The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) is scrambling to find ways to justify upcoming bills that would allow warrantless surveillance of law-abiding Canadians’ online private information, says pro-Internet group OpenMedia.ca.

OpenMedia.ca today released the contents of an message that the CACP recently sent to law enforcement officials, which asks them to provide examples, even those with “confidential operational information,” of situations in which current privacy provisions have hindered investigations. The CACP is attempting to counter what they call “ill-informed criticism” from the public in regards to the proposed legislation-known as the “Lawful Access” or “online spying” bills.

Although the push for this unprecedented expansion of electronic surveillance powers began nearly 13 years ago, no examples of its need have been presented publicly so far.

Leading legal and privacy experts (see http://openmedia.ca/screening) are calling the bill an unprecedented and unjustified expansion of policing powers. The CACP itself admits that lack of justification; their email states that they could not find a “sufficient quantity” of credible examples for a version of the legislation that was tabled two years ago.

One of the only attempts at providing evidence came in 2009 from former Conservative Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan. That year, University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist filed Access to Information requests that revealed that the minister’s example — a kidnapping case in which police waited 36 hours to get the information they needed to obtain a warrant — did not involve requests to Internet service providers for any of the information that the online spying bills would guarantee.

“The online spying bills are a solution in search of a problem,” says OpenMedia.ca Executive Director Steve Anderson. “I’m sure Canadians don’t appreciate their tax dollars going toward the CACP’s lobbying efforts, especially when the result could be legislation that would create invasive, costly, and poorly thought-out online spying.”

The Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews, has vehemently defended the online spying bills, claiming that they are necessary to ensure that law enforcement has the tools it needs to combat online crime. However without credible evidence demonstrating how the current law has impeded investigations, Canadians have little reason to believe that the online spying bills are necessary to keep the law up-to-date with emerging technologies.

Current legislation already grants ISPs the options to disclose customer name and address information, and gives police permission to bypass warrants in emergency situations. The new legislation would provide access to the private data of any Canada, at anytime, without a warrant.