Network neutrality in Canada
Encyclopedia
Network neutrality in Canada is a hotly debated issue. In Canada
, Internet service provider
s (ISPs) generally provide Internet service in a neutral manner, some notable exceptions being Bell Canada
's, Eastlink
's, and Rogers Hi-Speed Internet
's throttling of certain protocols and Telus
' censorship of a specific website critical of the company.
became more prominent.
In March 2006, the federal government updated the Telecommunications Policy Objectives and Regulation with new objectives to focus on three broad goals:
In November 2008, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) scheduled a review of the internet traffic management of ISPs and is still in the review process. The CRTC took comments from the public until Monday, February 23, 2009.
Encrypted data may be throttled or filtered causing major problems for businesses that use Virtual Private Network
s (VPN)s and other applications that send and receive encrypted data.
by an ISP company is purposely preventing its Internet service customers access to a specific website or IP address. In Canada, certain ISP companies have been found to block certain websites. While some blocking (e.g., of child pornography sites) is considered acceptable or required and is even stated in an ISP company's acceptable Internet
use policy. ISP companies have absolute control over the content transmitted over their wires, without adequately informing service subscribers,
(TWU) members. Telus claimed that the site suggested striking workers to jam Telus phone lines, and posted pictures of employees crossing the union picket lines. A Telus spokesperson said advocating jamming lines hurts the company (and its customers), and access to those kinds of pictures threatened the privacy and safety of employees.
Telus said in news release that it would unblock access to the website only when all postings, including photographs, posted with the intent of intimidating or threatening Telus employees had been removed as ordered in an Alberta
court injunction.
to immediately cease its traffic shaping and Internet traffic throttling. On November 20, 2008, the CRTC ruled that Bell's traffic shaping was not discriminatory, as they were applied to both wholesale and retail customers. The CRTC also called for public to ensure that that network management practices are administered fairly in the future.
(NDP) introduced a private member's bill
, C-552, to the House of Commons
that would entrench the principle of "net neutrality" and enact rules to keep the Internet free from interference by service providers.
This bill died on the order paper
at 1st reading on September 7, 2008, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper
asked the Governor-General
for the dissolution
of the 39th Session of Parliament
.
On June 8, 2008, a private member's bill, C-555, entitled "The Telecommunications Clarity and Fairness Act" was introduced by Liberal
MP David McGuinty
(Ottawa South
) that sought to undertake, among other things, "an assessment of network management practices that favour, degrade or prioritize any packet transmitted over a broadband network based on source, ownership or destination". Like the NDP bill, this proposed legislation fell after the 39th Parliament
was dissolved by the Prime Minister
.
A new decision on January 25 of 2011, the CRTC (Canadian Radio, Television, Telecommunications Commission) ruled that usage-based billing could now be introduced. CRTC
Prime Minister Harper signaled that the government may be looking into such a ruling: "We're very concerned about CRTC's decision on usage-based billing and its impact on consumers. I've asked for a review of the decision". Some have suggested that this adversely affects net neutrality, since it discriminates against media that is larger in size, such as audio and video. The new ruling significantly throttles the availability of access by small business owners as they would have to pay for services.
and the Non-profit organization OpenMedia.ca the SaveOurNet.ca is a coalition of citizens, businesses, and public interest groups fighting to protect our Internet's level playing field. We're calling on lawmakers and industry to protect openness, choice, and access for ALL Canadians — and stopping lobbyists and special interests from ruining Canada's Internet.
The “SaveOurNet.ca coalition” launched in May 2008 consisting of public interest groups, labour, businesses and individuals. The SaveOurNet.ca Coalition began providing information about the issue of net neutrality, rallied the public to support the CAIP submission, and helped organize a net neutrality rally on Parliament Hill in May 2008.
