Resources from the Campaign for Democratic Media

Save Our Net: Protecting Your Internet’s Level Playing Field

CBC News, May 28, Net Neutrality Bill Hits House of Commons.

Rally on Parliament Hill for Net Neutrality, The Dominion, and see Michael Lithgow on NN.

Net Neutrality Rally site

CBC News, May 15, CRTC Opens Net Neutrality Debate to Public

CRTC New Media Hearings 2008

Ross Marowits, THE CANADIAN PRESS
March 07, 2008
MONTREAL - The $52-billion takeover of BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) could reach an important milestone Friday when a Quebec judge discloses his ruling on lawsuits challenging Canada's largest business transaction.

For Sale to the Highest Bidder: Telecom Policy in Canada, edited by Marita Moll and Leslie Regan Shade. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. March 2008.

Order Form, Table of Content and Intro available at CCPA.

For Sale to the Highest Bidder: Telecom Policy in Canada, is a timely collection of articles that offer a critical perspective on the current state and future of telecommunications policy in Canada.

Anticipating CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein’s recent skepticism about the proposed takeover of BCE Inc. by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and three U.S. private equity firms, economist Mel Watkins says “In effect, if control de jure is with the majority Canadian owners, but control de facto is with the minority foreign owners, this deal has finessed Canada’s foreign control rules for telecommunications companies.”

Julie White, a researcher with the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) echoes this concern: “In the face of international trade in cultural industries, we need to keep our Canadian culture protected and that includes Canadian self-determination of our telecom industry.”

NARAL Pro-Choice America Wins Fight over Corporate Censorship, generates over 20,000 messages in less than two hours calling on Verizon to reverse its text-messaging policy.

September 28, 2007 op-ed in LA Times.

Adam Liptak, NY Times. Sept 28 2007, Verizon reverses decision, and Adam Liptak, Sept 27 2007, Verizons Blocks Messages...

147 records up for the 2007-5 public process of the Diversity of Voices proceedings...

Bet there is some juicy stuff in here...watch out students! Within the various intervenor names there can often be found multiple signatories/endorsers, for instance with Michael Lithgow's intervention which several of us at Con U signed on as endorsers...

Colleagues I quickly recognize:
David Skinner and Bob Hackett...

John Harris Stevenson ...

Sonja MacDonald...

Catherine Murray ...

and many of the usual suspects.

What is Net Neutrality? site developed by CRACIN students Alison Powell, Neil Barratt and Mike Lenczner.

Welcome to www.whatisnetneutrality.ca (WiNN)! If you're here you've heard the term "net neutrality" somewhere - on the news, on someone's blog, or from a friend. But what exactly does it mean? While it sounds like an issue for experts, net neutrality is a debate that will affect the future of communications in Canada for everyone.

WiNN aims to help Canadians understand this debate, and why it should matter to them. We're not advocating a specific solution to the debate. Our goal is to inform and educate Canadians about a poorly understood and sometimes intimidating issue. Our lives depend on communications, and the Internet is growing to encompass television, telephone, journalism and entertainment. Net neutrality is a principle that will shape this powerful communication tool.

Neil Barratt and moi, in The Canadian Journal of Communication 32(2):

Abstract: What is net neutrality? The debate about the shape of the Internet is being held behind closed doors, led by government and industry with little public input. This article examines net neutrality and the stakeholders in this emerging national debate. The authors discuss the legislative and policy implications, while at the same time exploring alternative models for achieving broadly accessible, affordable high-speed Internet access.

Logo above from the US based Save the Internet camapign.

What's happening in Canada? Bryan Zandberg has written a nice article on net neutrality for The Tyee, Canada Sleeps Through War to 'Save the Internet'.

Download file

Paper for the National Media Reform Conference Media Research Pre-Conference, January 11, 2007, Memphis by Longford and Shade.

Download file
The poster for the National Reform Pre-Confernece Policy meeting by SSRC, this one on the Alt.Telecommunications Policy Forum

Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum
News Release
Oct 26, 2006

Proposed Telecom Policy Places Too Much Faith in Market Forces, Citizens’ Forum Warns

"We were looking at telecommunications policy through a social and community economic development lens rather than an industry lens,” according to Marita Moll and Leslie Shade, organizers of the Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum held in Ottawa, October 19-21.

The Forum brought together policy experts, academics, and representatives from over a dozen community and public interest organizations across Canada to discuss the implications of telecommunications policy reforms currently being considered by Industry Minister, Hon. Maxime Bernier. The proposed reforms, which include weakening consumer protection guarantees and eliminating regulations aimed at protecting Canada’s cultural sovereignty in favour of maximizing market forces, were recommended last spring by the Liberal-appointed Telecommunications Policy Review Panel (TPRP).

Check out the various speakers' notes, blogs, webcasting, backgrounders, etc etc etc re the Alternative Telecommunications Policy Forum held in Ottawa 19-21 October.

Telecom Policy Review Report not just business as usual, by Marita Moll and Leslie Regan Shade in Straight Goods, April 4, 2006. If link does not work read below...