Telecom Policy - News

  • CIRA Board of Directors Nomination Process Ending Soon
    – 2012-06-03 –
    Time is running short for those wishing to nominate individuals to sit on CIRA's Board of Directors. CIRA, which operates the .CA registry, operates under a mandate that includes a number of important Internet governance issues. CIRA Board members are resopnsible for setting CIRA's strategic direction, helping achieve CIRA's mandate and objectives, and working towards supporting Canada's Internet community. The deadline for Board nominations is June 8, 2012. More detalis on the nomination process can be found here. More details on the election process in general can be found here. Three board positions are open for nomination, and successfully elected board members will sit for three successive election periods.
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  • CIPPIC joins International Coalition in Objecting to Secret WCIT Governance Process
    – 2012-05-18 –

    CIPPIC has joined an international coalition of civil society organizations including CDT, EFF, IGP and EDRi in a letter of protest (Spanish) sent to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The letter protests the secrecy and exclusivity surrounding its preparations for the World Conference on International Communications (WCIT). Slated for negotiation during WCIT-12 is a potential re-envisioning of the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITR), an international treaty that currently governs traditional telephone communications amongst the numerous countries who have signed on to it. While the current ITRs are limited in scope primarily to telephone systems, the renegotiated text (which will be up for discussion and adoption at WCIT-12) is rumoured to weigh in heavily on several aspects of Internet governance.

    We say 'rumoured' because all the preparatory documents for WCIT-12 are sealed and civil society has been excluded from the discussions. The current ITU framework does not allow for open participation. Further, the ITU's business model (premised on the dubious concept of selling access to documents and decision-makers to corporate associates at prohibitive rates) is a significant barrier to civil society participation. While perhaps workable for regulation of telephone lines, this approach is antithetical to the distributed, multi-stakeholder governance model that has made the Internet the engine for innovation and freedom that it is today. The letter calls on the ITU to open the WCIT-12 preparatory documents up to public debate and to ensure all stakeholders, including civil society, the technical community, governments, and corporate interests are able to participate on equal footing. 

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  • Only two days left to help set the agenda for CIF 2012!
    – 2012-02-10 –

    CIRA is hosting its second annual Canadian Internet Forum -- a venue to discuss pressing and upcoming issues in the digital world. CIF 2012 will bring together experts and individual Canadians from across the spectrum of stakeholders in order to discuss the pressing Internet governance issues of our day. Last year, issues ranged broadly, covering concerns over the need to enhance ditigal literacy in Canada,  challenges for innovative ventures in Canada, to the need to implement IPv6 and DNSSEC and to ensure Canada has world-class Internet infrastructure.

    The forum represents a unique opportunity for Canadians to voice their concerns on Internet governance and related issues. This is particularly salient following the apparent demise of the government's digital economy strategy. Only two days remain to provide into the agenda, so take a few minutes and fill out CIRA's online form and tell them what you would like to hear discussed at CIF 2012 (dealine for comments is February 12, 2012)!

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  • SOPA Black-out
    – 2012-01-19 –

    If you visited our website yesterday, you most likely noticed the following black-out page covering the entire cippic.ca site:

     
    CIPPIC.ca joined countless other websites in going entirely dark, or at least notionally censoring, our web pages for the day.  This action was part of a worldwide protest against the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA). The black-outs aimed to give web users a feel for what the internet could become under the purview of the proposed U.S. legislation -- that is, an internet where you might attempt to visit your favourite website, only to find that it was censored and blocked on the basis of aggressive U.S. content policies.
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  • CRTC Finds No Facts to Tax Online Video
    – 2011-10-05 –

