The bill also gives the government the ability to obtain court orders for internet service providers to block access to websites that do not follow compliance notices issued under the law.
The Liberal Party has largely opposed the bill, as well as internet and privacy advocates, citing privacy concerns surrounding the implications of its age verification mandate, concerns that its definition of "sexually explicit material" was broad enough to apply to any service that hosts such content (even if it is not predominant), while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre for prioritizing the bill in lieu of the Liberals' wider Online Harms Act.
It was studied by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee of the Senate, which amended the bill to reinforce privacy protections, on the recommendation of witness Keith Jansa, of the Digital Governance Council.
Two of the scheduled dates were fillibustered by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who demanded that the government release a report on the transfer of serial killer Paul Bernardo to a medium-security prison[19] before he would allow hearings to commence.
[18] If an organization does not employ compliance measures within 20 days of receiving notice of the offence, the appointed authority would have the power to request that the Federal Court order internet service providers to block all or part of the offending website, even if it does not consist solely of sexually explicit material.
University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist has been critical of the bill's expansive scope and inadequate prescription of specific, known age-verification technology,[22][15] explaining that "it envisions government-enforced global website liability for failure to block underage access, backed by website blocking and mandated age verification systems that are likely to include face recognition technologies.
He also argued that the bill can apply to any site that hosts "sexually explicit" content besides porn websites, including search engines and social networks.
[27][28] Parliamentary Secretary Kevin Lamoureux stated that "the biggest issue we need to look at is why the bill is fairly narrow in its application with respect to harms to children".