Following up on our post about one of Canada's largest telco/ISPs blocking access to sites put up by its striking/locked-out (depends on who you ask) union, Michael Geist has posted an excellent legal analysis of all the different rules, regs and laws that Telus — the telco/ISP in question — is breaking by cutting off access to websites that criticize it:
The Telecommunications Act contains at least two provisions that appear relevant. Section 27(2) provides that "No Canadian carrier shall, in relation to the provision of a telecommunications service or the charging of a rate for it, unjustly discriminate or give an undue or unreasonable preference toward any person, including itself, or subject any person to an undue or unreasonable disadvantage." It seems to me that a compelling case could be made that Telus is unjustly discriminating against this particular website, which puts the site at a disadvantage. In fact, Telus argued that this is precisely what the provision does during the CRTC's VoIP hearings. As part of the CRTC analysis on whether it should prohibit packet preferencing, it notes that Telus argued against a prohibition, submitting to the CRTC that it "retained the subsection 27(2) prohibition on unjust discrimination." Moreover, Telus "submitted that it had committed not to do anything to deliberately degrade the service experienced by an end-user of any access-independent VoIP service."
Section 36 is even more on point. It provides that "except where the Commission approves otherwise, a Canadian carrier shall not control the content or influence the meaning or purpose of telecommunications carried by it for the public." This appears to directly address the current situation as Telus is in fact controlling the content carried by it for the public.
(Thanks, Michael!)
