OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian families could soon enjoy a measure of peace and quiet at dinner time as the result of legislation introduced on Monday to limit the right of telemarketers to make unsolicited calls.
The new legislation would pave the way for a national do-not-call list, matching popular registries in the United States and Britain.
“We want to give Canadians an easy and effective way to protect their privacy and stop intrusive telemarketing,” Industry Minister David Emerson said in introducing the bill.
Currently, Canadian telemarketers must maintain individual do-not-call lists, but this requires people to add their names to potentially hundreds of separate lists. Monday’s bill would create one central registry.
The federal telecoms regulator will also consider whether to exclude certain types of calls, for example from charities and pollsters, from the national list.
In the United States, 60 million phone numbers have been placed on its do-not-call registry.
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Federal government introduces do-not-call bill
CTV.ca News Staff