The second annual Canadian Cyber Dialogue convened in Ottawa in December 2019 and brought together 78 participants from government, the private sector, academia, and civil society to discuss contemporary cybersecurity issues facing Canada. This year’s Dialogue was organized around Bill C-59—a major update to Canadian national security legislation which became law in June 2019—and particularly the cybersecurity components found in the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) Act therein. The forum was comprised of four sessions related to the CSE Act, centred around the following topics:
- Potential updates or amendments to C-59 that might already be necessary;
- Questions arising from new powers to conduct cyber operations;
- Cybersecurity issues not thoroughly addressed in C-59 (including critical infrastructure, supply chains, and encryption); and
- Cyber foreign policy.
The following summaries briefly outline the discussions from the Cyber Dialogue’s four sessions and note their respective highlights. The final section of this report provides a summary of the feedback from participants and thoughts on how to continue, alter, promote, or amend the Dialogue concept.
