“This bill is about fairness to consumers,” Charlie Angus, NDP digital culture spokesman, told the House of Commons today.
“The internet is a critical piece of infrastructure not just for Canada but for the world … this bill protects the innovation agenda of Canada.”
He was tabling C-552, “in reaction to moves by some of Canada’s largest internet service providers (ISPs), including Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., to limit their customers’ uses of the internet,” says the CBC, going on >>>
Bell, Rogers and a few others say a small percentage of customers have been congesting their networks by using peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent, so they have slowed the internet down at peak times of the day,”
The ISPs’ actions have provoked outrage from internet users, with about 300 protesters taking to the steps of Parliament Hill on Tuesday. Critics have said the targeting of peer-to-peer applications is just the tip of the iceberg.
If ISPs are allowed to decide which internet applications can and can’t be used, innovative new companies that were born from experimentation - such as Google, Amazon and eBay - may not happen in the future.”
Net neutrality affects everybody, every person, every business, every hospital, every institution is involved in the exchange of information over the internet,” Angus told CBCnews.ca.
“This shouldn’t be about party lines.”
“We need to protect the internet from being hijacked by vested interests,” declared Phillipa Lawson, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic director, p2pnet in a story including the bill’s text.
“If market forces could solve this problem we wouldn’t be here today,” she stated at the Parliament Hill rally on May 27.
Net neutrality is made up of competition, innovation and consumer rights, said TekSavvy CEO Rocky Gaudrault. And they’re ‘Not for sale’.
Angus’ private member’s amendment to the Telecommunications Act prohibits network operators from engaging in network management practices which favour, degrade or prioritise any content, application service transmitted over a broadband network based on its source, ownership or destination, subject to certain exceptions.
It also prohibits network operators from preventing anyone from attaching a device to their network and makes it mandatory for network operators to make information about user online access available to the user.
The NDP is “very wary” about the government intervening in the internet, Angus told the House of Commons, says the CBC, going on:
“Now that the bill has been tabled, it has to wait to be called up in private members’ business in the House.
“Angus is far down on the randomly generated list that determines the order in which members are scheduled to present their bills or motions, but he said he will try to trade positions with another party member to bring it up the list for discussion.”