Citizen Action Team Launches in Response to Clement’s Digital Strategy Update

November 22, 2010 – After promising an interim report on the progress of his Digital Economy Strategy to the Canadian public, Industry Minister Tony Clement has instead informally presented citizens with his “interim thoughts on the digital strategy”.

OpenMedia.ca, Canada's largest network of organizations and people defending digital rights, believes the direction of the Digital Economy Strategy lacks vision and integrity. Clement has failed Canada by keeping principles such as consumer choice, universal access, and diversity in the telecom market out of the Digital Strategy.

In this precarious economic climate Canadian citizens and small businesses cannot afford to pay extra fees for their Internet. In the last year, over 20,000 Canadians have called on the government to support an affordable and open Internet, which would promote competition by establishing a level online playing field. Yet Clement has remained silent on the hot button issues such as Internet Usage Based Billing, and stood idly by while Bell and other ISPs imposed sets of new overage fees. The Industry Minister appears unable or unwilling to consider the plight of everyday Canadians facing increasingly high prices for less Internet. The government has also refused to back tangible measures, such as traffic management audits, that ensure an open Internet. Clement's policy neglect has left Canada subject to policy-making shaped by the stealth of the legal teams of major industry players.

“Before the ink is even dry on the Digital Strategy, the powerful media and telecommunications giants will be at work using it to obstruct and undermine competition, choice and free expression,” said Steve Anderson, OpenMedia.ca’s National Coordinator. “This economic plan promises to strand Canadian consumers and independent businesses in a closed media system, with high prices and few choices.”

In response to this disappointing update, OpenMedia.ca is forming its own Digital Strategy Action Team. The Team will be a community of people committed to ensuring Canada is a leader in digital innovation. Interested individuals and parties can participate by registering at http://openmedia.ca/strategy.

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Contact

Lindsey Pinto
Communications Manager, OpenMedia.ca
778-238-7710
[email protected]

About OpenMedia.ca

OpenMedia.ca is a national, non-partisan, non-profit public engagement organization working to advance and support an open and innovative communications system in Canada. It is Canada's largest network of organizations and people defending digital rights for Canadians. The OpenMedia.ca network cumulatively represents over 400,000 Canadians, including over 30,000 active members. Its primary goal is to increase public awareness and informed participation in Canadian media, cultural, information, and telecommunication policy formation.

Background information

One year after it was initially discussed in June 2009, the Government of Canada officially announced that they would develop a digital economy strategy for Canada.

Industry Minister Tony Clement, Heritage Minister James Moore, and Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley began by holding a public consultation from May 2010 to July 2010 to inform policy around key issues, including media ownership, internet openness, broadband access, cell phone rates and competition, and support for digital media production.

To inform the consultation, the government produced a paper entitled "Improving Canada's Digital Advantage" that outlines key issues. OpenMedia.ca found the paper to be narrowly framed in the language of efficiency and competition. The emphasis was not on the Internet as a public resource, but instead on "maximizing reliance on market forces," through protection of the "legitimate interests" of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other industry players. This interim update on the Digital Economy Strategy had the potential to either quell OpenMedia.ca’s concerns or to reinforce them.