Internet protesters to descend on Ottawa

by Rob Walker | May 27, 2008 at 11:44 am

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The Net Neutrality debate keeps heating up in Canada, with hundreds of protesters expected on Parliament hill today.

They are there to urge government action on keeping the internet free from interference by service providers.

At the heart of the matter is deep packet inspection and throttling, as well as cost and accesability, where what types of files you're downloading are inspected and possible slowed down based on what the internet provider wants.

Hundreds of protesters are expected to descend on Parliament Hill on Tuesday to urge government action on keeping the internet free from interference by service providers.
The net neutrality rally will draw together politicians, labour unions, consumer groups and internet activitists, with protesters being bused in from Toronto, Montreal and Chatham, Ont., the home base of its organizer, TekSavvy Solutions Inc.

"We're expecting between 300 and 500 [protesters], and if it's any more than that, we'll consider it an amazing success," said Rocky Gaudrault, chief executive officer of TekSavvy, an ISP with about 35,000 customers.

At issue are the actions of big ISPs such as Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., who have been slowing down the internet speeds of customers using certain applications, such as peer-to-peer software used for file sharing.