Telecommunications Act

Marginal note:Designation of inspectors

• 71 (1) The Commission may designate any qualified person as an inspector for the purpose of verifying compliance with the provisions of this Act or any special Act for which the Commission is responsible and with the decisions of the Commission under this Act.

• Marginal note:Idem

  (2) The Minister may designate any qualified person as an inspector for the purpose of verifying compliance with the provisions of this Act for which the Minister is responsible.

• Marginal note:Certificate

  (3) An inspector shall be provided with a certificate of designation, which certificate the inspector shall present at the request of any person appearing to be in charge of any place entered by the inspector.

• Marginal note:Powers of inspectors

  (4) An inspector may, for the purposes for which the inspector was designated an inspector,

  • (a) subject to subsection (5), enter and inspect, at any reasonable time, any place owned by or under the control of any Canadian carrier in which the inspector believes on reasonable grounds there is any document, information or thing relevant to the enforcement of this Act or any special Act, and examine the document, information or thing or remove it for examination or reproduction;

  • (b) make use of or cause to be made use of any data processing system at the place to examine any data contained in or available to the system;

  • (c) reproduce any record or cause it to be reproduced from the data in the form of a print-out or other intelligible output and take the print-out or other output for examination or copying; and

  • (d) make use of any copying equipment or means of communication located at the place.

• Marginal note:Warrant required to enter dwelling-place

  (5) An inspector may not enter a dwelling-place except with the consent of the occupant or under the authority of a warrant issued under subsection (6).

• Marginal note:Authority to issue warrant

  (6) Where on ex parte application a justice, as defined in section 2 of the Criminal Code, is satisfied by information on oath

  • (a) that a dwelling-place is a place described in paragraph (4)(a),

  • (b) that entry to the dwelling-place is necessary for the enforcement of this Act or any special Act, and

  • (c) that entry has been refused, there are reasonable grounds for believing that entry will be refused, or consent to entry cannot be obtained from the occupant,

  the justice may issue a warrant authorizing an inspector named in the warrant to enter the dwelling-place, subject to any conditions specified in the warrant.

• Marginal note:Use of force

  (7) An inspector executing a warrant issued under subsection (6) shall not use force unless the inspector is accompanied by a peace officer and the use of force has been specifically authorized in the warrant.