Privacy Commissioner calls out Public Safety Minister for lack of justification for lawful access

This past week, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada sent an open letter to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, again coming out against "lawful access" and highlighting the fact that there has been no compelling justification put forward for the expected measures.

The Minister, in a statement given to Postmedia News, did not directly address the question of warrantless access to customer information, but offered the following predictable talking point:

"Our approach strikes an appropriate balance between the investigative powers used to protect public safety and the necessity to safeguard the privacy of Canadians," Toews said in a statement Thursday in response to Stoddart's letter.

"As technology evolves, many criminal activities — such as the distribution of child pornography — become much easier. We are proposing measures to bring our laws into the 21st Century and provide police with the tools they need to do their job."

I've heard all that before, but still there's no justification for the intrusive measures.