Amazing one of the most active complaint issues by the citizens on Canada’s interent and the major political parties in Canada still have no comment? Why?
Net neutrality bill hits House of Commons
CBC.ca – 14 hours ago
By Peter Nowak CBC News NDP digital spokesman Charlie Angus doesn’t believe the CRTC has all the tools it needs to prevent interference in the internet by service providers.
Net neutrality bill ‘about fairness to consumers’ p2pnet.net
Federal NDP To Introduce Net Neutrality Bill DigitalJournal.com
Metro Canada – Ottawa – IT World Canada Blogs – GigaOm – mediacaster
all 21 news articles »
Interesting to note that this issue gets no attention from Canada’s MAJOR private media organizations. Why? They are clearly influenced by Bell? Compare this to ,,
all 1,393 news articles »
“Net neutrality bill hits House of Commons
The NDP has followed through with its promise to introduce legislation to the House of Commons that seeks to keep the internet open and free from control by service providers.
“This bill is about fairness to consumers,” said Charlie Angus, the NDP’s digital spokesman, in the House of Commons on Wednesday. “The internet is a critical piece of infrastructure not just for Canada but for the world … this bill protects the innovation agenda of Canada.”
The private member’s bill, C-552, is in reaction to moves by some of Canada’s largest internet service providers (ISPs), including Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., to limit their customers’ uses of the internet. Bell, Rogers and a few others say a small percentage of customers have been congesting their networks by using peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, so they have slowed the internet down at peak times of the day.
The ISPs’ actions have provoked outrage from internet users, with about 300 protesters taking to the steps of Parliament Hill on Tuesday. Critics have said the targeting of peer-to-peer applications is just the tip of the iceberg. If ISPs are allowed to decide which internet applications can and can’t be used, innovative new companies that were born from experimentation — such as Google, Amazon and eBay — may not happen in the future.
“Net neutrality affects everybody, every person, every business, every hospital, every institution is involved in the exchange of information over the internet,” Angus told CBCnews.ca. “This shouldn’t be about party lines.”
The four-page bill seeks to amend the Telecommunications Act and “prohibit network operators from engaging in network management practices that favour, degrade or prioritize any content, application or service transmitted over a broadband network based on its source, ownership or destination, subject to certain exceptions.”
It also looks to prohibit “network operators from preventing a user from attaching any device to their network and requires network operators to make information about the user’s access to the internet available to the user.”
The proposed bill makes exception for ISPs to manage traffic in reasonable cases, Angus said, such as providing stable speeds for applications such as gaming or video conferencing.
“There are areas where telecoms have to be able to exercise rights, but that doesn’t give them the ability to arbitrarily interfere or discriminate,” Angus said.
Officials at Bell and Rogers did not immediately return requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Minister of Industry Jim Prentice also did not immediately return a request for comment. The spokesperson also did not reply to requests for comment on the net neutrality rally.
Liberal industry critic Scott Brison has not weighed in on the issue, despite having held meetings with Bell, Rogers and several smaller ISPs a few weeks ago. His spokesman did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Section 36 also says: “Except where the commission approves otherwise, a Canadian carrier shall not control the content or influence the meaning or purpose of telecommunications carried by it for the public.”
Despite those two sections, Angus said CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage two weeks ago that the regulator did not have sufficient means to punish ISPs violating the rules. Finckenstein said the CRTC needs the ability to impose monetary penalties for violating both the Telecommunications and Broadcasting Acts.
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