bill C-8, now before Parliament, would hand Ottawa sweeping new powers over Canadians\u2019 internet access. Buried within the bill is a clause amending the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10773\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6082,6084,6083],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10775,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773\/revisions\/10775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}