Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of New Anti-Spam Bill

The Library of Parliament has released a legislative summary of Bill C-28: The Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act:

"This bill may be cited as the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act (FISA) (...)"

"FISA can be seen as a complement to the e-commerce legislation that has gradually been developing in each of the Canadian provinces and territories over the past 10 years. E-commerce legislation has been enacted by every Canadian provincial and territorial jurisdiction except for the Northwest Territories, largely based on the model Uniform Electronic Commerce Act originally created by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada in 1998. These provincial and territorial Acts have thus far served as the underpinning for a burgeoning e-commerce sector across the country. FISA will expand the federal government's participation in this area considerably. Up to now, the main federal legislation related to e-commerce has been the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which governs basic privacy requirements for private sector organizations and electronic documents within federal jurisdiction and in provinces or territories that have not yet established their own similar legislation. FISA specifies that in the event of any conflict between FISA and PIPEDA, it is now FISA that will prevail. On 25 May 2010, along with FISA, the government introduced a companion bill, C-29, to update PIPEDA as well."

"Canada is the last of the G8 countries to introduce specific anti-spam legislation. There are some existing Criminal Code provisions that were identified by the task force as being of possible assistance in prosecuting spam cases, and the task force worked with the Department of Justice and the Technological Crime Branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police during 2004-2005 to identify the evidentiary requirements to bring a charge under the existing provisions, although when the task force report was published, these provisions had not been used for this purpose. Other agencies, such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Competition Bureau, have received complaints from members of the public about spam as well, but there has been no overarching framework for addressing such complaints."

"FISA will provide a clear regulatory scheme, including administrative monetary penalties, with respect to both spam and related threats from unsolicited electronic contact, including identity theft, phishing, spyware, viruses, and botnets. It will also grant an additional right of civil action to businesses and consumers targeted by the perpetrators of such activities."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill in Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.