Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah speaks at a news conference Friday morning in Mississauga. Ruby Sahota (left), Canada’s secretary of state for combatting crime, was in the city to provide details of proposed legislation to increase public safety.

A new bill introduced by the federal government will better equip law enforcement in Mississauga, Brampton and across Canada to catch violent criminals and keep people safe, Peel’s police chief said Friday morning.

The Liberal government’s Bill C-22 proposes new rules around lawful access and is intended to help police forces and security services organizations, such as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, more effectively and quickly identify and track those who may be using tools like social media or artificial intelligence technology to commit crimes — in many cases, violent crimes that cause serious injury and death.

Essentially, reforms called for in the proposed legislation will bring Canada’s laws in the area of lawful access up to date and into the new century, government representatives and police said.

Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said Bill C-22 is “multi-faceted … and compels the system to operate in a far quicker manner” so law enforcement agencies can zero in on and bring criminals to justice before they’re allowed to cause more harm.

Speaking to the media at Peel police headquarters in Mississauga on Friday morning, Duraiappah said passage of the bill will improve public safety in Mississauga, Brampton and across Canada.

“This impacts every (crime) issue we see here in Peel,” the police chief told the gathering, which included Ruby Sahota, Canada’s secretary of state for combatting crime, in addition to local politicians and others.

Duraiappah said reforms in the new lawful access bill will better equip Peel police to fight such serious crimes as human trafficking, online child exploitation, hate crime and extortion among others.

He noted old legislation, to which police have been bound, came to be in a “pre-digital world” and “criminals have been taking advantage of this.”

“Our ability to operate in a digital world is crucial,” Duraiappah added.

Sahota acknowledged it’s taken a long time for laws around lawful access to evolve and that criminals have been taking advantage in a technological world for far too long.

“The tools we (currently) have to fight them are inadequate,” she said Friday in pushing for the reforms contained in the new bill.

Government officials say the proposed legislation balances the needs of law enforcement with the privacy and rights of Canadians, and that its intent is to keep people safe “in the online space” and “catch criminals.”

Friday’s press conference in Mississauga, Ottawa said, was held to speak about Canada’s efforts “to support law enforcement agencies and CSIS with new tools to investigate serious threats, disrupt organized crime and protect our communities.”


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