Canada's New Digital Regulator Sparks Privacy Debate

Canada’s pushing forward with two new digital safety bills, Bill C-34 and C-36, designed to create a powerful new regulator — the Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission — to enforce online privacy and safety rules. But experts are sounding alarms: consolidating power into one “super regulator” could undermine existing protections, especially since the current federal privacy commissioner — who lacks enforcement tools like fines — has already proven effective in high-profile cases like the OpenAI probe. Critics warn the new body, which won’t be operational for 18-24 months, may be overly complex, report to cabinet instead of Parliament, and ultimately weaken oversight. The debate centers on whether Canada should strengthen its current system or build a new, slower-to-launch structure — and whether the latter truly serves the public’s best interest. Support the show:Get a discount at https://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/136dcbe371169c56