A Trojan horse is a gift concealing a threat—like the wooden horse the Greeks used to sneak soldiers into Troy and defeat the Trojans. Parliament has just introduced a Trojan horse law, Bill C-4, which sneaks wording into Canadian law that will defeat Canadians’ privacy.

The bill’s official name is An Act respecting certain affordability measures for Canadians and another measure. Don’t be fooled. The name is pure sleight of hand. Buried in Part 4 of the bill is the concealed threat. It should concern every Canadian who cares about privacy, democracy, and constitutional accountability.

If passed, Part 4 would—on its face—immunize federal political parties from independent oversight on how they collect, use, and keep Canadians’ personal information. The federal parties would have free rein over Canadians’ personal information. No transparency. No guardrails. No accountability. 

Worse, Part 4 bigfoots the provinces and territories. It says that no provincial or territorial privacy law can ever apply to a federal party. For instance, if you live in British Columbia, the rights you have under B.C.’s Personal Information and Privacy Act may be out the window as far as the federal parties go. Likewise, if you live in Quebec, your privacy rights under that province’s Civil Code and Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms may go up in smoke. Adding insult to injury, Bill C-4 purports to apply retroactively by an unprecedented 25 years.  

It is shocking overreach. And it is unconstitutional.

While Canadian businesses must comply with Canada’s private sector privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the federal parties claim a blanket exemption. Privacy commissioners and privacy advocates have long urged Parliament to close this loophole. But the Trudeau government went the other way. It doubled down on trying to exempt federal parties from all privacy laws. Prime Minister Mark Carney is following in Justin Trudeau’s footsteps.  

This isn’t just Ottawa overstepping—it’s a federal power grab. Bill C-4 usurps provincial rights, disregards co-operative federalism, ignores this country’s Constitution, and strips away Canadians’ quasi-constitutional privacy protections. It also violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, letting federal parties collect, use, and keep Canadians’ personal information with no transparency, undermining our democratic right to cast an informed vote free from political microtargeting and manipulation using personal information that federal parties possess but refuse to disclose.

Everything about C-4’s so-called “privacy” provisions is wrong. 

The Liberal government is gambling that C-4 will survive a constitutional showdown. I’m certain it will lose. Under the Constitution, it’s not Parliament but the courts that have the final word on what’s constitutional. Only judges can determine whether the principle of “paramountcy”—where federal laws trump conflicting provincial ones—applies.  

The privacy provisions in C-4 are so blatantly anti-privacy and unconstitutional that Canadian courts will strike them down. The government knows this. They’re gambling anyway, hoping political theatre can somehow override constitutional law. It can’t. And it won’t.

Carney still has a chance to break from Trudeau’s legacy. Rather than continue Trudeau’s mission of impunity to shield federal parties from all privacy rules, Carney can implement a single, elegant fix: amend PIPEDA to clearly include federal parties.

For years, experts have urged the government to bring the federal parties under PIPEDA’s oversight. Now is the time for action. A course correction is needed. 

Canadians deserve to know how federal parties—the very organizations that represent Canadians—are collecting, using, and keeping their personal data. This is especially true regarding core democratic functions such as targeted advertisements in political campaigns and elections.

The Carney government is rushing Part 4 of Bill C-4 through Parliament despite the adjournment of the June 23 B.C. Court of Appeal hearing that the bill directly targets—a hearing examining federal parties’ privacy practices. This suggests the Liberals may be trying to avoid scrutiny of the federal parties’ violations of established privacy protections by both the courts and privacy regulators.  

It’s too bad. Carney is missing a crucial opportunity to prioritize Canadians, safeguard their democratic and privacy rights, and differentiate his leadership from the legacy of the Trudeau era.

Greece is known as the birthplace of democracy. It used the Trojan horse to take down Troy. Canadian lawmakers—including Senators—must not let the Bill C-4 Trojan horse take down Canadians’ privacy rights, a cornerstone of this country’s democracy.

Carney promised to govern differently than his predecessor. Canadians gave him the chance. Now it’s time to deliver.

Bill Hearn is a lawyer for the Centre for Digital Rights founded by Canadian entrepreneur Jim Balsillie, supporting three B.C. residents in privacy complaints against the federal Liberal, Conservative, and New Democratic parties.

The Hill Times