The legislation that the Canadian government has passed to control spam will come into full effect on July 1, 2014. While the legislation was originally passed in 2011, and parts of it are already in effect, most of it will come into force on the later date of July 1. For example, there is a new agency - the Spam Reporting Centre (SRC) which is expected to be operational in July. That will be where suspected spam can be reported, and where the enforcement process will originate.
Penalties for sending spam will be heavy - a maximum of $1 million for individuals and $10 million for businesses.
A major impact will be on businesses and organizations sending out mass emailings. They will need to fully conform to the requirements of the legislation, which include the need to obtain consent from recipients before sending the message, the need to fully identify the sender of the messages and, thirdly, the need to provide an easily accessible unsubscribe mechanism for the recipients. some of this has already been in force and has for several years been recognized as good practice by ethical organizations, but now suspected violators will be reportable to the SRC and enforcement proceedings initiated. Regulations to the legislation provide definitions of and explanations of these components.
There is a good deal more to this legislation than these bare facts and the details can be found on the related website at http://www.fightspam.gc.ca/.
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