Evidence of meeting #82 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was internet.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'm so glad your access wasn't deemed vexatious or anything like that, because that would have been too bad.
Can we require CRTC, through legislation or some other means, to be proactive and audit the performance of some of the sites, if there is suspicion or a tendency within certain carriers, certain ISPs, to slow down things in an anti-competitive way?
5:25 p.m.
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
I am not aware of a reason why the CRTC couldn't be doing it right now.
5:25 p.m.
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
No, nothing requires them.
5:25 p.m.
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
I think obviously they made, I guess, a policy decision that the appropriate approach was to respond to complaints.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Would it be good for this committee to hear from the CRTC as we look at this?
5:25 p.m.
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
I think it would be really good to hear specifically about how they have handled the net neutrality complaints. Frankly, it's an issue that, with the exception of that access to information request and a couple of follow-ups that I've done.... You do get raw numbers, but it's a bit more opaque in terms of trying to identify what is really happening.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Mr. Cullen, we're right at the three minutes, so I have to be crisp.
Mr. Kent, for the last minute and a half.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Peter Kent Conservative Thornhill, ON
I have just one question, perhaps to help folks like some of us who are still relatively new to the concept of net neutrality.
Would it be fair to compare net neutrality and the potential challenges to net neutrality to what the cable companies did a few years ago when they would shift the digital focus on high movement sports events to give better picture quality, and they degraded other programming in the interests of serving their sports customers?
5:25 p.m.
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
That's an interesting analogy. The extent to which they were engaged in that would highlight treating different content—from the perspective of the end-user—differently. Now they might argue that they were doing that for different purposes.
5:25 p.m.
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Yes.
Perhaps even the lack of disclosure around the issue would be part of the problem. That is one of the reasons why the CRTC did insist—and even in the U.S., we'll continue to see it—on some disclosure in terms of what the practices are.
It's hard to complain generally. It's really hard to complain if you don't even know what the carriers say they are doing with the content.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Thank you, Mr. Geist, for appearing before committee today. There were definitely interesting questions, and it's an interesting horizon that we're facing.
5:30 p.m.
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Thanks.