In order to try and give you the shortest answer possible, legislation governing or currently managing the collecting of evidence, in the sense of lawful access to communications, goes back to 1974. The provision was added to Part 6 of the Criminal Code in 1974. The technologies targeted by that legislation in 1974 no longer exist today. So this is not a situation whereby the police community is asking for powers in addition to those that existed at that time. We are not asking for police to have the right to access anyone's communications without authorization. What we are asking for is the ability to access communications that are happening through new technology, current technology.
On March 25th, 2009. See this statement in context.