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Canada is known for its flexible and technology-friendly approach to the document signing process. But unlike a majority of countries worldwide, Canada is a federation that consists of 10 provinces and three territories.

This means that both federal and provincial law regulates eSignatures. Contract law in Canada is provincial, so the validity of each agreement reached between two or more parties (unless they are regulated federally) is governed by the law of each province.

 On the federal level, the use of eSignatures was officially endorsed by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The act became in effect in 2004. According to the law, each kind of eSignature is equivalent to a physical one and are fully court-admissible. Each company operating in the Canadian market is free to use both digital and paper documents — the law recognizes them as equally valid.

However, PIPEDA has reiterated the explicit requirements for an electronic signature to be secure. According to them, an eSignature should be:

• Unique and distinctive
• Created under signer’s sole control
• Can confirm the identity of the signer
• Protected by the technology that can detect any subsequent changes in the document

You can’t just draw an “X” or another kind of icon to sign your document. Marks like these can’t be identified as unique and can’t prove your identity. 

Yes, eSignature laws allow signing documents without ink and pen with additional amendments to various acts such as Business Corporations Act, Limited Partnership Act, Corporation Information Act and others with the enactment of the Alternative Filing Methods for Business Act, 2020.

Yes, you can provide a digital document signed electronically as evidence in court as well as a paper one.