Critical Mass: Weekly Updates from OpenMedia.ca

Hello! Here's Lindsey with your Weekly News Update from OpenMedia.ca:

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The OpenMedia.ca Team

News from this week:

Stop The Cap: Canada is Lagging in Internet Innovation



Technological growth and progress around the world is benefiting many online communities, but it continues to show that Canada is lagging further behind digital innovation among developed countries. Decision makers in Canada need to take note of international innovation, and work to bring stronger competition to the Internet service market. Big Telecom companies are failing to push technological frontiers to improve digital services for Canadians.


From Phillip Dampier at Stop The Cap:


While British Telecom and Virgin rely on partial fiber networks to deliver faster broadband, they can’t touch the speeds on offer from Hyperoptic, a new start-up fiber t0 the home provider competing for broadband customers in London. For just under $80 a month, customers can purchase the UK’s first 1Gbps broadband offering, which lets you download an HD movie in about 40 seconds. Read more »

Ontario's Privacy Commissioner Points Out Serious Faults of Proposed Online Spying Bills



Today, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian wrote an open letter to Ministers Vic Toews and Robert Nicholson in which she voiced concerns about the proposed online spying bills ("Lawfull Access"). The letter comes soon after Canada's Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart wrote Minister Toews urging him to rewrite the legislation.
In her letter, Cavoukian stressed that new policing power should not compromise Canadians' constitutional rights. The proposed bills would augment the state's surveillance capacity while reducing judicial checks and balances that protect the privacy of Canadians. Cavoukian, like Stoddart, stressed the importance of rewriting the bills so that they include "sufficient safeguards for the protection of our fundamental rights and freedoms today." Read more »

Ontario's Privacy Commissioner on the online spying bills



Op-Ed by Ann Cavoukian for the National Post


I must add my voice to the growing dismay regarding the impact of impending “lawful access” legislation in this country. In my view, it is highlymisleading to call it “lawful.” Let’s call it what it is — a system of expanded surveillance.


At issue is the anticipated re-introduction of a trio of federal bills that will provide police with much greater ability to access and track information, via the communications technologies we use every day, such as the Internet, smart phones and other mobile devices. I have no doubt that, collectively, the legislation will substantially diminish the privacy rights of Ontarians and Canadians as a whole. Read more »