In 2009, there were SaveOurNet.ca “Open Internet Town Hall” events in four cities, and over 12,000 citizen comments calling for net neutrality were sent to the CRTC. Formal submissions sent to the CRTC were overwhelmingly in favour of net neutrality, with stakeholders ranging from consumer groups (the Public Interest Advocacy Centre), labour (the National Union of Public and General Employees), cultural groups (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) and domestic and international businesses (Zip.ca, Open Internet Coalition). OpenMedia.ca (then called the Campaign for Democratic Media, CDM) and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) made a submission including support from one of the original architects of the Internet, Dr. David Reed of MIT, and network experts Dr. Andrew Odlyzko of the Minnesota Internet Traffic Studies (MINTS) project, and Bill St. Arnaud, Chief Research Officer for CANARIE Inc., Canada’s Advanced Internet Development Organization.
at the ISP level makes it difficult to differentiate their services against Bell Canada, concerning issues about Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and security, and the quality of service. According to TekSavvy Solutions Inc., Bell Canada’s congestion report to the CRTC shows that the “data suggests no congestion problems for at least 95 percent of the network in Ontario and Quebec.”
Wholesale ISPs do not throttle bandwidth, but since wholesalers do not have a full network infrastructure, they rely on Bell Canada’s network for the last stretch of cabling to customers. When Bell Canada receives packets on the network, it may be throttled, slowing down the connection between the wholesale ISP and the customer.
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. and Velcom support MLPPP which circumvents Bell Canada's throttling.
and Microsoft
argue that network neutrality law is necessary because without such a law ISPs will destroy the free and open nature of the Internet and also create a tiered, dollar-driven net that favours the wealthiest corporations over everyone else.
has been writing about network neutrality in The Toronto Star.
When he had an interview with CARTT.CA, he said that "from a policy and law perspective, we ought to be thinking about what kind of rules the government might consider to help facilitate some of that."
(Timmins—James Bay
) whose role of digital spokesperson for his party has drawn attention to this and other related issues, such as copyright reform
. Mr. Angus has raised this issue many times in the House of Commons and in committee.
On June 18, 2009, federal Liberal Party MP Marc Garneau
(Westmount—Ville-Marie
), the Official Opposition
critic for Industry, Science and Technology, declared Liberal support for Network Neutrality during Question Period
by asking the Conservative Government
to do the same. Until this point, the Liberals had been mostly silent on the issue.
As of June 18, 2009, the ruling federal Conservative Party
under Stephen Harper
(Calgary Southwest
) remains non-committal, contending that free market competition is more favourable than regulation.
While the current position of the Bloc Québecois
remains unclear, former Bloc MP Paul Crête
(Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup
) has come out in support of Network Neutrality.
The Green Party of Canada
states its support for Network Neutrality in its policy statement.
, Jacqueline Michelis said "Our position on network diversity/neutrality is that it should be determined by market forces, not regulation" in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Internet service provider
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s (ISPs) generally provide Internet service in a neutral manner, some notable exceptions being Bell Canada
Bell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
's, Eastlink
Eastlink
Eastlink may refer to:* EastLink , a toll road in Melbourne, Australia* East-Link , a toll bridge in Dublin, Ireland* EastLink , a communications provider in Canada...
's, and Rogers Hi-Speed Internet
Rogers Hi-Speed Internet
Rogers Hi-Speed Internet is a broadband Internet service provider in Canada, owned by Rogers Communications. Rogers previously operated under the brand names Rogers@Home, Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet, and Road Runner in Newfoundland...
's throttling of certain protocols and Telus
TELUS
Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver...
' censorship of a specific website critical of the company.
History of net neutrality in Canada
In 2005, when Telus blocked access to labour union blogs during an employee strike, the question of network neutralityNetwork neutrality
Network neutrality is a principle that advocates no restrictions by Internet service providers or governments on consumers' access to networks that participate in the Internet...
became more prominent.
In March 2006, the federal government updated the Telecommunications Policy Objectives and Regulation with new objectives to focus on three broad goals:
- promoting affordable access to advanced telecommunications services in all regions of Canada, including urban, rural and remote areas
- enhancing the efficiency of Canadian telecommunications markets and the productivity of the Canadian economy
- enhancing the social well-being of Canadians and the inclusiveness of Canadian society by meeting the needs of the disabled, enhancing public safety and security, protecting personal privacy and limiting public nuisance through telecommunications networks.
