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 If the work is unpublished, copyright includes the right to publish the work or any substantial part of it.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 (like a printed book or painting) or digital (like an email, JPEG image or sound file); as long as it can be copied and is original, it is copyrighted.
Watch this short video, which gives the basic outlines of copyright in Canada.