Signal would not change its products to comply with Bill C-22 and would pull out of Canada rather than weaken its encryption, a senior executive for the secure messaging app told senators and lawmakers on Oct. 5, according to BetaKit.
Udbhav Tiwari, Signal’s vice-president of strategy and global affairs, spoke at a gathering of senators and lawmakers organized by the Canadian Internet Society, BetaKit reported on Oct. 6. The session was recorded and is to be passed to relevant Senate committees, the outlet said.
“For us, this is a serious enough issue that it would fundamentally break Signal,” Tiwari said. He said “the choice for us, unfortunately, would be starkly clear” and that “we will not make changes to our products” to meet such demands.
Tiwari said Signal has three main concerns: encryption, metadata collection and technical access measures. He said the bill could get around encryption through an order to share encryption keys, or force Signal to collect more metadata and keep it for six months.
BetaKit reported that the bill has passed the House of Commons and is now before the Senate. Canada News Media has not independently confirmed that stage.
Signal has never deliberately cut off access to a country, Tiwari said. He said it has refused orders from governments including Russia, China and North Korea, which then ordered providers to throttle the app. He said a similar sequence would have to play out in Canada before Signal became unavailable, though he considers that outcome very unlikely.
The warning is not new. Tiwari told the House of Commons public safety committee in early June that if Signal were forced to choose between betraying its users and leaving a market, “we will leave,” Global News reported at the time. The bill was then before the committee, where Apple, Google and Meta also testified that it could force them to weaken or work around encryption.
The bill’s metadata rules also differ in the two accounts. Global News reported in June that the bill would allow regulations requiring providers to retain certain metadata for up to one year, and that Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said the one-year period would not be shortened. BetaKit’s account of Tiwari’s remarks refers to a six-month period. Canada News Media could not determine whether the difference reflects an amendment since June or the way Tiwari described it.
According to Global News, the bill would also let the public safety minister order any provider to build a capability for police and CSIS access, and would bar providers from disclosing such an order. Approval would come from the intelligence commissioner rather than through a judicial warrant. Anandasangaree said in June that the bill would be amended to make clear that breaching encryption is not allowed.
The bill has drawn opposition from within Canada’s tech sector. Toronto-based Tailscale and Windscribe were among more than 20 Canadian and European firms that warned last month the legislation could push technology companies out of the country, and NordVPN and DuckDuckGo have said they could pull services. Citizen Lab and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have called for the metadata and ministerial order sections to be withdrawn.
For Canadian users and businesses, the practical stakes are access and trust. Signal is widely used for private communication, and companies that sell VPN and security services in Canada have said they would move or limit operations if the bill passes as written. The government has not yet shown how the promised amendment on encryption would be worded.
The story is developing. BetaKit’s report contained no response from the government to Tiwari’s remarks.
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Sources: BetaKit (Oct. 6, 2026), Global News (June 2026).
