1984: The Canadian Edition

2026-10-26

My government (Canada) is trying as hard as possible to become an overreaching, surveillance state. This is based off the recent push for Bill C-22¹, which has already made its way past the House of Commons, and is now set before the Canadian Senate.

Bill C-22 gives the government new powers to force digital services—including telecom companies, messaging apps, and more—to help with government surveillance. Worse, it allows Canada’s Minister of Public Safety to order companies to create a backdoor to their services for law enforcement, as long as it doesn’t lead to a “systemic insecurity.”

Canadians Are Running Out Of Time To Oppose The Dangerous C-22 Surveillance Bill

Worst of all, many Canadians have been brainwashed into believing this is for the public’s “safety” or they simply don’t care. Most of our own news outlets won’t even report on it, and instead spend all their cycles focusing on international affairs. Meanwhile this Bill just chugs along through Parliament.

Our own Public Safety Minister simply dismisses these concerns from companies and individuals, stating that they are “misinterpreting” the Bill. Of course, he doesn’t comment on any of the direct feedback given to specific parts of C-22. How convenient.

The Impact

I’ve decided to compile a list of companies and services that will potentially exit the Canadian market altogether if the Bill passes. Many citizens might shrug this off since these use-cases might not be important to them, but the economical implications with C-22 are just as important.

Signal Messaging:

“In its current form, Bill C-22 would convert the everyday tools Canadians rely on into a sprawling, insecure surveillance apparatus…If we are ever forced to choose between betraying the people who rely on us and leaving a market, we will leave.”

Udbhav Tiwari, Vice President of Signal

Tailscale (Canadian-based company):

“We would have to find some way of operating that would let our European customers not use Canadian employees, not use Canadian-hosted hosting services…There would be a lot of business, like money that could be flowing into Canada, that would not be allowed to flow into Canada. We’d have to go do it somewhere else, and the profits would go elsewhere.”

Avery Pennerun, CEO

NordVPN:

“To prevent this, we will consider all viable options, including limiting or, if necessary, removing our presence from Canadian jurisdiction”

Windscribe (Canadian-based company):

“We pay an ungodly amount of taxes to this corrupt government, and in return they want to destroy the entire essence of our service to basically spy on its own citizens…Not happening. We’ll move HQ and take our taxes elsewhere”

And many other companies have spoken out against the Bill and even signed a coalition letter, such as:

• Nord Security
• ExpressVPN
• Private Internet Access
• Tucows
• Coinbase
• Tuta
• easyDNS

Trying to Help

This isn’t something I can magically fix or make go away. But I can help in small ways. Some of my upcoming posts will focus on hiding yourself from the prying eyes of the Canadian government, along with tips on how to migrate your existing services over to platforms that won’t bend the knee to these absurd demands.

If you’re a Canadian and you actually care about freedom and individual privacy, I urge you to sign the Canadian Civil Liberties Association Stop Bill C-22 petition (if you haven’t already).