In November 2008, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) scheduled a review of the internet traffic management of ISPs and is still in the review process. The CRTC took comments from the public until Monday, February 23, 2009.
Bandwidth throttling
Typically an ISP will allocate a certain portion of bandwidth to a neighbourhood, which is then sold to residents within the neighbourhood. It is common practice for ISP companies to oversell the amount of bandwidth as typically most customers will only use a fraction of what they're alloted. By overselling, ISP companies can lower the price of service to their customers per gigabyte alloted. On some ISPs, however, when one or a few customers use a larger amount than expected, the ISP company will purposely reduce the speed of that customer's service for certain protocols, thus throttling their bandwidth. This is done through a method called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), which allows an ISP to detect the type of traffic being sent and throttle it if it is not high priority and using a large fraction of the bandwidth. Bandwidth throttling of certain types of traffic (i.e. peer-to-peer file sharing) can be scheduled during specific times of the day to avoid congestion at peak usage hours. As a result, customers should all have equal internet speeds.Encrypted data may be throttled or filtered causing major problems for businesses that use Virtual Private Network
Virtual private network
A virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
s (VPN)s and other applications that send and receive encrypted data.
IP blocking
IP blockingIP blocking
IP blocking prevents the connection between a server/website and certain IP addresses or ranges of addresses. IP blocking effectively bans undesired connections from those computers to a website, mail server, or other Internet server....
by an ISP company is purposely preventing its Internet service customers access to a specific website or IP address. In Canada, certain ISP companies have been found to block certain websites. While some blocking (e.g., of child pornography sites) is considered acceptable or required and is even stated in an ISP company's acceptable Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
use policy. ISP companies have absolute control over the content transmitted over their wires, without adequately informing service subscribers,
Telus vs. Telecommunications Workers Union
In July 2005, while its union workers were striking, Telus blocked its subscribers access to 'Voices for Change'—a community website run by and for Telecommunications Workers UnionTelecommunications Workers Union
The Telecommunications Workers Union is a trade union in Canada for people working for telephone and cable companies. Although the TWU has members from Shaw Cable in the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada, the majority of TWU members are employees of Telus .- Early organization at BC Tel:...
(TWU) members. Telus claimed that the site suggested striking workers to jam Telus phone lines, and posted pictures of employees crossing the union picket lines. A Telus spokesperson said advocating jamming lines hurts the company (and its customers), and access to those kinds of pictures threatened the privacy and safety of employees.
Telus said in news release that it would unblock access to the website only when all postings, including photographs, posted with the intent of intimidating or threatening Telus employees had been removed as ordered in an Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
court injunction.
Bell Canada traffic shaping
On April 3, 2008, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) requested that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) require Bell CanadaBell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
to immediately cease its traffic shaping and Internet traffic throttling. On November 20, 2008, the CRTC ruled that Bell's traffic shaping was not discriminatory, as they were applied to both wholesale and retail customers. The CRTC also called for public to ensure that that network management practices are administered fairly in the future.
Current legal status
On May 28, 2008, the federal New Democratic PartyNew Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
(NDP) introduced a private member's bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
, C-552, to the House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
that would entrench the principle of "net neutrality" and enact rules to keep the Internet free from interference by service providers.
This bill died on the order paper
Order Paper
The Order Paper is a daily publication in the Westminster system of government which lists the business of parliament for that day's sitting. A separate paper is issued daily for each house of the legislature....
at 1st reading on September 7, 2008, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
asked the Governor-General
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...
for the dissolution
Dissolution of parliament
In parliamentary systems, a dissolution of parliament is the dispersal of a legislature at the call of an election.Usually there is a maximum length of a legislature, and a dissolution must happen before the maximum time...
of the 39th Session of Parliament
39th Canadian Parliament
The 39th Canadian Parliament was in session from April 3, 2006 until September 7, 2008. The membership was set by the 2006 federal election on January 23, 2006, and it has changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections...
