TekSavvy Solutions Inc. has provided the Liberal Government with what it says is “clear evidence” of CRTC chair Ian Scott’s bias, and doubled down on calls for the government to remove him from his post. 

In a Thursday release, TekSavvy said that it had filed “additional evidence” in support of a May petition to the governor in council over the regulator’s reversal on rates for wholesale internet access. 

In submitting the evidence to the government, TekSavvy pointed to “numerous ex parte meetings with litigants with open CRTC files,” including some 11 solo meetings with BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., and Shaw Communications Inc. following challenges to the CRTC’s August 2019 rates decision. 

Specifically, TekSavvy called out a reported December 2019 meeting between Scott and then-chief operating officer of Bell (and now CEO) Mirko Bibic in an Ottawa bar. The meeting, TekSavvy pointed out in its release, is said to have occurred just a week after the regulator opened a file to hear Bell’s application to review and vary the 2019 wholesale rates. The meeting was first reported by the Toronto Star. 

“TekSavvy submitted that Mr. Scott’s ex parte meeting with Mr. Bibic is also clearly offside the standards of conduct required by the Governor in Council for its appointees to the CRTC, as confirmed by Cabinet’s termination of one Commissioner’s appointment for far less egregious conduct in 2017,” the company wrote in its release, referring to the termination of Raj Shoan. 

“The CRTC’s role is to be an independent arbiter. The 2019 Final Rates Order, which was based on years of process and mountains of evidence showed the CRTC had the independence and expertise to set proper wholesale rates,” Andy Kaplan-Myrth, TekSavvy’s vice president of regulatory and carrier affairs, said in the release. “Now they’re having beers with Bell and making up numbers, while completely undermining this government’s promises to Canadians. It’s an outrage.”

Yesterday, the advocacy group OpenMedia launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign requesting its own opportunity to meet Ian Scott for a beer.  

“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 said in its campaign release.