On October 20, 2004, Senator Donald Oliver re-introduced anti-spam legislation to prevent unsolicited messages on the Internet. Bill S-15 (the Spam Control Act) contains the following initiatives:
- It allows the Minister of Industry to establish an Internet Consumer Protection Council to set standards for its members and for procedures to be used to reduce spam;
- It creates a national "no-spam" list, to which any person may add his or her e-mail address(es). The Bill makes it an offence to send spam to a person whose address is on the list;
- Wherever a message is initiated and received by a person in Canada, the message is deemed to have been sent to that person and the act of sending is deemed to have been carried out in Canada;
- It provides for stronger penalties in respect of messages that involve pornography, explicit sexual activity, or attempted fraud, or that target children as recipients;
- It establishes a civil right of action in nuisance against spammers. Damage is deemed to have been caused if the volume is sufficient to cause inconvenience; and
- It regulates Internet Service Provider (ISP) practices. An ISP commits an offence if it fails to install a "spam filter" or fails to use reasonable efforts to prevent spam from going to the provider's customers.