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LEGAL REPORT
Privacy law
goes through
the wringer
Major legislative reforms around privacy are coming,
including penalties for non-compliance and the
expected revival of bill C-11, writes Elizabeth Raymer
WHEN CANADA passed its privacy laws in
2000, it could not have foreseen the tremen-
dous pace of technological change in the next
20 years and how that would affect privacy
and data access. The proposed digital charter
implementation act (DCIA), tabled as bill
C-11 in the House of Commons in December
2020, to establish a new privacy law for the
private sector, aimed to respond to those
seismic changes.
That bill died on the order paper with
September's snap federal election. But
Quebec has passed its new privacy legisla-
tion, and three other provinces are reviewing
— or creating — their legislation.
A lot is going on in legislative reforms
of privacy and data regulations, notes
Kirsten Thompson, national leader of the
PRIVACY AND DATA