From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Lee Harding

Lee Harding warns that the federal government’s so-called border bill lets officials snoop on your data, ban big cash payments and even open your mail – all without a warrant

Think Bill C-2 is about stopping fentanyl? Think again. It lets the feds snoop your data, open your mail and ban big cash payments – no warrant needed

The federal government is using the pretext of border security, the fentanyl crisis and transnational crime to push through Bill C-2, legislation that dangerously expands surveillance powers, undermines Canadians’ privacy and restricts financial freedom. This so-called Strong Borders Act is less about protecting borders and more about policing citizens.

Bill C-2, a 130-page omnibus bill introduced on June 3, grants broad new powers to government agencies to spy on Canadians and share personal information with foreign countries. A more honest title might be the Snoop and Gossip Act.

Among its most intrusive provisions, the bill would make it illegal for any business, profession or charity to accept cash payments over $10,000, even if made in smaller, related transactions. Want to pay a contractor $10,001 in five separate payments for home renovations? Too bad.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms quickly condemned the move. “Restricting the use of cash is a dangerous step toward tyranny and totalitarianism,” the organization posted to X. “Cash gives citizens privacy, autonomy, and freedom from surveillance by government and by banks.”

Under Bill C-2, internet service providers could be compelled—under threat of fines—to hand over names, locations and “pseudonyms” of users without a warrant. Any peace officer or public officer can demand this data by merely claiming “reasonable grounds to suspect” an offence “has been or will be committed.”

It doesn’t stop there. The bill would also authorize the government to open private mail under the same vague threshold of suspicion.

Experts in law and privacy say the bill is a massive overreach. University of Ottawa internet law scholar Michael Geist and Kate Robertson of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab both point out that successive federal governments have sought to expand internet surveillance for years, but Bill C-2 goes further than ever before.

“Bill C-2’s big brother tactics combine expansive warrantless disclosure with unprecedented secrecy,” Geist warns. He adds that the bill “overreaches by including measures on internet subscriber data that have nothing to do with border safety or security but raise privacy and civil liberties concerns.”

If the intent were truly to combat fentanyl trafficking and transnational crime, better tools already exist. Conservative MP Frank Caputo pointed out that the bill has 16 parts but says nothing about increasing penalties or jail time for fentanyl traffickers.

“There is nothing about bail in the bill,” Caputo said during early debate on the bill. “In this omnibus bill, it says that offenders can serve their sentence for trafficking in fentanyl from their couch.”

Bloc Québécois MP Claude DeBellefeuille argued that strengthening border security requires more boots on the ground. Two rural border crossings in her riding recently had their staffed hours cut in half.

“It is estimated that the CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) already has a shortage of between 2,000 and 3,000 border services officers for current duties. If they are given new responsibilities, however necessary, there will be an even greater shortage,” she said.

Not only does Bill C-2 contradict Supreme Court precedent. It also sets the stage for Canada to share sensitive personal information with foreign governments. In 2014, the court ruled that Canadians have a “reasonable expectation of privacy in the subscriber information” provided to internet service providers and that police requests for such data amount to a “search” requiring a warrant.

Robertson warns that the bill not only defies this precedent but also enables Canada to share this dubiously acquired information with 49 other countries under the Second Additional Protocol to the Cybercrime Convention. Canada signed the agreement in 2023 but hasn’t ratified it. Bill C-2 would make that possible.

She calls the protocol’s weak human rights safeguards “a direct threat to existing protections under international human rights law.” Robertson co-authored a submission urging the Department of Justice to reject the 2AP and instead support data-sharing frameworks that are built on consistent rights protections across all signatories.

Further complicating matters, Canada is in negotiations with the United States over a data-sharing agreement under that country’s CLOUD Act. Canada’s willingness to comply may reflect lingering trade pressures from the Trump administration, pressures that could again push Canada to compromise its legal independence and citizens’ rights.

This bill should be scrapped or thoroughly revised. Canadians should not have to surrender their privacy and human rights to serve a global law enforcement agenda that disregards civil liberties. If the line between national security and authoritarianism is erased, the greatest threat to Canadians may no longer be drug traffickers—it may be their own government.

Lee Harding is a research fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

MxM News

Quick Hit:

A new study reveals that liberal guests overwhelmingly dominate late-night TV in 2025, with nearly every political figure or commentator featured leaning left. Just one guest this year was even remotely center-right, according to the analysis.

Key Details:

• The Media Research Center reviewed guest lineups from five late-night comedy programs and found that 99% of political guests so far in 2025 were liberal, with zero elected Republicans featured.
• The survey covered shows hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, and The Daily Show, all of which favored Democrat politicians, liberal journalists, and left-wing commentators.
• Of the 77 non-elected guests tracked, only one—economist Oren Cass—represented a center-right viewpoint, making a single appearance to discuss Trump’s tariffs on The Daily Show.

Diving Deeper:

A recent report by the Media Research Center paints a stark picture of political bias across the late-night television landscape. The analysis, which surveyed the first half of 2025, found that liberal guests were nearly the only voices featured on major late-night comedy programs. According to the report, 99 percent of all political guests on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Daily Show leaned left.

When it came to sitting officeholders, the bias was even more glaring: 30 elected Democrats appeared on these shows, while not a single Republican lawmaker was invited. Some of the most featured repeat guests included far-left figures like Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who each appeared multiple times.

Even among non-politicians, the ideological imbalance persisted. Out of 77 guests analyzed, just one—American Compass executive director Oren Cass—was identified as having a conservative or center-right viewpoint. His lone appearance on The Daily Show was centered on a policy issue: President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The MRC report also highlighted the recurring presence of left-wing media figures. Nine guests were MSNBC hosts, eight were from CNN, and six others were CNN reporters or analysts. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes was featured three separate times.

The findings are consistent with MRC’s prior research. Since 2022, they note, late-night comedy shows have hosted 511 liberal guests compared to just 14 center-right figures.

Critics argue this lopsided exposure skews public perception and reinforces ideological silos, especially among younger audiences who consume political content through entertainment. The report suggests that late-night programming, once a venue for varied political commentary and humor, now operates more like an echo chamber for the American left.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)