Canada
- Office of the Privacy
Commissioner of Canada
Canada has not enacted any spam-specific legislation, but is currently
examining the need for it, based on the effectiveness of existing measures
available in various statutes, including the Competition Act, the Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and the Criminal
Code of Canada. Those statutes include some, although not all, of the measures
that are generally available in spam-specific legislation The Competition Bureau
can take action on spam that includes information that is false or misleading in
a material respect, and both civil and criminal processes are available under
the Competition Act. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada can
address the use or collection of personal information without consent, as well
as failure to respect opt-out requests. An application can also be made to the
Federal Court of Canada, either by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of
Canada or by complainants, for damages arising from a breach of PIPEDA. The
Criminal Code of Canada can address spam involving fraud or other illegal
activities, and also includes provisions prohibiting the unauthorized use or
abuse of computers. Canada, arguably, has an opt-in regime, pursuant to the
requirements of PIPEDA, which requires commercial bulk emailers who establish or
acquire lists of email addresses to ensure that their recipients have given some
form of consent to receive commercial solicitation. Email addresses can only be
used for the purpose for which they are collected, and can only be put to
secondary uses if the owners of these email addresses consent. While PIPEDA was
not designed to address spam, it has, in this way, effectively established an
opt-in regime in Canada. Furthermore, PIPEDA requires that unsubscribe functions
be operative and respected in such emails. On May 11, 2004, the Government of
Canada launched the Anti-Spam Action Plan for Canada and announced the creation
of a joint government - private sector task force to combat spam.
On May 17, 2005, the Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry, received
the final report of the Task Force entitled
Stopping Spam: Creating a Stronger, Safer Internet. The report includes a
range of recommendations including more rigorous law enforcement, public
education, policy development and legislation.
|