Canadians Fight for Net Neutrality
June 2nd, 2008 by megantadyThe fight for Network Neutrality is spreading as quickly as a flu through a day care. Everybody’s got a touch of open-Internet fever.
Activists in the US aren’t the only ones trying to keep the Internet healthy and robust – our northern neighbors are pushing back against attempts from corporations to block and discriminate against online content in Canada.
 Rally at Parliament Hill |
Last week, Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) introduced legislation to the House of Commons designed to enshrine Net Neutrality principles into law. The bill would amend Canada’s Telecommunications Act and “prohibit network operators from engaging in network management practices that favor, degrade or prioritize any content, application or service transmitted over a broadband network based on its source, ownership or destination, subject to certain exceptions.”
The bill comes on the heels of national outrage after the country’s largest Internet service providers – Bell Canada and Rogers Communications – were caught limiting customers’ access to the Internet. Sound familiar? The move is straight out of the playbook of ISPs in the U.S. who have been vying for “content management” control of the Internet.
Even more alarming, it was recently revealed that Bell Canada was using deep packet inspection technology to steer, shape and throttle access to the Web.
Just one day before the NDP introduced Network Neutrality legislation, activists held a rally on Parliament Hill calling for government action. Led by the Campaign for Democratic Media and SaveOurNet.ca, protesters called for three specific Net Neutrality principles: competition, innovation and consumer rights.
As the debate in Canada moves forward, it looks like we share more in common with our neighbor than Niagara Falls – on either side of the border, people want an open Internet and a vibrant democracy.
