OpenMedia wants its shot at a beer with CRTC chair Ian Scott

An organization advocating for an open and surveillance-free internet is fishing for a beer date with CRTC chair Ian Scott in response to claims that he met with BCE Inc.’s CEO weeks after the company filed an appeal of the commission’s 2019 wholesale rates. On Wednesday, OpenMedia launched its campaign, “Send Ian Scott an invite for patio beers to talk Internet regulation,” after the Toronto Star published an article, July 12, claiming that officials in the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) had “more than 250 meetings” with Canada’s biggest telecommunications companies “plus a dozen meetings with Scott.” “The CRTC wants to conduct regulatory business at the bar — so be it. But the days of having a beer with just one side of the debate are over,” OpenMedia wrote in its campaign. According to the advocates, independent ISPs met with the same groups 19 times in the same timeframe, while OpenMedia met with ISED just four times during that period, and not once with the CRTC. One of the dozen meetings with Scott allegedly took place Dec. 19, 2019, at an Ottawa bar and was a one-on-one with Bell CEO (but then chief operating officer) Mirko Bibic -- days after the company filed its appeal over the regulator’s decision to lower Internet wholesale rates, which small ISPs hailed as “fair” and “reasonable.” Then, last month, the regulator announced that it is setting permanent rates for third-party aggregated wholesale access to the level of interim rates established in 2016. Coincidence? According to OpenMedia, it is not. “It’s unfair and ridiculous — but if heading to the pub is the only way to get our voices heard at the CRTC, then we’re game. Here’s our proposal for Chair Scott: Meet us and a handful of OpenMedia community members for a beer, and hear directly from the folks he’s been screwing over with the CRTC’s recent decisions,” OpenMedia went on to state in its campaign release. The organization is requesting that citizens send an invitation to Scott to meet with OpenMedia and three community members for “regulatory beers” on a patio. There is also an option for individuals to state whether they would also be interested in meeting Scott for drinks, which the organization plans to make happen, COVID regulations willing. “Shady lobbying like this private Bell/Ian Scott cocktail hour have led to anti-consumer decisions that are already costing Canadians dearly. Since Scott’s beer with Bell, the CRTC has thrown out its own calculations on fair wholesale rates, ignoring its own analysis that Big Telecom dominates the market and extracts monopoly profits in Canada, and even ignored Cabinet’s policy direction that the CRTC must prioritize affordability,” OpenMedia stated. “Incredibly, they’ve refused to even calculate new wholesale rates for fair Internet pricing, defaulting instead to the higher 2016 rates.”

OpenMedia wants its shot at a beer with CRTC chair Ian Scott

Brief | June 23, 2021

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OpenMedia wants its shot at a beer with CRTC chair Ian Scott

Brief | June 23, 2021

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