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Risks! by Quinn Daedal https://flic.kr/p/2oVQZdr CC BY-SA 2.0

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 275: David Loukidelis on Why Stripping Privacy Enforcement from Canada’s Privacy Commissioner in Bill C-36 is Unnecessarily Risky Policy

he government’s privacy reform bill was supposed to earn applause for its effort to modernize outdated rules and provide Canadians with stronger privacy protections. Yet the decision to strip the Privacy Commissioner of Canada of responsibility for private-sector privacy law and shift that responsibility to the Digital Safety Commission has sparked widespread concern among Canadian privacy experts.

This week’s Law Bytes podcast features David Loukidelis, one of Canada’s best-regarded former privacy commissioners. Loukidelis served as BC’s Information and Privacy Commissioner from 1999 to 2010, where he was responsible for the enforcement of BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Personal Information Protection Act, which came into force in 2004. He joins me on the podcast to share his thoughts on the enforcement changes in the bill and what it may mean for privacy in Canada.

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July 6, 2026 — 0 comments — Podcasts
Social media by Christiaan Colen https://flic.kr/p/wuatgm CC BY-SA 2.0

The Data on Australia’s Social Media Ban: The Better the Privacy Protection, The Less Effective the Ban

As regular readers know, the Canadian plan to establish a social media ban for under 16s in Bill C-34 is based largely on the Australian model that took effect last December. With more data on the ban’s effectiveness continuing to roll in, multiple studies now confirm that it simply hasn’t worked as the majority of under-age users still have access to social media accounts. Yet rather than treating that as a reason to reconsider the model, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Parliament in late June that his government is working “as a priority” to strengthen the law. The failure highlights a troubling correlation: the better the privacy protection, the less effective the ban. In other words, since users will find ways to circumvent the ban, “strengthening” the law likely means less privacy and more surveillance.

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July 3, 2026 — 4 comments — News
Indoor location services on mobile phone by Intel Free Press CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/hDFizh

Shaky Ground Gets Shakier: What the U.S. Supreme Court’s Location Data Decision Means for Bill C-22

When the government rushed Bill C-22 through the House of Commons last month, it defended the lawful access mandatory metadata retention requirement as consistent with similar rules established by Canada’s Five Eyes allies. Yet the U.S. has never imposed a comparable obligation to retain every subscriber’s transmission data, and this week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision that further solidifies the view that Bill C-22 is disproportionate and inconsistent with widely held understandings of privacy.

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July 2, 2026 — 1 comment — News
Solomon and Miller by Michael Geist

The Two Weeks That Reshaped Canada’s Digital Policy

It started with an unexpected early-morning announcement on June 3, 2026, from Marc Miller, the Minister of Identity and Culture. Mr. Miller said that the government planned to direct the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada’s broadcast regulator, to review its two-week-old decision that imposed hundreds of millions in new investment requirements on internet streaming services. My Globe and Mail essay that appeared over the weekend notes that the move came as a surprise, not only because he had chastised the commission a month earlier for moving too slowly, but also because it marked a major reversal of a core Canadian digital policy that had been years in the making. The decision sent shock waves through the cultural sector, but it was only the start.

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June 30, 2026 — 0 comments — Columns
Google_ATV_Reference_RCU_G10_-_Netflix_button by Paowee, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 274: Mark Musselman on What Stakeholders Really Think About the Government’s Reversal of the CRTC Online Streaming Act Decision

Earlier this month, the government shocked the culture sector by announcing it was effectively reversing the CRTC decision that implemented the Online Streaming Act. Culture Minister Marc Miller tried to cushion the blow with a promise of $600 million in support for the audio and audiovisual sectors, but there was no escaping the anger from some over abandoning a policy that had been years in the making. Mark Musselman is a former entertainment lawyer, longtime Canadian movie producer, and the author of the excellent White Paper Black Coffee Substack. He returns to the Law Bytes podcast to discuss the reversal, the stakeholder reaction, and the challenges that lie ahead.

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June 29, 2026 — 1 comment — Podcasts
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