Excerpt from the
Radiocommunication Act.
OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENT
- Prohibitions
- 9. (1)
No person shall
- (a)
knowingly send, transmit or cause to be sent or transmitted any false or fraudulent distress signal, message, call or radiogram of any kind;
- (b)
without lawful excuse, interfere with or obstruct any radiocommunication;
- (c)
decode an encrypted subscription programming signal or encrypted network feed otherwise than under and in accordance with an authorization from the lawful distributor of the signal or feed;
- (d)
operate a radio apparatus so as to receive an encrypted subscription programming signal or encrypted network feed that has been decoded in contravention of paragraph (c); or
- (e)
retransmit to the public an encrypted subscription programming signal or encrypted network feed that has been decoded in contravention of paragraph (c).
- Prohibition
- (1.1)
Except as prescribed, no person shall make use of or divulge a radio-based telephone communication
- (a)
if the originator of the communication or the person intended by the originator of the communication to receive it was in Canada when the communication was made; and
- (b)
unless the originator, or the person intended by the originator to receive the communication consents to the use or divulgence.
- Idem
- (2)
Except as prescribed, no person shall intercept and make use of, or intercept and divulge, any radiocommunication, except as permitted by the originator of the communication or the person intended by the originator of the communication to receive it.
- Exceptions
- (3)
Subsection (2) does not apply in respect of radiocommunication that consists of broadcasting, a subscription programming signal or a network feed.
[1989, c.17, s.6; 1991, c.11, s.83; 1993, c.40, s.24.]
- Penalties
- 9.1
Every person who contravenes subsection 9(1.1) or (2) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable
- (a)
in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both; and
- (b)
in the case of a person other than an individual, to a fine not exceeding seventy-five thousand dollars.
[1993, c.40, s.25.]
- Offences
- 10. (1)
Every person who
- (a)
contravenes section 4 or paragraph 9(1)(a) or (b),
- (b)
without lawful excuse, manufactures, imports, distributes, leases, offers for sale, sells, installs, modifies, operates or possesses any equipment or device, or any component thereof, under circumstances that give rise to a reasonable inference that the equipment, device or component has been used, or is or was intended to be used, for the purpose of contravening section 9,
- (c)
contravenes or fails to comply with an order issued by the Minister under paragraph 5(1)(l), or
- (d)
contravenes or fails to comply with a regulation, where no punishment is prescribed by regulations made under paragraph 6(1)(r) for that contravention or failure to comply,
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable, in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both, or, in the case of a
corporation, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars.
- Idem
- (2)
Every person who contravenes or fails to comply with subsection 8(5) or (6) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars.
- Idem
- (2.1)
Every person who contravenes paragraph 9(1)(c) or (d) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable, in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both, or, in the case of a corporation, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars.
- Idem
- (2.2)
Every person who contravenes paragraph 9(1)(e) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable, in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding twenty thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both, or, in the case of a corporation, to a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand dollars.
- Exception
- (2.3)
No person who decodes an encrypted subscription programming signal in contravention of paragraph 9(1)(c) shall be convicted of an offence under that paragraph if the lawful distributor had the lawful right to make the signal available, on payment of a subscription fee or other charge, to persons in the area where the signal was decoded but had not made the signal readily available to those persons.
- Not lawful excuse
- (2.4)
Nothing in subsection (2.3) shall constitute a lawful excuse for any person to manufacture, import, distribute, lease, offer for sale or sell any equipment or device, or any component thereof, in contravention of paragraph (1)(b).
- Due diligence
- (2.5)
No person shall be convicted of an offence under paragraph 9(1)(c), (d) or (e) if the person exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence.
- Continuing offence
- (3)
Where an offence under this section is committed or continued on more than one day, the person who committed the offence is liable to be convicted for a separate offence for each day on which the offence is committed or continued.
- Injunctions
- (4)
Where a court of competent jurisdiction is satisfied, on application by the Minister, that an offence under paragraph (1)(a) is being or is likely to be committed, the court may grant an injunction, subject to such conditions as the court considers appropriate, ordering any person to cease or refrain from any activity related to that offence.
- Federal Court
- (5)
For the purposes of subsection (4), the Federal Court is a court of competent jurisdiction.
- Limitation
- (6)
A prosecution for an offence under this Act may be commenced within, but not after, three years after the day on which the subject-matter of the offence arose.
[1989, c.17, s.6; 1991, c.11, s.84.]
Excerpt from the
Radiocommunication Act.