The bill would allow police to demand that Internet service providers hand over a wide range of information on the surfing habits of individuals, including on-line pseudonyms and whether someone possesses a mischief-making computer virus, according to a draft outline of the bill provided to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

After a speech to a police association in Ottawa, Mr. Cotler confirmed that his government will soon bring "lawful access" legislation to cabinet for final approval before it is introduced in the House of Commons.

The minister said the law is needed to replace outdated surveillance laws that were written before the arrival of cellphones and e-mail.

"We will put law-enforcement people on the same level playing field as criminals and terrorists in the matter of using technology and accessing technology," he said.

"At the same time we will protect the civil libertarian concerns that are involved such as privacy and information surveillance,"the minister said.

Police groups say they are not asking for any new powers but rather the ability to continue their regular investigative activities in the digital age.

Clayton Pecknold of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police said police are working with laws originally written in 1974, a time when wiretapping involved climbing telephone poles.

"The laws were written for a wired world as opposed to the wireless world," he said. "We are not asking that we be given any powers without a court order."

But critics who have been involved in private consultations with the government are expressing concern that the proposed law goes too far and could ultimately be used to nab Canadians as they engage in relatively minor offences such as downloading music, movies and computer software without paying for them.

The law would force Internet service providers to retain records on the Internet use of its clients in such a way that it can be easily retrieved by police, doing away with the need in many cases to seize an individual's computer as part of an investigation.

In her submission to the government earlier this year, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart concluded that Ottawa and the police have not provided enough justification to warrant such a law.

"We remain skeptical about the need for these potentially intrusive and far-reaching measures," she wrote. Ms. Stoddart noted the law could give police access to global-positioning-system data from cellphones combined with electronic banking data that could allow the government to track an individual's every move.

"The digits we punch into a modern telephone do not just connect us to another party, they can also reveal our financial transactions, PIN numbers and passwords, or even health information." Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor who took part in the consultations, said the proposed law goes "well, well beyond" updating references to analog technology. "For individual Canadians, this is an issue that should attract enormous interest because it fundamentally reshapes the Internet in Canada, creating significant new surveillance powers," he said.

Alex Swan, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan, who will be introducing the bill, said the new law will not add any new offences to the current list in the Criminal Code that can be used to justify a wiretap.

While that list of more than 100 crimes does include a host of sections dealing with terrorism and organized crime, it also includes theft, mischief and keeping a gaming or betting house.

Mr. Swan said judicial oversight will prevent police from using the new surveillance law for minor offences, as will the cost involved in using such surveillance methods.