Canadians respond to Big Telecom spin

To help us counter a campaign by Big Telecom lobbyists to suppress our voices and paint a rosy picture of our dysfunctional telecom market, we asked the pro-Internet community to help us fund the development of a cutting-edge letter to the editor tool. Many of you responded by pitching in $5, $10, $25, or anything you could spare. Together, we built the tool and launched it with success: Within 24 hours of receiving our call to action, 420 Canadians wrote and submitted 1,300 letters to their local newspaper editors demanding Federal Minister of Industry Christian Paradis force Big Telecom to play by the rules.

Although we only launched the letter to the editor campaign a few days ago the pick-up has already been significant. Letters are appearing in small community papers, including Niagara This Week (ON), Ocenside Star (BC), The Woolwich Observer (ON), Penticton Western News (BC), Simcoe County (ON), Chilliwack Times (BC), Kamloops Daily News (BC), North Humberland News (ON), North Shore News (BC), Penticton Western News (again!), Richmond News (BC), Red Deer Avocate (AB), Whistler Question (BC), Maple Ridge Times (BC), York Region (ON), Langley Advance (BC), Osoyoos Times (BC), Oshawa Express (ON), the Victoria News, as well as some of Canada’s largest publications: The Vancouver Sun, The Province, The Bulletin (Toronto). The incredible part: more are being printed by the day!

Here are our 40 favourite letters which have been sent using this powerful tool that you helped us create at: http://openmedia.org/newspaper

When tens of thousands of Canadians spoke out against rampant cell phone mistreatment and price-gouging Canada’s Big Telecom companies responded by trying to muzzle and discredit your concerns. Shame on them.

Following the release of our community-driven report Time For An Upgrade—which generated national media coverage¹—an army of Big Telecom lobbyists targeted journalists, produced cherry-picked reports, and took to social media to try and change the story.^2,3

They don’t want you to share your experience of being forced to pay some of the highest cell phone fees for some of the the worst service in the industrialized world.⁴ That kind of “bad press” threatens their sky-high profits because it compels Canadians to Demand Choice in our broken telecom market.

Thank you for helping us counter Big Telecom’s spin by sharing your personal experiences of being forced to pay some of the highest cell phone fees for some of the worst service in the industrialized world.

We’re in this together.

www.openmedia.org/newspaper
 
 
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Foonotes

[1] Your Cell Phone Horror Stories In The News
[2] Telus Spokesperson Shawn Hall versus Globe and Mail reporter Iain Marlow. Source: Twitter.
[3] Telus lobbyist spams our Facebook page. Source: OpenMedia.ca.
[4] Time for an Upgrade: Demanding Choice in Canada's Cell Phone Market. Source: OpenMedia.ca.