Enforcing
Canada’s Anti-Spam
Legislation (CASL)

CRTC looks at the development of a network-level blocking framework to limit botnet traffic and strengthen Canadians’ online safety

Botnets facilitate some of the most damaging cyber-attacks, including ransomware and identity theft. These attacks cause significant harm to Canadians, businesses and organizations that provide critical services such as hospitals, schools and government bodies.

To address this issue, in January 2021, the CRTC launched a consultation on the appropriateness and need for TSPs to adopt blocking techniques within their networks, including what safeguards would be necessary to ensure privacy, transparency and effectiveness.

Between April and August 2021, the CRTC received over 40 submissions from a variety of parties including Canadian citizens, the telecommunications industry, academics, and some Government of Canada departments and agencies with Cyber Security mandates.

To find out more on the CRTC’s examination of measures to block botnet traffic to help prevent cyber-attacks and help to protect Canadians, consult Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2021-9.

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• 253 Notices to Produce
• 16 Preservation Demands

Payments and Penalties Under CASL

Since CASL came into force in 2014, enforcement efforts have resulted in more than $1.4 million payable. Of this amount, approximately $805,000 is from administrative monetary penalties^{Footnote 1} and $668,000 from negotiated undertakings.

Between April 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021

That’s 5,939 per week.

Approximately 4,556 of these complaints were submitted using the online form, which represents only about 3% of total complaints. The remainder of complaints were sent by email at spam@fightspam.gc.ca.

The CRTC encourages Canadians to use the SRC’s online form to provide as much information as possible about potential CASL violations. The information provided by Canadians is an essential part of the intelligence the Spam Reporting Centre gathers on spam and electronic threats. Each report is valuable and helps us to enforce CASL.

Reasons why Canadians complain

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Complaint reasons and percentages

• Lack of consent: 88%
• Indentification of sender: 44%
• Deceptive Marketing Practices: 39%
• Other: 23%
• Software and malware: 4%

Note: The total does not add to 100% since Canadians can select more than one category for a complaint.

Per month complaints about consent highest in September 2021

Looking at submissions from Canadians to the SRC over the last 6 months, per month complaints about consent issues were at their highest in September 2021.

Note: Statistics derived from spam reports filed through the SRC online form.

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Year-Month	Consent for messages	Deceptive Marketing Practices	Identification	Other	Software and malware	Grand Total
Apr-21	743	304	327	139	26	1,539
May-21	735	306	310	149	22	1,522
Jun-21	678	252	257	151	14	1,352
Jul-21	631	196	213	101	20	1,161
Aug-21	669	204	257	133	50	1,313
Sep-21	823	292	321	165	48	1,649
Grand Total	4,279	1,554	1,685	838	180	8,536

Collaboration with International Partners

The CRTC has also forged partnerships with organizations across the globe in order to better fulfill its mandate. The CRTC is part of the Unsolicited Communications Enforcement Network (UCENet). Members from over 26 countries work together to promote international spam enforcement cooperation and address problems relating to spam and unsolicited telecommunications.