Psiphon may leave Canada over Bill C-22, putting a tool used by 20 million at risk

Psiphon says it is preparing to move its operations out of Canada if Bill C-22 passes without changes. The Toronto-based provider says the proposed lawful access law could force it to weaken safety features used by people in countries including Iran, Russia and China.

Psiphon began as a Citizen Lab project at the University of Toronto in 2006 and now has about 20 million monthly users. Many use the tool to circumvent state censorship. The company publishes its code, and Vice-president Kenzie Elsworthy told The Globe and Mail that secretly adding a back door to a fully public system would be impossible. Elsworthy said such a change would be “a published vulnerability.”

Psiphon joins Signal, NordVPN and Windscribe, which have also warned they could leave Canada. The company says it does not want to go, but relocation would be its only option if the bill passes unchanged. The federal government provided Psiphon about $600,000 in National Research Council funding this year.

Introduced on March 12, 2026, Bill C-22 would require telecoms, internet companies and other electronic service providers to build surveillance capabilities for police and CSIS. The House passed an amended version on June 18. It adds protections for end-to-end encryption and reduces metadata retention from one year to six months. The bill now goes to the Senate. Its definition of electronic service provider could include messaging apps and VPNs, but the specific companies covered would be determined after passage.