University Legal Services represents the University of Calgary; we advise senior leadership and act on behalf of the University in all legal matters.

No. University Legal Services cannot represent or provide legal advice to individual faculty members, staff, or students with regards to non-University business or personal matters. 

For non-University business or personal matters, please contact the SLA office in the Faculty of Law.

No. University Legal Services cannot notarize or commission documents for individual faculty members, staff, or students with regards to non-University business or personal matters. 

For non-University business or personal matters, please contact the SLA office in the Faculty of Law.

No. University Legal Services cannot provide legal advice on a contract in this instance as faculty members retain copyright to their materials. However, the Copyright Office may be able to offer guidance and respond to general questions in regards to author rights and publishing agreements.

No. Only University Legal Services has the authority to retain external counsel on behalf of the University. Please contact us if you think external counsel needs to be retained for any reason.

The Delegation of Authority Policy sets out who has the authority to sign documents on behalf of the University. 

No person has the authority to make any decisions or sign any document if it creates an obligation or undertaking on behalf of the University, unless:

• the person has authority as set out in the Delegation of Authority Policy,
• the person has authority as set out in a resolution of the Board of Governors or the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors, or
• the person has sub-delegated or temporary authority.

Please review the Delegation of Authority Policy for more information.

A commercial electronic message (CEM) is an electronic message in which it would be reasonable to conclude that the content (including the message, the hyperlinks within the message that link to content on a website or other database, or the contact information within the message) encourages participation in a commercial activity. 

CASL does not apply to phone calls or information sent by regular mail.

Commercial activity is defined as any activity of a commercial character, whether or not there is an expectation of profit. Examples of commercial activity include (i) the purchase, sale or lease of goods, services or land, (ii) providing a business, investment or gaming opportunity, and (iii) advertising or promoting any of these activities.

The core activities of the University, i.e. teaching, learning, scholarship and research, are not commercial activities. Consequently, electronic messages that relate solely to these core activities are not CEMs. Messages about student recruitment and information sessions, or about public lectures, exhibitions or performances relating to faculty or student initiatives are also examples of messages related to the University’s core activities. For more guidance, please refer to the Applying CASL section of our Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation page.

It may be difficult to determine whether an electronic message relates to any of the University's core activities or whether it promotes a commercial activity. If you are uncertain about whether or not a message has a commercial purpose, please contact us.

If the dominant purpose of a message is educational, informational or for raising funds, normally CASL will not apply. However, if there is commercial content in the message which encourages participation in a commercial activity, such as a banner ad for a commercial product/service or a link to a for-profit business' website, this is now a 'mixed purpose' message in which CASL may apply. 

If you are uncertain about whether or not a message has a commercial purpose, please contact us.

Generally, you need the recipient’s consent before you send them a CEM. Consent can be expressed (opt-in) or implied. Consent is implied if (i) the sender and the recipient have an existing business or non-business relationship, or (ii) the recipient's has given or has conspicuously published their business contact information, and the CEM is relevant to the recipient’s business/role and the recipient has not indicated they do not want to receive unsolicited CEMs.

Exceptions include messages sent:

• in response to a recipient’s request for information;
• to facilitate or complete a transaction the recipient previously agreed to; and
• to provide factual information related to a recipient’s ongoing subscription or membership with the sender. 

An existing business relationship is a relationship between the sender (i.e. the University) and the recipient of a CEM resulting from:

(i) the recipient’s purchase, sale or lease of goods, services or land within the last 2 years; 
(ii) the recipient’s acceptance of a business, investment or gaming opportunity within the last 2 years; 
(iii) a written contract between the recipient and the University relating to some other matter, if the contract is still in effect or has expired within the last 2 years; or 
(iv) an inquiry or application made, within the last 6 months, by the recipient to the University relating to anything in (i) or (ii). 

An existing non-business relationship is a relationship between the sender (i.e. the University) and the recipient of a CEM resulting from:

(i) a donation or gift made by the recipient to the University within the last 2 years; 
(ii) volunteer work done by the recipient for the University within the last 2 years; or
(iii) membership in a club, association or voluntary association in the past 2 years. 

CEMs that are subject to CASL must contain the following information.

• the name of the University, as well as the faculty, school, institute, centre, or administrative unit sending the message
• the full mailing address of the sender as well as a phone number, email address, or website where the sender can be contacted
• an unsubscribe mechanism

The unsubscribe mechanism must be easy to use, free of cost, and must take effect within 10 business days. It should allow the recipient to unsubscribe from the mailing list used to send the message that prompted the unsubscribe response. It should not ask the recipient if they wish to unsubscribe from all commercial electronic messages sent by the University since, at this time, there is no way to ensure that request can be implemented across all faculties, schools, institutes, centres, and administrative units. Remember to keep track of all unsubscribe requests to ensure that in the future CEMs are not mistakenly sent out to an individual who does not wish to receive them. 

It is good practice to include an unsubscribe mechanism on all electronic messages, whether or not they are CEMs, if those messages are sent to parties external to the University. For example, messages simply inviting alumni to University events or asking donors for a donation should include an unsubscribe mechanism.