The Toronto Strategic Partnership

Backgrounder

October 22, 2002

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The Competition Bureau is one of the founding members of the Toronto Strategic Partnership, which also includes the Ontario Ministry of Consumer and Business Services, the Ontario Provincial Police, PhoneBusters National Call Centre, the Toronto Police Service, the United States Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

The purpose of the Partnership is to coordinate law enforcement activities among the partners, to identify fraudulent, deceptive and misleading marketing practices, to facilitate information sharing among the partners and to support each other's law enforcement actions against persons and entities that engage in various types of deceptive marketing practices consistent with their laws, priorities and resources.

The partners develop and engage in joint investigations of deceptive marketing practices involving companies in Ontario targeting United States citizens as well as companies in the United States targeting Ontario citizens. They meet on a regular basis to develop, evaluate, and coordinate their law enforcement strategies and techniques.

The Toronto Strategic Partnership was formed in May 2001 as part of a broad initiative by the Canadian and American governments to improve the enforcement of deceptive marketing practices laws to protect business and consumers from this criminal activity.

In August 2002, the Partnership was chosen from among 132 candidates to receive the Bronze Award for Innovative Management, established in 1990 by the Institute of Public Administration Canada to acknowledge public sector excellence and recognize organizational achievement in the public sector.