Killing an endangered blue whale has a softer penalty than breaching Canada's new anti-spam laws by sending a single unsolicited email. The Canadian anti-spam legislation (full text) is now in force and penalties for violations are theoretically up to $1 million for an individual who sends one email without consent and $10 million for a business.
$1 million for sending one spam message is completely out of step with the penalties for other Canadian laws. Here are a few examples of penalties for individuals under other laws:
$250,000: Killing an endangered Atlantic Blue Whale (of which there are about 250 left in the world).
$25,000: Lying to border officials.
$10,000: Abandoning radioactive uranium without a license.
$1500: Phoning someone on the federal Do Not Call List.
$150: Having your license taken away for driving drunk.