Inside Policy Talks20 Nov 2025

John Gilmour: Commercial encryption is a challenge for signals intelligence

Canada faces a growing array of national security threats—from foreign interference networks to money laundering operations and organized crime groups exploiting modern digital tools. Yet many of our laws designed to protect Canadians were written for a different era. As hostile actors adapt faster than our institutions, gaps in Canada’s legal framework have become opportunities for adversaries to operate with alarming ease.

What should Canadians understand about the risks created by outdated security legislation? And how should policymakers balance the need for lawful access to electronic data with the privacy protections guaranteed under the Charter?

To break down these complex challenges, Dr. John Gilmour joins Inside Policy Talks. A senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Gilmour is an expert in terrorism, counterterrorism, and intelligence. He has served in the security and intelligence branch of the Privy Council Office, worked with CSIS, and now teaches at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute and Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

On the podcast, he tells Christopher Coates, MLI’s Director of Foreign Policy, National Defence, and National Security, that Canada is now “in a race it cannot afford to lose.” Criminal syndicates and foreign adversaries are exploiting digital communications at a speed that far outstrips current investigative powers. Without modernized tools—such as those proposed in Bill C-2—Canadian authorities risk being permanently outpaced.

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