I had my old passport cancelled before it expires because my country issued new passports that time, and were asking people to renew their passports even if they have not reached their expiry date. So my old passport was cancelled in 2008, but had an expiry date till 2011. I have been using my current passport since 2008, but their question was even though your old passport was cancelled, its expiry date still falls in the 3 years period, so you need to translate it too..
so i guess it is a specific case, and they will not need to see ur old passports if they were expired and u never used it to immigrate to Canada..