Media News Posts

The Big Three are ripping us off and using the money to manipulate Canadians and the government.

As we’ve been saying, the Big Three cell phone companies have a plan to price-gouge Canadians by shutting out small competitors1. Now they’re unleashing a misinformation campaign to muzzle your voice.

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Like reality television’s Big Brother, Lawful Access just keeps coming back. Having died on the table of Parliament’s last session, Bills C-50, C-51 and C-52 are bound for a legislative reincarnation this time around. And, with the Bills again on the horizon, Conservative Member of Parliament and Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, has fine-tuned his relentless spin on the honest concerns of well-informed, pro-Internet Canadians.

Touting bare necessity, and speaking in absolute terms, Toews continues to push his ‘tough on crime’ take on Lawful Access and to chide Canadians on the perceivable dangers of unbridled online privacy. Toews, the figure behind Bill C-52, one third of the Lawful Access trio, claims that the components of his bill are innocuous and respectful of the privacy rights of Canadians — despite a vague clause empowering the authorities to demand, in the fulfillment of their duties, personal information from Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

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We at OpenMedia.ca work for Canadians. You fund us, you spread the word, and you play a huge role in shaping who we are. It was because of your input that we started the Stop The Squeeze campaign—hundreds of you have written to us about the cell phone market's high prices, tight contract, and disrespectful customer service.

The Stop The Squeeze campaign focuses on the Big Three cell phone companies' stranglehold on the industry, maintaining that the less choice Canadians have, the worse things will get. We depend on competitors independent of the Big Three to keep the cell phone market in check, so that all Canadians can have access to this increasingly essential service.

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Big Telecom company responds after being caught restricting access to online services

February 3, 2012 – In what pro-Internet group OpenMedia.ca is calling a victory for Internet openness, Rogers has responded to the CRTC’s Compliance and Enforcement division saying that they will cease throttling (the slowing of traffic) on their networks.

In a letter to the CRTC, Rogers acknowledged the complaints made by the Canadian Gamers Organization—a group that spent the past year demonstrating Rogers’ discriminatory practices to the CRTC—and laid out a timeline for the correction of this problem...

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Canadians have access to fast, widely available, and relatively inexpensive Internet service...at least according to Rogers.

Lemay Yates released a report Wednesday, commissioned by Rogers, pertaining to Internet speed and availability in Canada compared to that of other countries. The report ranked Canada among the best of the G7 and OECD countries, in terms of speed, availability, and cost of broadband Internet services. But this research directly contradicts a report released by the OECD, in which Canada was ranked significantly lower.

The OECD is not the only organization to have contradictory conclusions to that of Rogers’ study; the New American Foundation also published a report that shows Canada falling behind in comparison to other countries worldwide. Most recently, Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report further corroborated the findings of the other two, and brought Big Telecom into a negative spotlight.

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Hello!

Here's (the always informative and engaging!) Lindsey with your update:

Highlights from the last week include: the Akamai State of the Internet report highlighting Canada as a digital laggard, and the Ontario Privacy Commish slamming the online spying bills on CBC.

- The OpenMedia.ca Team

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In their latest State of the Internet report, Akamai compares key metrics from countries around the world make it clear that Canada has a digital deficit.

We’re falling behind other countries on all things digital; our Internet is slower and more restricted, and both mobile and wired access to the web are more expensive. We've known for a while that Canada is lagging in the four key areas of our digital economy (speed, openness, affordability, content); this report serves to remind us that we need to push our politicians and policymakers to work to catch up.

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Event to Inform Criticism of Proposed Bills That Would Allow Warrantless Electronic Spying

Ottawa, ON – In response to proposed bills that would allow warrantless electronic surveillance of Canadians, the Ottawa community is invited to join digital affairs experts and political representatives—including the NDP's Charlie Angus and the Green Party's Elizabeth May—for a lively panel discussion. The event, sponsored by a growing list of public interest organizations, will take place Wednesday, February 8, at the St. Paul University Amphitheatre (223 Main Street).

The Political Panel will be moderated by the prolific digital affairs critic Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair for Internet and E-commerce Law. To begin, however, a panel featuring some of Canada’s sharpest minds—including cybersecurity specialist Christopher Parsons and communications law expert Kirsten R. Embree—will detail the dangers of the federal government’s impending "Lawful Access" legislation, dubbed "Online Spying" by Canadians.

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By Brad Bouzane for Postmedia News

An apparent jump in public awareness over Internet throttling and other practices by service providers in Canada has led to a sharp jump in complaints to the federal regulator, one expert said Tuesday.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) released figures Tuesday that showed the number of complaints received between Oct. 1 and Dec. 30, 2011 — with the majority based around Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMPs) — have the agency on pace to far exceed the number of grievances it received over a two-year period between 2009 and 2011.

Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce Law, said new numbers released by the CRTC could be an indication of greater public knowledge about Internet service issues, which has led to more vocal consumers.

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Anne Cavoukian, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, articulately takes a stand against the upcoming online spying bills in the video below.

Check out her interview on CBC, visit http://StopSpying.ca/ to sign the petition, then spread the word to everyone you know.

