CRTC to hold secret hearings on alleged do-not-call list abusers
The Toronto Star lifts the curtain on a clandestine conference call to be convened by the CRTC next week to determine whether three unnamed telemarketing firms have “knowingly violated” Canada’s do-not-call list. According to the Star, the agency “has gone to extraordinary lengths” to shield the identities of the firms involved, as well as the specific allegations leveled against them. An unnamed agency official claims that the idea is to “incite people to pay fines” rather than fight the charges, but Queen’s University law professor and privacy maven Alan Cockfield wants to see the companies named and shamed. “Disclosing the identity of the telemarketing company would act as a significant deterrent,” he told the Star. “The so-called shaming factor.”