.
On June 8, 2008, a private member's bill, C-555, entitled "The Telecommunications Clarity and Fairness Act" was introduced by Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
MP David McGuinty
David McGuinty
David Joseph McGuinty, MP is a Canadian lawyer politician from Ontario, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Ottawa South and sits in the Canadian House of Commons as the Liberal Party of Canada's Critic for Natural Resources...
(Ottawa South
Ottawa South
Ottawa South is a federal electoral district in Ottawa in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by David McGuinty, brother of Ontario Premier and Ottawa South MPP Dalton McGuinty. The riding was created in 1987 from parts of Ottawa—Vanier, Ottawa...
) that sought to undertake, among other things, "an assessment of network management practices that favour, degrade or prioritize any packet transmitted over a broadband network based on source, ownership or destination". Like the NDP bill, this proposed legislation fell after the 39th Parliament
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
was dissolved by the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
.
A new decision on January 25 of 2011, the CRTC (Canadian Radio, Television, Telecommunications Commission) ruled that usage-based billing could now be introduced. CRTC
Prime Minister Harper signaled that the government may be looking into such a ruling: "We're very concerned about CRTC's decision on usage-based billing and its impact on consumers. I've asked for a review of the decision". Some have suggested that this adversely affects net neutrality, since it discriminates against media that is larger in size, such as audio and video. The new ruling significantly throttles the availability of access by small business owners as they would have to pay for services.
SaveOurNet.ca Coalition
Led by Steve AndersonSteve Anderson (Open Media Advocate)
Steve Anderson is a Vancouver-based Canadian open media advocate, writer, video producer, and social media consultant. He writes a monthly syndicated column called “Media Links”...
and the Non-profit organization OpenMedia.ca the SaveOurNet.ca is a coalition of citizens, businesses, and public interest groups fighting to protect our Internet's level playing field. We're calling on lawmakers and industry to protect openness, choice, and access for ALL Canadians — and stopping lobbyists and special interests from ruining Canada's Internet.
The “SaveOurNet.ca coalition” launched in May 2008 consisting of public interest groups, labour, businesses and individuals. The SaveOurNet.ca Coalition began providing information about the issue of net neutrality, rallied the public to support the CAIP submission, and helped organize a net neutrality rally on Parliament Hill in May 2008.
In 2009, there were SaveOurNet.ca “Open Internet Town Hall” events in four cities, and over 12,000 citizen comments calling for net neutrality were sent to the CRTC. Formal submissions sent to the CRTC were overwhelmingly in favour of net neutrality, with stakeholders ranging from consumer groups (the Public Interest Advocacy Centre), labour (the National Union of Public and General Employees), cultural groups (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) and domestic and international businesses (Zip.ca, Open Internet Coalition). OpenMedia.ca (then called the Campaign for Democratic Media, CDM) and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) made a submission including support from one of the original architects of the Internet, Dr. David Reed of MIT, and network experts Dr. Andrew Odlyzko of the Minnesota Internet Traffic Studies (MINTS) project, and Bill St. Arnaud, Chief Research Officer for CANARIE Inc., Canada’s Advanced Internet Development Organization.
Wholesale Internet Service Providers
TekSavvy Solutions Inc., Velcom, Acanac Inc. argue that throttling by Bell CanadaBell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
at the ISP level makes it difficult to differentiate their services against Bell Canada, concerning issues about Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and security, and the quality of service. According to TekSavvy Solutions Inc., Bell Canada’s congestion report to the CRTC shows that the “data suggests no congestion problems for at least 95 percent of the network in Ontario and Quebec.”
Wholesale ISPs do not throttle bandwidth, but since wholesalers do not have a full network infrastructure, they rely on Bell Canada’s network for the last stretch of cabling to customers. When Bell Canada receives packets on the network, it may be throttled, slowing down the connection between the wholesale ISP and the customer.
