Alex Trebek may be one of the only Canadians on Jeopardy! next season. Producers from the show have barred Canadians from taking the most recent round of online tests, which recruit future contestants, because they are concerned about complying with Canada’s online privacy regulations.

Could Alex Trebek could be the only Canadian on Jeopardy!? ( AP )

“As international laws governing how information is shared over the internet are ever-changing and complex, we are currently investigating how we can accept registrations from potential Canadian contestants,” spokesperson Alison Shapiro said in an email. “The Jeopardy! Adult, Teen, and College tests have already taken place this year, and we are making every effort to find a solution before the next round of testing is available.” It’s a blow for the legions of Canadian Jeopardy! fans who dream of asking Trebek the right question and winning fame and fortune. The show’s silver-tongued host even felt compelled to comment on the exclusion, telling the Ottawa Citizen that it was “an issue affecting my native country and the show I love.”

Article Continued Below

“It is true that for the most recent Jeopardy! contestant tryouts, Canadians were precluded from taking the online test, since the show must now comply with new rules set down by the Canadian government,” he told the Citizen. Because people stay on the Jeopardy! contestant list for 18 months, there may be some Canadians from last year’s test that could still be eligible, Trebek said, adding that several Canadians have already appeared this season. “We have had many Canadians as contestants throughout the history of the show, and we hope that will continue, because Canadians make great game show contestants. We look forward to having more try out as soon as we are sure we can comply with all Canadian online privacy laws,” he said. Neither Trebek nor the producers were able to pinpoint what exactly the issue is with Canada’s privacy laws that prevent Canadians from completing the online tests. Requests made by the Toronto Star to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission and Industry Canada were similarly fruitless.

No government department could say what the problem might be with the online test, or which department questions about the test should be directed to. Ultimately, it shouldn’t be too hard to create an online test that is compliant with this country’s privacy laws, said Chad Finkelstein, a lawyer with Dale and Lessman LLP who has written about business compliance with privacy laws.

Article Continued Below

“It seems to me that those hurdles are very easy to get around,” Finkelstein said. The biggest difference between here and the United States, Finkelstein said, is how we treat spam. In force since July 1 2014, Canada's anti-spam legislation forbids companies from emailing citizens without their express or implied permission. In the U.S., it’s enough to allow customers to opt-out. If a person signs up for a product or service in Canada, companies can only communicate with the person about that product or service. Ryan Black, lawyer at McMillan LLP, said the decision could have been triggered by a new feature on the website, or the producers could have just gotten nervous. The penalties for breaking anti-spam laws are steep, and can rack up fines up to $10 million. “It’s especially onerous,” said Black, who specializes in anti-spam legislation. It’s not the first time an international enterprise has gotten cold-feet about Canadian anti-spam laws, Black said. For about one day in 2014, Microsoft decided it couldn’t send out notices about security patches. “They very quickly realized, ‘yes we can, we just have to do it in a different way,’” Black said.