The Digital Charter And Shifting Framework For Consent Based Privacy Legislation

I hear some version of this from general counsel more often every year: they don't blindly trust their outside firm anymore, they verify it, the same way they verify every other vendor with access to their data. That shift catches a lot of firms off guard. Lawyers see themselves as trusted advisors, but procurement and legal ops teams see a law firm as one more party holding sensitive information. To them, that means proof, not just a handshake.

Canada's privacy regulator has released new draft guidance establishing comprehensive due diligence standards for organizations evaluating third-party service providers under PIPEDA. The framework introduces eleven best practices covering everything from data flow mapping and AI training data sourcing to vendor lock-in risks and ongoing monitoring obligations, signaling heightened expectations for privacy accountability in vendor relationships.

En juin 2026, le gouvernement fédéral a présenté le projet de loi C-36, qui remplacerait la Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels et les documents électroniques (la LPRPDE) par une nouvelle...

Ce bulletin mensuel a été préparé par le groupe Protection des renseignements confidentiels, vie privée et cybersécurité de Fasken pour vous présenter les actualités et les développements récents qui ont attiré notre attention. Si vous avez des questions sur l’un des sujets abordés dans ce bulletin, communiquez avec l’un des membres de ce groupe, qui se fera un plaisir de vous aider.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s (TRREB) Q4 2025 Commercial Report records commercial and retail average net lease rates at $29.97 per square foot, up 18.3 per cent year-over-year

This is a monthly bulletin published by the Privacy and Cybersecurity Group at Fasken with noteworthy news and updates. If you have any questions about the items in this bulletin, please contact any member of the Privacy and Cybersecurity Group, and we will be pleased to assist.

Canada's proposed Bill C-36 would fundamentally transform private-sector privacy law by replacing PIPEDA with the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act. Organizations face stricter data collection tests, new consent exceptions, explicit AI governance rules, and penalties reaching $25 million or 5% of global revenue for knowing violations.

In June 2026, the federal government introduced Bill C-36, which would effectively replace the existing Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) with a new Protecting Privacy...

When does protecting the public justify reaching into an employee's private life?

Canada is often the first international market a US or European company enters, and it is usually the one leadership underestimates. The language is familiar, the legal system outside Quebec is common law, and the commercial culture feels close to home. That familiarity is exactly what makes Canada expensive for companies that treat market entry as an administrative exercise rather than a legal one.

Canada is positioning itself as a premier destination for institutional investment through legislative reforms, accelerated regulatory approvals, and a new sovereign wealth fund. With ambitious plans to catalyze $1 trillion in investment over five years, the question remains whether Canada can execute major projects with the certainty and speed required to deliver returns that global investors demand.

The AI boom is creating unprecedented demand for GPUs, servers, power systems, cooling infrastructure, and other data center assets in Canada. As highlighted in the Equipment Lease & Finance Association’s (ELFA) recent article, as part of the data center “gold rush,” equipment finance has become a critical part of the capital stack supporting data center development, with lenders increasingly financing GPU-backed infrastructure and related technology assets. Canada’s cooler environment, expansive geography and access to abundant water and electricity in certain provinces, make the country a desirable location to build data centers.

The Canada Revenue Agency has issued new guidance on how non-profit organizations can manage accumulated surpluses and investment income while maintaining their tax-exempt status under the Income Tax Act. Meanwhile, the Department of Finance has proposed expanded reporting requirements that will significantly affect NPOs with annual revenues above $100,000 starting in 2027.

Canada has announced sweeping counter-tariffs ranging from 15% to 50% on approximately C$27.6 billion of US imports, effective September 8, 2026, in direct response to President Trump's 50% Section 338 tariffs on Canadian goods. The measures target key sectors including steel, aluminum, dairy, appliances, and electronics, while the federal government simultaneously rolls out C$7.5 billion in support for affected businesses and workers. Understanding whether products qualify as US goods under Canada's markin

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has implemented sweeping procedural changes to address its notorious backlog and accessibility concerns.

On August 17, 2026, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) issued Decision 30732-D01-2026 in which it denied Synapse Real Estate Corp.’s (Synapse) application to build and operate a natural gas power plant in Olds, Alberta. Unusually, the decision was made without a hearing.

The US Department of Commerce’s recent imposition in mid-June of an export licensing requirement (since lifted at end of June for select US entities) on exports, reexports, and in-country transfers of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5 Model and Claude Fable 5 Model to all destinations worldwide and to “all foreign persons” is a stark reminder of how export controls may go beyond the control of physical goods and also apply to intangible goods such as software, AI models, or technology transfers in the cloud. More recent news about AI models going rogue and a proposed bipartisan “AI Kill Switch” bill introduced by two US congressmen foreshadow additional controls in the near future.

A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd. has dramatically altered the landscape for equity compensation plans in Canada. The ruling found that Restricted Stock Unit forfeiture provisions may violate Employment Standards Act minimum standards, resulting in a multi-million dollar damages award. Employers using RSUs or similar equity-based compensation must now reassess whether their plan documents comply with evolving judicial interpretations of statutory notice period prote

The Supreme Court of Canada has established a national test for spoliation and clarified how courts should remedy the destruction of evidence in litigation. While document preservation demands must be taken seriously, adverse inferences do not automatically entitle parties to maximum damages—courts retain discretion to craft remedies that fit the circumstances and must ensure inferences genuinely fill evidentiary gaps rather than merely conform to existing evidence.

A change of trustee is often treated as a routine administrative change rather than a taxable event. However, it can create important tax consequences, particularly where the trust owns corporate shares, the replacement trustee has contributed property to the trust, or trustee residency affects the trust’s tax residence.