The Liberals’ Bill C-26 gives the industry minister almost unlimited authority to order telecom providers around and includes language so vague that “the full contours of the legislation cannot be assessed,” said an analysis by researcher Christopher Parsons at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. (The Logic)

Talking point: Introduced last spring, the bill permits the government to ban gear from Chinese suppliers such as Huawei from Canadian telecommunications systems but goes far beyond that. Although other countries have made similar moves, Parsons’s report said, “the government has not clearly explained why it needs this legislation in the first place.” Without knowing just what threats—live or anticipated—the government is seeking to address, it’s impossible to tell whether the expansive powers granted in the bill would be justified.