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DAILY NEWS
May 26, 2008 12:32 PM
Net Neutrality Advocates Take Fight to Ottawa
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Parliament Hill in Ottawa will be the site of a rally in support of Net Neutrality, organized by industry players and telecom service providers who are hoping to draw increased attention to the matter of equal access to the Internet.
Among the scheduled presenters are: Meera Karunananthan, Council of Canadians; James Clancy, NUPGE; Philippa Lawson, CIPPIC; Tom Copeland, CAIP; Steve Anderson, CDM National Coordinator; NDP MP Charlie Angus and Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger.
The event is being hosted by the Campaign for Democratic Media, a national, non-profit, non-partisan media reform network.
CDM says it strives to generate policies that will produce a more competitive, diverse and public-service-oriented media system with a strong non-profit and non-commercial sector.
Recent Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) statements on the future of new media in general, and on Bell Canada's Internet traffic "throttling" practices in specific, could pave the way for continued Canadian technical advancement, or set the scene for a corporatized Canadian Internet, organizers say.
The CRTC recently denied a request by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers to order Bell Canada to cease and desist from its internet traffic "throttling" practices. The CRTC has said it will continue to investigate and ultimately issue a ruling on whether Bell is violating the Telecommunications Act.
Meanwhile, other dominant Internet access providers are said to be engaging in forms of traffic control that invades Canadians' privacy and degrades their service levels.
"If we don't stand up and get both a better public and a stronger political understanding, our Internet freedoms might be up for grabs to the highest bidder, or worse, stolen," said Rocky Gaudrault, CEO of TekSavvy Solutions, one of the event organizers.
