From: <Minister.Industry@ic.gc.ca>
 Date: March 10, 2010 4:46:47 PM EST
 To: neil@cauce.org
 Subject: The Electronic Commerce Protection Act
 
Thank you for your e-mail in which you express concerns regarding the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA).

The Government of Canada understand the detrimental impact that text message spam, email spam and related online threats pose to both business and consumers.  As a result, during the last election campaign, the Prime Minister promised to introduce anti-spam legislation.

Further to the Prime Minister’s commitment, the proposed ECPA was tabled during the last session of Parliament in the House of Commons on April 24, 2009. It prohibits the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages.  The proposed legislation will deter the most harmful forms of spam and related misleading online activity—such as identity theft, phishing and spyware—from occurring in Canada or being sent from Canada.
 
As well, with the international cooperation provisions built into the legislation, Canada will be able to work with their counterparts to combat spam.

The federal government is committed to the passage of the ECPA and will  act to reintroduce the bill as quickly as possible.

I hope this information will prove useful to you and would like to thank you for taking the time to express your views on this issue. I look forward to seeing this important piece of legislation passed by Parliament.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Clement