Anti-spam bill before Canadian senate

CANADA-- A new bill before the Canadian senate wants to ban unsolicited commercial emails – but researchers should have nothing to fear as it exempts messages sent for the purpose of colleting survey data.

Bill S-220 was introduced by Senator Yoine Goldstein in early February and has had a second reading. It is currently awaiting referral to a committee – although that is not guaranteed.

If the government doesn't speak to the bill it will drop off the order paper, but were that to happen the opposition senator will likely re-table it at some point in the future.

Senator Goldstein has already introduced the anti-spam bill in two previous sessions of parliament.

The representative of Quebec believes spam has “rapidly progressed from a simple nuisance to become a disturbing vehicle for criminal activity and a threat to the growth of e-commerce”.

He said: “Despite the widespread recognition that spam is a serious problem that costs our economy billions in fraud and lost productivity, Canada remains the only G8 country without anti-spam legislation.”

Writing in the latest issue of the Canadian Marketing Research and Intelligence Association's magazine Vue, executive director Brendan Wycks notes that “senate private members bills from the opposition rarely get adopted”.

However commentators believe that at the least, Senator Goldstein's efforts will focus attention on the government's own anti-spam plans, or lack thereof.

Author: Brian Tarran

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