NEWS ADVISORY: Net neutrality advocates take fight to Parliament Hill

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NEWS ADVISORY

Net neutrality advocates take fight to Parliament Hill

Campaign for Democratic Media encourages Canadians to make their voices heard

May 23, 2008 / OTTAWA — A rally for Net Neutrality is scheduled to take place on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, May 27th at 11.30 am to call attention to the matter of equal access to the Internet.

An impending CRTC ruling on Bell Canada’s internet traffic “throttling” practices may pave the way for continued Canadian technical advancement and progress or set the scene for a corporatized Canadian internet.

Says Rocky Gaudrault, CEO of TekSavvy Solutions and one of the rally's organizers: "If we don't stand up and get both a better public and a stronger political understanding, our internet freedoms might be up for grabs to the highest bidder, or worse, stolen.”

WHAT: Rally for net neutrality

WHEN: Tuesday, May 27th, 11.30 am

WHERE: Parliament Hill, Ottawa

PRESENTERS:

*NDP MP Charlie Angus
*Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger
*Meera Karunananthan, Council of Canadians
*James Clancy, National Union of Public and General Employees
*Philippa Lawson, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic
*Tom Copeland, Canadian Association of Internet Providers
*Steve Anderson, Campaign For Democratic Media

Steve Anderson, CDM's national coordinator, finds the variety of support encouraging, “The diversity of groups and individuals pulling this together makes this a unique outpouring of public sentiment.”

To support the rally and the fight for net neutrality, the campaign invites people to visit http://www.StopTheThrottler.ca.


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Rally Supporters include:
Acanac - http://www.acanac.ca
Campaign for Democratic Media - http://www.democraticmedia.ca
Canadian Union of Public Employees – http://www.cupe.ca
Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic - http://www.cippic.ca
Council of Canadians - http://canadians.org/
Google - http://www.google.ca
National Capital Freenet - http://www.ncf.ca
National Union of Public and General Employees - http://www.nupge.ca
P2PNet - http://www.p2pnet.net
rabble.ca – http://rabble.ca
TekSavvy Solutions - http://www.teksavvy.com

For more information:
http://www.NetNeutralityRally.ca


Contact:
Steve Anderson
National Co-ordinator, Campaign for Democratic Media
604-837-5730; [email protected]


MEDIA BACKGROUNDER

Campaign for Democratic Media is a national, non-profit, non-partisan media reform network working to increase informed public participation in Canadian media policy formation. It strives to generate policies that will produce a more competitive, diverse and public-service-oriented media system with a strong non-profit and non-commercial sector.

The need for net neutrality guarantees grew even more pressing with recent Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) interim decision to deny a request by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers to order Bell Canada to cease and desist from its internet traffic "throttling" practices. The CRTC says it will continue to investigate and ultimately issue a ruling on whether Bell is violating the Telecommunications Act. Meanwhile, Rogers Communications and other dominant internet access providers are engaging in forms of traffic control that invades Canadians' privacy and degrades their service levels.

The Campaign for Democratic Media (CDM) is joined by a number of individuals and groups urging Canadians to participate, including: NDP MP Charlie Angus, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, the National Union of Public and General Employees and National Capital Freenet.