    The CRTC issued today the results of Broadcasting and Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2011-344, a 'fact-finding' expedition launched in may of this summer with the objective of re-examining the impact of online video distribution services (referred to somewhat derogatorily as 'over-the-top' services) on traditional broadcasting Act objectives. The fear underpinning this fact-finding expedition was that new online video services such as Netflix will introduce competition a character that traditional broadcasters cannot compete with. In its submission, CIPPIC argued that cries of alarm from traditional broadcasters are greatly exaggerated, and that the commission should refrain from taxing or otherwise regulating online video services or risk stifling online innovation and service migration. CIPPIC also argued that, by its nature, the Internet avoids problems relating to distribution of Canadian content as issues of scarcity do not arise. In its report, issued today, the Commission adopted this 'hands-off' approach, at least until the issue is scheduled for re-assessment in 2015. The Commission also mentioned the need to develop new tools for more accurate assessment of the impact and scope of online video services, and, unfortunately, appeared to have accepted the need to monitor the 'out of control' network (wireline and mobile) traffic growth online video is generating. CIPPIC has addressed traffic growth fear-mongering in past submissions to the CRTC, and most recently in its comments and replies to the TNC CRTC 2011-77.

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  • CIRA Board Elections: Vote for the Future of Your Internet
    – 2011-09-26 –

    If you own a .ca domain and are a registered CIRA member, it's time to get your vote on! This week, a total of four CIRA Board of Director positions are up for election. There are only two days left to cast your ballot through the quick online process at elections.cira.ca.

    The internet is a public resource and we all need to ensure that the public interest is at the forefront of internet policy.  We at CIPPIC encourage you to vote for those candidates with the public interest of an open, equally accessible, and secure internet at the forefront of their minds. In particular, we can speak to the excellent capabilities of Bill St. Arnaud, Kevin McArthur, and Marita Moll.

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  • CIPPIC and PIAC Join International Civil Society Groups in Declining to Endorse OECD Internet Governance Principles
    – 2011-06-30 –

    CIPPIC and PIAC, as members of the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council (CSISAC) to the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have joined 80 international civil society groups in rejecting a set of OECD Internet policy-making Principles set out in a Communiqué on Principles for Internet-Policy Making. While recognizing the efforts of multiple OECD stakeholders to accommodate civil societ concerns regarding the Principles set out in the Communiqué, CIPPIC was ultimately unable to support it in that many of the most important amongst these principles were completely undermined by their implementation within the Communiqué.

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  • OpenMedia.ca Releases Report Establishing Need for Openness as Guiding Principle of Digital Policy
    – 2011-05-27 –

    OpenMedia.ca released "Casting an Open Net: A Leading Edge Approach to Canada's Digital Future", a report demonstrating the need for a comprehensive digital policy that has openness as its guiding principle. The report lays out a factual and policy basis for the need for Openness, as well as an action plan that lays out clear steps that will allow Canada to regain its digital leadership role by providing Canadians with an open, affordable Internet.

    CIPPIC contributed a chapter to the report

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  • CIPPIC tells CRTC they can act to ensure universal internet access
    – 2010-09-01 –

    As part of TNC CRTC 2010-43, a process examining the obligation of internet service providers to ensure universal affordable access to broadband Internet, CIPPIC, acting for OpenMedia.ca, argued in its submission that the CRTC is tasked with putting in place a comprehensive telecommunications framework, and that this mandate includes the obligation to ensure a minimal level of affordable access to telecommunications services for all Canadians.  CIPPIC explained that the CRTC has broad and varied tools at its disposal that it may use to ensure all Canadians have access to broadband Internet.

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  • CIPPIC Participates in Industry Canada Digital Economy Consultation
    – 2010-07-14 –

    As part of its intention to help Canada regain its leadership position in the global digital economy, the government recently concluded a public consultation process which sought submissions from all sectors of the public on who to achieve this objective.

    CIPPIC provided two input streams into the Government's consultaiton process. First, we helped develop and endorsed a consensus subimssion convened by Andrew Clement and Karen Louise Smith of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. In addition, CIPPIC's 2010 summer interns put together a comprehensive submission that set out 36 recommendations. In this submission, CIPPIC calls on the government to encourage the creation of a digital environment that will be better for all Canadians and will serve as a model for other jurisdictions. CIPPIC offers recommendations on issues such as privacy, online file-sharing, and on quality and access to communications that will help the government achieve this objective.

    For more info see: https://cippic.ca/Digital_Economy_Consultation_Canada

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