Change at the CRTC: Weekly Update from OpenMedia.ca

Hey pro-Internet community,

Here's Lindsey with your update:

Our weekly updates are now featured on The Mark, The Vancouver Oberserver, Rabble.ca, and The Georgia Straight (coming soon)! Please share our videos and spread the word, so that more Canadians can be informed about up-to-date telecom news. 

- The OpenMedia.ca Team

Recent News:

Thoughts on the new Acting Chair at the CRTC



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.” Read more »

How the government will monitor your cell phones



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. Read more »

New BCCLA report highlights widespread abuse of online spying powers internationally



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. Read more »

New to Stop The Squeeze Resources: Radio PSA courtesy of CHRY Radio in Toronto



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! Read more »

Huffington Post: Interview with CRTC Chair shows shift in priorities from Big Telecom's to Canadians' interests



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." Read more »

CRTC says Rogers is guilty of Internet openness violations



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. Read more »

Using the Internet to save the Internet: The SOPA success story



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 andspreading 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... Read more »

TechVibes: 77% of cell phone users see positive effects of competition



The independent cell phone companies that we *do* have in Canada were created after a 2008 auction for crucial wireless infrastructure—after the government decided to make the auction's rules favour competition, and not just the Big 3. This is what we want the government to do for the upcoming auction.
That's where this item comes in: A survey was taken that indicated, 2008 auction in mind, that indicates 77% of Canadians who own a cellphone believe that the increase in competition from the new players—Public Mobile, Mobilicity, Wind, etc.—had been positive.
Let's keep pushing for cell phone market competition, so that even more than 77% see lower prices, fewer contracts, and less disrespectful customer service. Read more »