CASL is Canada’s new Anti-Spam legislation that comes into force on July 1, 2014. CASL regulates commercial electronic messages (“CEM”s), which are electronic messages (including emails, text messages and instant messaging) that are meant to encourage the recipient’s participation in a commercial activity. CEMs include messages that:

a)       Offer to purchase, sell, barter or lease a product, goods, a service, land or an interest or right in land;

b)      Offer to provide a business, investment or gaming opportunity; or

c)       Advertise or promote any of the above.

VCH rarely, if ever, sends CEMs; most messages sent by VCH serve no commercial purpose and do not encourage participation in a commercial activity. For example, our Public Health Surveillance Unit sends emails promoting the My Health My Community survey project. These messages are not CEMs because the purpose of the message is to gather information to improve our community’s public health initiatives. Many of VCH’s messages are sent for purely health care related purposes and are therefore not subject to CASL.

CEMs that VCH does send will likely fall under one or more of CASL’s many exemptions, which include messages sent by an individual to a friend or family member and CEMs between employees of the same organization where the message concerns the activities of the organization.

If VCH does send CEMs are not exempt, VCH must conform to certain requirements set out in the legislation or risk administrative penalties.

Because VCH is such a large organization, it is difficult to evaluate all the types of electronic messages being sent by VCH programs and departments, and whether and to what extent CASL will apply to those messages. For this reason, each VCH department should take an inventory of the types of electronic messages it routinely sends and determine whether those messages are being sent for a commercial purpose (e.g. messages encouraging staff to take advantage of discounts or sales).

CEM’s that are subject to CASL must conform to certain consent and content requirements. For example, each CEM must contain an unsubscribe mechanism that allows the recipient to opt-out of receiving similar messages in the future. If you think that you or your department is planning to send CEMs, contact Legal Services or Communications to ensure that your messages comply with the law.

If you think that you are receiving CEMs from a VCH employee or VCH department, please contact Legal Services.

CASL does not apply to messages sent by or on behalf of a registered charity (such as the VGH-UBC Hospital Foundation) for the purpose of raising money for that charity.

The VCH Research Institute (VCHRI) sends emails to VCH staff regarding research studies being conducted in order to inform staff and recruit participants. These emails are not subject to CASL for two reasons; because they are not sent for a commercial purpose (participating voluntarily in a medical research study is not the same as participating in a commercial activity) and because they are internal communications about a VCH activity which is a listed exception under the law regardless of the message’s purpose.