My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, freely available version) focuses on the latest developments on Canada’s proposed do-not-call list. Last week, committee members engaged in a sad display of self-congratulation as a two-hour House of Commons debate on the bill became an opportunity for several Members of Parliament to highlight their work in limiting the bill' s effectiveness.
Gov’t Caves To Lobbyists on Do-Not-Call Legislation
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“exceptions, including one for Canadian
Would it surprise you to learn that one of the most egregious outbound telemarketing spammers in Canada is the very newspaper in which your column appears?
Here’s a skill-testing question. Which one of the following major newspapers is not a member of CMA and is therefore not bound to abide by its policies including its do-not-contact list?
1. Globe and Mail
2. National Post
3. Toronto Star
my guess is national post because i got a call about subscribing to one of the papers that gets delivered with it in our area
Canada Do-Not-Call Legislation Useless
I’m going to start a new busingess just to show how silly the new legislation is.
1) First I’ll register a bona-fida charity that will help some needy group.
2) Solicit big businesses that rely on invasive telemarketing to sell products and services.
3) Start a boiler room for telemarketing, and sell these products and services to people using telemarketing. Since we’re a charity, we will call on the basis that our charity makes a commission on each sale.
4) Workaround complete. Telemarketing alive and well. Do Not Call legislation rendered useless.
business owner
I soleved this problem by subscribing to Skype and taking out a US phone number. People do not seem to mind phoning me and a permanent call forward puts the call to my cell phone. However, any telemarketers who call will be subject to the US legislation. I suppose if enough people do this, the lawmakers may sit up and take notice.
Phone calls are so inexpensive these days that you don’t need to have a Canadian phone number. I pay 1.7 Euros a minute for long distance.
Skype, by the way, was recently bought out by E-Bay. Not sure whether that is good or bad but the days of the traditional phone companies are numbered from where I sit.
Comment from the States
i liked the idea of the writer walter keirstead about using a phone number from the states. our do not call law is not perfect yet either but somewhat effective. maybe we all need to keep on top of our lawmakers to stop the abusive calling. i just hang up on them in mid sentence myself.