Canada has introduced Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act, marking the country's first significant reform of private-sector privacy law since the late 1990s. The legislation formally recognises privacy as a fundamental right and expands protections to cover information that AI systems infer about individuals — not just data they directly provide — while also strengthening children's data rights and requiring greater transparency when automated systems make decisions about people. Experts broadly welcome the reforms but caution that the bill addresses only part of the challenge, arguing that effective AI governance must also tackle algorithmic fairness and age-appropriate platform design, not merely data collection.