TekSavvy CEO Marc Gaudrault is speaking out and calling for regulators to prevent Big Telecom giants from blocking our access to affordable independent services. Gaudrault’s call comes after many of his company’s users recently experienced prolonged service delays – delays that appear to be rightly blamed on Big Telecom conglomerates
Continue readingAuthor: Steve Anderson
OpenMedia.ca: What Big Telecom is really afraid of
Canada’s Big Three telecom giants are sounding increasingly desperate these days – they’re running expensive ads, that you paid for, invoking the bogeyman of foreign investment in growing new Canadian telecom start-ups. Big Telecom’s high-profile and misleading PR campaign is designed to convince the government to do a u-turn on
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Is the Appointment of a Cabinet Heavyweight as Industry Minister a sign that the Government is ready to rein in Big Telecom?
Stephen Harper’s new Cabinet was announced yesterday morning, and Canada has a new Industry Minister – James Moore, M.P. for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam. I for one welcome Mr Moore to his post, and look forward to working with him on the digital policy priorities that matter to Canadians. As some
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Time for transparency – why don’t Canadian representatives have same access to crucial TPP drafts as their U.S. counterparts?
Following weeks of sustained pressure from the international Our Fair Deal Coalition and others, we have some good news to report from south of the border. U.S. Congressional Representatives have finally been given limited access to the drafts of the secretive and extreme Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. It looks like
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Who’s watching you?
You probably saw on the news that a U.S. government agency has been caught secretly spying on the private communications of millions of people like you – through their cell phones,1 and through popular online services like Google, Facebook, and Skype.2 Now, The Globe And Mail is reporting that Canada
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Update from Steve: Notes from my meeting with Paradis
The call was brief, about 15 minutes, and I didn’t get clear answers to many of the questions posed, but here are my notes from the meeting. Paradis started by saying that today he sent a clear message to the market. He said he hopes they “smell the coffee”, which
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: The Industry Minister responds to OpenMedia.ca and Canadians about our broken cell phone market – is it enough?
More good news! Yesterday your OpenMedia.ca team was raising your voice in media outlets across the country noting that the new rules for cell phone customers are a positive step forward for Canadians but not enough to fully fix our broken telecom market. When we took to the airwaves we
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: This won’t last
You won’t believe this. We just found out that anti-Internet lobbyists are hosting happy hour parties in Washington to increase their influence over key TPP decision makers.1 They’re sipping cocktails and literally making their careers out of criminalizing our day-to-day Internet use. But we have a unique opportunity to push
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: What does a blind person have to say about the Internet?
We received this letter from a supporter of OpenMedia.ca: “I am totally blind. I own a company called ebony consulting here in Toronto that specializes in teaching mostly in Ontario, but also a number of clients outside the province who are blind. The computer is our pencil and paper. Digital
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: How Telus lost its credibility.
Co-authored by Catherine Hart Canadians and even the CRTC[1] know our cell phone market is broken. Canadians pay some of the highest prices for some of the worst service in the industrialized world, and, as we showed in our recent report,[2] we’ve been subjected to systemic mistreatment by the Big
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: The government has finally listened to Canadians and killed online spying bill C-30!
We won! The government has finally listened to Canadians and killed online spying bill C-30! Way back in June 2011 when we worked with Canadians from across the country to launch the StopSpying.ca campaign all the pundits and “experts” said we couldn’t win. Well Canada, you just proved them all
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Breaking: Independent ISP Distributel Stands Up Against Copyright Troll Seeking Private Info of Canadians
Since the recent passage of the government’s problematic Internet lockdown bill C-11, old media conglomerates have been dreaming up ways to put it to use in their quest to protect out-dated business models. This is very reminiscent of Canada’s big telecom companies who tried to impose a pay-meter on the
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: How telecom companies are cheating you
Rogers has struck a backroom deal with Shaw1 to take over systems crucial to delivering our mobile Internet and phone services – systems that were promised2 to create new independent choices for Canadians, not more control for Big Telecom. We do not deserve this. OpenMedia.ca has joined experts and advocates
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Update on Voltage’s “guilty by accusation” crusade
Late last year I wrote a blog post about how media outfit Voltage Pictures was trying to force indie ISP Teksavvy to hand over the private information of certain Canadians who, it alleged, used the Internet to violate its copyright. The court case resumes today with a motion by Voltage
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Pro-Internet groups and supporters like you have kept us going
This December, hundreds of you joined OpenMedia as monthly donors through our Allies program, and over one thousand of you contributed with one-time donations. You answered the call to help us stay strong in 2013, and we couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you so much. We at OpenMedia rely heavily
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Reviewing Canada’s Victory Against Online Spying Bill C-30
Looking back at 2012 you should feel proud of what you’ve been part of. For example, our friends at Electronic Frontier Foundation put together this review of how you joined with people across the country to stop Vic Toews online spying bill C-30. read more
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Report back: Inside the TPP’s Internet Trap
Thanks to support from Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), I had a chance to attend the latest round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, from December 3rd to the 12th, in Auckland, New Zealand. I agreed to attend and make a presentation to the negotiators.
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: What I told those behind the biggest threat to Internet freedom: The Trans-Pacific Partnership
Thanks to all of you who have joined us at OpenMedia in our campaigns, last Friday I had the opportunity to address some of the lead bureaucrats and lobbyists behind the threat to Internet freedom that is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). My goal was to bring the voices of Internet
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Guilty by accusation: Overzealous copyright lawyers target Canadians
The Internet is ablaze with fury at the news that a content company – Voltage Pictures – is requesting the private information of thousands of Canadian Internet users, who it claims violated its copyright. Crackdowns on alleged infringement are sweeping the nation, as ISPs are being pressured to give private
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Je n’aurais jamais pu imaginer
Ma vie a été très mouvementée ces derniers temps. En démarrant OpenMedia.ca, je ne me serais jamais douté que notre communauté freinerait l’élan des géants des télécommunications, forcerait les politiciens à abandonner leurs projets d’espionnage en ligne et ferait pression sur les bureaucrates internationaux afin qu’ils prêtent l’oreille aux usagers
Continue reading