from A Guide to Copyright (Canadian Intellectual Property Office)
In the simplest terms, "copyright" means "the right to copy." In general, copyright means the sole right to produce or reproduce a work or a substantial part of it in any form. It includes the right to perform the work or any substantial part of it or, in the case of a lecture, to deliver it. If the work is unpublished, copyright includes the right to publish the work or any substantial part of it.
In order to be copyrighted, a work must be in a fixed format, and able to be copied. The format can be physical (printed book, painting) or digital (email, photograph, sound file), as long as it can be copied and it is original, it is copyrighted.
Watch this short video, which gives the basic outlines of copyright in Canada.