NDP MP Charlie Angus is set to introduce a bill on net neutrality Wednesday just hours after hundreds of Canadian consumers descended on Parliament Hill in a rally for equal access to the Internet.
While addressing the crowd of about 400 protesters on Tuesday, Angus promised to introduce a private member's bill that would put the principle of net neutrality into legislation and keep the Internet free of interference by service providers.
“You are citizens of the digital realm and you have rights,” Angus said at the rally.
The bill, he said, would protect Canadian consumers and wholesale ISPs from having their Internet connections slowed down by telecom giants like Bell and Rogers Communications Inc. The move comes on the heels of a open letter the NDP politician sent to Industry Minister Jim Prentice in March, which called for amendments to the Telecommunications Act.
“We think basic ground rules are needed to ensure the kind of explosive innovation of the Internet is able to continue,” Angus, who also serves as the NDP’s digital culture spokesperson, said in an interview with ComputerWorld Canada last month. “This innovation happened because of a certain series of factors that are in place to allow garage-style operations to compete with the biggest players on an even field. We want to make sure that innovation continues.”
During his speech at the rally, Angus also reiterated comments he made last month that criticized the federal Liberals from taking a stance on the issue.
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“The Liberals are playing catch-up and it really hasn’t been on their agenda,” he said last month. “Because they’ve been in government for so long they are probably into more business as usual with the telecoms. I don’t know if they’re doing a bit of an adjustment to their position or not, but they’ve been pretty much missing in action on the file.”
Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger, who also spoke to the crowd, said that net neutrality must be preserved and that service providers should not be giving preferential treatment to their own content over others. But when asked whether he would support the impending NDP bill, he said he would need review the proposal before committing to it.
The rally, ignited earlier this year after Bell Canada was accused of traffic shaping data packets for its wholesale ISP clients, took on larger importance for conference organizers after the CRTC’s interim decision earlier this month to deny a Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) request to stop the telecom giant’s actions.
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The protest was hosted by the non-profit Campaign for Democratic Media, which aims to prevent what it calls “a corporate Canadian Internet.” Featured speakers also included CAIP President Tom Copeland, National Union of Public and General Employees President James Clancy, and Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic Director Philippa Lawson.
“The event went well,” Steve Anderson, national coordinator at CDM and the founder of SaveOurNet.ca, said. “For a rally to save the Internet and a largely technical crowd, we had a lot of really energetic people. It was almost a festival-like atmosphere.”
As for the impending NDP bill, Anderson said he is excited about the news and feels that many politicians around Parliament Hill will take note.
“There was several MPs around that were listening to the speeches,” he said. “It’s something that they all need to be thinking about and acting on now because of the tremendous impact it has on all of us.” The fact that the Liberals have not been very vocal during the net neutrality debate is troubling to Anderson, but he still remains optimistic that the bill will get a fair shot.
“I can’t see any reason why [the Liberals] wouldn’t support it,” he said. “Like I said in my speech, it’s a handful of telecom companies against everyone: businesses, consumer groups, and people across Canada. So they’re going to have to answer to the public on this.”