Dear Prime Minister and Members of Parliament involved with Bill C-22,
Service to others does not require names. It serves one as all. A society that forces providers to identify, remember, and preserve records of everyone they serve pushes the whole culture of service toward fear and self-protection. Providers begin serving with one eye on liability, compliance, enforcement, and future suspicion, rather than simply meeting the person before them with dignity. It turns help into record-keeping, trust into compliance, and ordinary providers into state memory-keepers.
This is like requiring every shopkeeper, librarian, neighbour, church, club, charity, or community group to remember every face, every visit, every time, and every association for the state, then exposing them to punishment when they forget. It is like demanding that a soup kitchen collect identifying information from every patron before offering a meal. That humiliates the people being served, burdens the people serving, and defeats the purpose of supporting the community. Human beings naturally forget. Healthy systems also forget. Forgetting is part of freedom.
Bill C-22 makes service heavier, riskier, and more fearful, and companies are already warning they may reduce services in Canada or leave entirely, repeating the Online News Act mistake of damaging the very ecosystem the law claims to protect.
It also threatens Canada’s charitable and community support infrastructure at the very moment society needs it most. As economic pressures rise and communities increasingly rely upon food banks, churches, shelters, mutual aid groups, counselling services, volunteer networks, and community organizations, Canada should be reducing the burdens placed upon service. Instead, Bill C-22 moves in the opposite direction by normalizing surveillance-style retention expectations around human support systems and communication infrastructure. A fearful, compliance-driven culture weakens trust, weakens participation, and weakens the spirit of service itself.
This also raises serious constitutional concerns. Compelled metadata retention burdens freedom of association under section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter by forcing the preservation of records regarding who people communicate and gather with. It burdens freedom of expression under section 2(b), because people communicate differently when every interaction may be permanently recorded and retained. It also raises section 8 concerns regarding unreasonable search and seizure, because the state compels the preservation of searchable records about innocent people before any individualized suspicion exists.
As Q’uo said:
“You may serve all entities that you meet, at all times, whether it is simply with a smile, a helping hand, a conversation, or part of your sandwich.”
“Entities who are at the heart desirous of serving others, first and foremost are frequently those who work in the unseen manner, and who desire the service to be that which receives attention rather than the servant.”
“To serve one is to serve all.”
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Andrii Zvorygin Owen Sound, Ontario