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. and Velcom support MLPPP which circumvents Bell Canada's throttling.
Content providers
Yahoo!Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
argue that network neutrality law is necessary because without such a law ISPs will destroy the free and open nature of the Internet and also create a tiered, dollar-driven net that favours the wealthiest corporations over everyone else.
Michael Geist
Michael GeistMichael Geist
Michael Allen Geist is a Canadian academic, and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. Geist was educated at the University of Western Ontario where he received his Bachelors of Laws before going on to get his Masters of Laws at both Osgoode Hall Law...
has been writing about network neutrality in The Toronto Star.
When he had an interview with CARTT.CA, he said that "from a policy and law perspective, we ought to be thinking about what kind of rules the government might consider to help facilitate some of that."
Political parties
The federal NDP has been a vocal advocate of the principles behind Network Neutrality, with MP Charlie AngusCharlie Angus
Charles Joseph Angus MP is a Canadian writer, broadcaster, musician, and politician. Angus entered electoral politics in 2004 as the successful New Democratic Party candidate in the Ontario riding of Timmins—James Bay. He was the NDP parliamentary critic for Canadian Heritage from 2004 to 2007,...
(Timmins—James Bay
Timmins—James Bay
Timmins—James Bay is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1997. Its population in 2001 was 84,001....
) whose role of digital spokesperson for his party has drawn attention to this and other related issues, such as copyright reform
Canadian copyright law
The copyright law of Canada governs the legally enforceable rights to creative and artistic works under the laws of Canada. Canada passed its first colonial copyright statute in 1832 but was subject to imperial copyright law established by Britain until 1921...
. Mr. Angus has raised this issue many times in the House of Commons and in committee.
On June 18, 2009, federal Liberal Party MP Marc Garneau
Marc Garneau
Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau, CC CD FCASI MP is a Canadian retired military officer, former astronaut, engineer and politician.Garneau was the first Canadian in space taking part in three flights aboard NASA Space shuttles...
(Westmount—Ville-Marie
Westmount—Ville-Marie
Westmount—Ville-Marie is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1997. Its population in 2001 was 97,226.-Geography:...
), the Official Opposition
Official Opposition (Canada)
In Canada, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition , commonly known as the Official Opposition, is usually the largest parliamentary opposition party in the House of Commons or a provincial legislative assembly that is not in government, either on its own or as part of a governing coalition...
critic for Industry, Science and Technology, declared Liberal support for Network Neutrality during Question Period
Question Period
Question Period, known officially as Oral Questions occurs each sitting day in the Canadian House of Commons. According to the House of Commons Compendium, “The primary purpose of Question Period is to seek information from the Government and to call it to account for its actions.”-History:The...
by asking the Conservative Government
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
to do the same. Until this point, the Liberals had been mostly silent on the issue.
As of June 18, 2009, the ruling federal Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
under Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
(Calgary Southwest
Calgary Southwest
Calgary Southwest is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1988. The district is in the southwest part of the City of Calgary, south of Glenmore Trail, and west of the Canadian Pacific railway.The seat is held by Prime...
) remains non-committal, contending that free market competition is more favourable than regulation.
While the current position of the Bloc Québecois
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...
remains unclear, former Bloc MP Paul Crête
Paul Crête
Paul Crête is a Canadian politician, who served as a Member of Parliament for the Bloc Québécois in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 until 2009, when he announced that he was moving to provincial politics....
(Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup
Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup
Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004...
) has come out in support of Network Neutrality.
The Green Party of Canada
Green Party of Canada
The Green Party of Canada is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1983 with 10,000–12,000 registered members as of October 2008. The Greens advance a broad multi-issue political platform that reflects its core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and...
states its support for Network Neutrality in its policy statement.
Bell Canada
A spokeswoman for Bell CanadaBell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
, Jacqueline Michelis said "Our position on network diversity/neutrality is that it should be determined by market forces, not regulation" in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.