Anti-spam laws in Canada

Find out which laws apply to commercial email.

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Summary

The Canadian Government tabled anti-spam legislation in early 2009. Bill C-27 "The Electronic Commerce Protection Act" addresses spam, counterfeit websites and spyware.

The proposed legislation also amends Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which covers online privacy in detail and contains many provisions relevant to email marketing.

Alternative anti-spam legislation (S-220) is also going through Canada's Senate. See CAUCE North America for info on the progress of the two alternative legislative proposals.

Key documents

Bill C-27
Homepage for C-27, with links to the full text, status, related meeting transcripts, speeches and more.

Industry Canada announcement
The news release and backgrounder that accompanied introduction of the ECPA to parliament.

Bill S-220
Homepage for S-220, with links to the full text, status, related meeting transcripts, speeches and more.

Strategis
Strategis is the Government's business and consumer site and has full background details on PIPEDA, with guidelines and advice for business on ensuring compliance.

Department of Justice
Full text of the PIPEDA regulations.

Task Force on Spam
The government set up a task force on spam which reported in May 2005. This site has all the details, including the full text of the final report.

Interpretation and commentary

CAN-SPAM and Bill C-27 checklist
Canadian ESP ThinData with a set of guidelines on how to comply with the proposed legislation (see link in the article).

CAUCE North America
The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email played an active role in the spam task force and the site contains many good documents, links and commentary on the Canadian situation.

CAUCE presentation
Detailed position statement in support of the ECPA. You can hear the audio recording of the related meeting here.

Canada's Electronic Commerce Protection Act
Matt Vernhout offers a detailed overview of the ECPA.

Canada Bill has Key Differences from Can Spam
Article outlines some of the nuances of C-27.

Uh O Canada
Another look at the differences between US Can-Spam legislation and the proposed Electronic Commerce Protection Act.

Canadian Marketing Association
A brief position statement from the CMA, welcoming the ECPA.

OECD spam task force
A portal to relevant Canadian sites, documents and agencies involved with spam regulation.