A VPN provider says it would rather relocate than help Canadian police spy on its users.
Psiphon, a VPN service with 18 million users, is warning that it will leave Canada if Bill C-22 becomes law. The bill would expand law enforcement's surveillance powers, and Psiphon says that's incompatible with the privacy promises it makes to customers. The company hasn't said where it would relocate to, only that staying put isn't an option if the bill passes as proposed. For now, Bill C-22 is still working its way through the legislative process.
This is the VPN industry's recurring bind: the whole pitch is "we don't watch you, and we can't be forced to." Every time a government tries to legislate backdoors or data access, that promise gets tested, and providers that fold quietly lose the trust that sells subscriptions. Psiphon drawing a hard line is also a signal to users elsewhere that Canada, usually seen as a privacy-friendly jurisdiction, might not stay that way.
Threatening to leave is the easy part. Actually moving infrastructure, incorporation, and legal exposure out of a country while keeping service running for millions of users is a different exercise entirely, and plenty of companies have made similar threats in other countries without following through.