CARPAY: Welcome to the surveillance state — Canada's new Internet laws belong in Orwell's 1984

Together, the Online Streaming Act, the Online News Act, the Cybersecurity Act, the Combatting Hate Act, the Lawful Access Act, and the Safe Social Media Act form the foundation of Canada’s emerging surveillance state. Once this web of laws is fully in place, the federal government will have an intimate knowledge of how and when we use social media, AI, and the internet generally. The government will have the power to know the location, monitor the movement, and track the communications of every Canadian.

The first building block of Canada’s surveillance state was the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11), which expanded the power of the CRTC beyond radio and television to include the internet as well. The CRTC now forces major streaming and social media platforms to manipulate their algorithms to push what the CRTC determines to be “Canadian” content. YouTube, Netflix, and TikTok must now tweak their automated recommendation engines to highlight CRTC-designated “Canadian” content, thereby shifting what Canadians see when they log in. ---More...

Canada's surveillance state isn't arriving all at once. It's being built one bill at a time. From online censorship to expanded monitoring powers and digital ID infrastructure, John Carpay explains how six federal laws fit together—and why Canadians should act now.… pic.twitter.com/SvlFdy14g7

— Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (@JCCFCanada)July 22, 2026

Canada's surveillance state isn't arriving all at once. It's being built one bill at a time. From online censorship to expanded monitoring powers and digital ID infrastructure, John Carpay explains how six federal laws fit together—and why Canadians should act now.