The Minister of Industry, Mélanie Joly, has pre-published a proposed Radiocommunication Act Exemption Order (Jammers — Certain Law Enforcement Agencies) in the Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 160, No. 41, on 10 October 2026. The notice is dated 18 September 2026. Interested persons have 30 days from publication to comment, which puts the deadline around 9 November 2026. The order would come into force on the day it is registered.
Jammers are devices built to block or interfere with radio signals, including the links between mobile phones and cell towers. Subsection 4(4) of the Radiocommunication Act bans installing, using, possessing, making, importing or selling them, and paragraph 9(1)(b) bars interfering with radiocommunication without lawful excuse. Since 2014 the Act has let the Minister exempt named people or bodies for limited purposes. According to the government’s impact statement, three exemption orders exist: the RCMP (since 2015; current order 2024), National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces (2024), and the Correctional Service of Canada and Quebec’s correctional services (2025, a pilot for jamming inside some prisons).
Today only the RCMP, the military and prison services may legally jam signals. This order would add 27 municipal, regional and provincial police forces.
Who would be covered
The schedule lists 27 forces: Barrie, Calgary, Durham Regional, Edmonton, Greater Sudbury, Halton Regional, Hamilton, Kingston, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Niagara Regional, the Ontario Provincial Police, Ottawa, Peel Regional, Regina, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, Saskatoon, Sault Ste. Marie, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, the Sûreté du Québec, Toronto, Thunder Bay, Vancouver, Victoria, Windsor, Winnipeg and York Regional. The government says it chose forces with explosive-disposal units or that support the prison jamming pilot.
The exemption would also cover provincial and municipal employees who buy jammers for those forces, companies answering tenders or requests for information (including live demonstrations), and suppliers and subcontractors working under contract. It would not let suppliers make jammers in Canada outside those situations.
What police could use them for
Only the purposes the Act allows: national security; public safety, including prisons; international relations; investigating or prosecuting offences, including preserving evidence; and protecting property or preventing serious harm. The impact statement gives examples: “the protection of critical infrastructure, major public events, and crime scenes,” and helping the RCMP with border-area operations against organized crime.
The conditions
- Notice to the Minister, not the public: before using the exemption, a force must give the Minister contact details for the people responsible for its jammers, and confirm them yearly. Tests by would-be suppliers need 14 days’ notice and can last no more than 30 days.
- Limit the blast radius: users must make “every reasonable effort” to confine interference to the smallest area, fewest frequencies, appropriate power and shortest time needed, and jammers must be adjustable.
- Training: employees must have, or be getting, specialized training, and take RCMP-developed or RCMP-validated training once it exists.
- Records: forces must log each use (who, where, when if known, which frequencies, and for what purpose) and keep the log for five years. Jammers must be locked away when not in use. Supplier tests are limited to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
The text does not require a warrant or court order, publication of the use logs, advance public notice, or any report to Parliament. It has no expiry date; the government says that is deliberate, and the Minister can amend or repeal it at any time.
How it was consulted
The impact statement says Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) consulted police through the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police’s counter-terrorism and national security committee and got questionnaires back from 26 forces in fall 2025 and winter 2026. It also briefed Transport Canada, the Radio Advisory Board and NAV CANADA. The last public consultation on jammers was in 2001, when, the government notes, comments “demonstrated clear public support for restricting the use of jammers.” ISED gives no cost estimate, saying the number of suppliers is unknown because the business is currently illegal.
What this piece refuses
Do not write that police can already jam phones under this order: it is a proposal. Do not write that it targets protests: the government’s examples are major public events, crime scenes and critical infrastructure, and the text does not mention demonstrations, though nothing in it rules them out. We have not repeated reported penalty figures for illegal jamming because they are not in the Gazette notice.
Contested: The government frames the order as reducing reliance on a stretched RCMP and as part of its safety and border agenda. Civil-liberties and telecom concerns, such as blocked emergency calls, interference beyond the target area and the absence of judicial or public oversight, are ones the impact statement does not weigh beyond the conditions listed.
Bottom line
Verified as of 13 October 2026 from the Canada Gazette, Part I, 10 October 2026: the Minister of Industry proposes to let employees of 27 named police services, and their suppliers, possess and use signal jammers for national security, public safety, investigations and protection of property or people, with internal record-keeping and minimization conditions but no warrant requirement, public reporting or expiry. Comments run 30 days from 10 October.
