MP Charlie Angus (who was in a punk band) loves net neutrality so much that he has submitted a bill in Ottawa to ensure that Canadians will be able to pass information through the interwebtubes without concern. What I find interesting is that the bill is a private-member bill and not one submitted by a party. Let’s hope it passes!
Ars Technica has an article on Angus and net neutrality in Canada.
Charlie Angus, who represents Timmins and James Bay, launched his bill one day after 300 people showed up in Ottawa to protest the issue. “You are citizens of a digital realm and you have rights,” Angus told the crowd, according to the CBC. The crowd then chanted, “Whose net? Our net!” As a slogan, this leaves something to be desired, but it does get the point across.
The debate has been sparked in large part by recent revelations about traffic-shaping by Bell Canada, shaping that has allegedly reduced the speed of many P2P sessions by 90 percent. It applies even to ISPs who resell wholesale access from Bell, and these ISPs have brought Canadian regulators into the battle over the issue
Angus wants Parliament to debate the topic, and his brief bill amends Canada’s Telecommunications Act to prohibit various forms of discrimination. P2Pnet hosts a copy of the text, which outlaws “network management practices that favour, degrade or prioritise any content, application or service is transmitted over a broadband network based on its source, ownership or destination.” Reasonable network management is still allowed, and ISPs are explicitly allowed to charge different prices for different levels of bandwidth.