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The CRTC has announced a start date for the capacity-based model that defeated usage-based billing (Internet metering) late last year. Starting on February 1st, the decision will go into effect, with certain terms and conditions that indie ISPs find objectionable subject to possible renegotiation going forward.

This, in short, means that Big Telecom won't be able to impose metered billing directly onto Canadians using their independent competitors.

There has been a great deal of controversy on the logistics of the new model's implementation—for instance, indie ISPs argue the costs they face in the wake of the CRTC's decision are still higher than they should be—but all in all this has been a step forward for the affordable Internet.

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By Sarah Schmidt for Postmedia News

Rogers Communications Inc. is asking an Ontario court to strike down part of a federal law requiring a company to have "adequate and proper" tests of a product's performance before advertising claims about the product — on the grounds that it violates its freedom of expression.

In addition to taking on the performance claims provision of the Competition Act, the telecom giant is arguing before the Ontario Superior Court the hefty financial penalties that can be imposed on a company for making a false or misleading claim are also unconstitutional.

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Hey pro-Internet community,

Here's Lindsey with your update:

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The CRTC, Canada’s telecom regulator, announced today that Vice Chair Len Katz will serve as their Acting Chairman until the government appoints a new Chair. This is not a surprising choice, as Katz has been the CRTC Vice Chair since 2007.

Outgoing Chair Konrad von Finckenstein had his ups and his downs, but since last year has changed in a way that is really quite notable. The CRTC has a history of caving to industry pressure and forgetting to fully consider the impact their decisions have on the Canadian public. But in an interview with the Canadian Press last week, von Finckenstein acknowledged that the telecommunications industry “has a huge social impact and that affects us all.”

The article where this appears goes on to say, “Von Finckenstein has some advice for the new boss: keep your independent wits about you and don't get co-opted by big business.”

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In general, mobile phone penetration is extremely high in Canada. 78% of Canadian households had a mobile phone in 2010, and in young households 50% exclusively have mobiles. In addition to owning mobile phones, we carry them with us most of the time.

While many Canadians think of mobile phones as convenient tools to communicate with each other, we tend to not really think of mobiles as surveillance systems that are stuck in our pockets and purses.

We really need to adjust that thinking.

Forthcoming federal legislation—styled as "Lawful Access" or “online spying” laws—will let Canadian police and intelligence services get access to Canadians’ personal subscriber information without a warrant. Some of these bits of information identify who manufactured a mobile device, when it was manufactured, which version of software is installed on the device, and much, much more.

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With its proposed online spying bills, the government is seeking to provide “authorities” with access to your personal electronic information without a warrant. That’s right folks, apparently judicial oversight, that fundamental pillar of democracy, is not needed when it comes to online surveillance. Indeed, according to Harper, we won’t be requiring any accountability measures whatsoever.

You will not have the right to know how these online spying tools are being used or if you have ever been the subject of state surveillance. These substantial powers will be wielded in secret and we are simply supposed to trust that the police, security agents and bureaucrats will not overstep their boundaries, ever. And what’s more, we are still waiting for evidence to suggest that the legal powers law enforcement agents already possess are insufficient.

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I love getting these kinds of emails: Kevin from CHRY Radio, a campus-based, community station in Toronto, recently sent me a message to let me know that they had produced a public service announcement (PSA)-style radio ad for the Stop The Cell Phone Squeeze campaign.

The station is running the ad "in heavy rotation in the next little while" to let listeners know about the campaign and to tell them to sign the petition. Great stuff!

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From Huffington Post:

The time has come, von Finckenstein says, to face facts: the old separation of telecom and broadcasting is obsolete. He advocates a single act to cover both sectors and a single regulator for broadcasting, telecom and even wireless spectrum — an area currently managed by Industry Canada.

"Whether you talk, whether you send video, whether you send a fax, an email ... it's just bits that are being sent over the same wire," he said in an interview. "That has completely changed our traditional definition of broadcasting and telecom. It's now essentially the same thing.

"It's time to review this legislation, it's 20 years old. We want a system that carries bits, carries them efficiently and gives Canadians as much access as possible."

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Breaking news! The CRTC has sent Rogers an ..er... irate letter, informing the big telecom company that it has been found in violation of Internet openness (net neutrality) rules.

Rogers has two weeks to either present a rebuttal, or providing the CRTC with a plan to come into compliance with Internet openness rules.

This is a milestone for the many individuals and groups—most notably the Canadians Gamers Organization’s (CGO)–that have been fighting Rogers about slowing or blocking access to legitimate content.

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It's clear: online action can be hugely effective when people participate and spread the word. We know this from experience, and from something unprecedented that happened this week. Over 13 millon people and over 70,000 websites—including Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit—stood up against SOPA, a piece of U.S. legislation that would have done a lot of damage to free expression and innovation online. We at OpenMedia.ca also blacked out our site and set up an online action.

The protest succeeded in changing political opinion, and effectively stopping SOPA. Our fight can succeed too.

The fight against SOPA was a success; our fight will be too. The Stop The Squeeze campaign, for one, is growing at an amazing rate. Be a part of the success to come by adding your name to the petition and spreading the word.

For those of you interested in hearing more about SOPA, here's an infographic that describes some incredible stats, and here's an article about the death of SOPA for your reading pleasure...

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