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By Vito Pilieci

OTTAWA — Canadian judges and politicians have grown too old and out of touch with the reality of today’s digital world to be trusted to make sound decisions about privacy rights, Ontario’s privacy watchdog has warned.

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Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian said she is frustrated with recent judicial decisions that she believes trivialize Canadian privacy rights.

She also criticized the federal government’s planned “lawful access” legislation — Bill C-50 and Bill C-51 — which Cavoukian believes will amount to a major breach of rights and freedoms.

“We are talking about the expansion of surveillance without judicial authorization. This should scare you,” she said.

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“It has nothing to do with having something to hide. In a free and democratic society, why does the state have the ability to order the citizen to reveal personal information? There is nothing written anywhere [in law] that says the state can ask for whatever it wants,” she told the Privacy & Information Security Congress 2011 conference in Ottawa.