Fwd: E-MAIL SURCHARGE

[Stewart Sinclair]

Does anyone know anything about this?

Stew
****

Subject: E-MAIL SURCHARGE
From: shanaz meghji <shanaz-meghji-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2005 23:45:20 -0400 (EDT)
To: Parin Visanji <pvisanji-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org>

E-MAIL SURCHARGE

  The last few months have revealed an  alarming trend in the
Government of Canada attempting to quietly  push through legislation
that will affect your use of the Internet.  Under proposed  legislation
Canada Post will be attempting  to bill email users out  of "alternate
postage  fees".

  Bill 602P will permit the Federal Govt to charge a 5 cent surcharge
on every email delivered, by billing  Internet Service Providers at
source. The consumer would then be billed  in turn by the ISP.

  Toronto lawyer Richard Stepp QC is working  to prevent this
legislation from  becoming law.

  The Canada Post Corporation is claiming  that lost revenue due to  the
proliferation of email is costing  nearly $23,000,000 in revenue  per year.

  You may have noticed Canada Post's recent  ad campaign "There is
nothing like a letter". Since the average  citizen received about  10
pieces of email per day in 1998, the  cost to the typical  individual
would be an additional 50 cents per day, or over $180  dollars per year,
above and beyond their regular Internet costs.

  Note that this would be money paid directly to Canada Post for a
service they do not even provide. The whole point of the Internet is
democracy and non-interference. If the  Canadian Government is permitted
to tamper with our liberties by  adding a surcharge to  email, who knows
where it will end.

  You are already paying an exorbitant price  for snail mail because of
beaurocratic inefficiency. It currently  takes up to 6 days for a
letter to be delivered from Mississauga to  Scarborough.

  If Canada Post Corporation is allowed to  tinker with email, it will
mark the end of the "free" Internet in  Canada. One back-bencher,
Liberal  Tony Schnell (NB) has even suggested a  "twenty to forty dollar
per  month surcharge on all Internet service"  above and beyond the
government's proposed email charges.

  Note that most of the major newspapers  have ignored the story, the
only exception being the Toronto Star that  called the idea of email
surcharge "a useful concept who's time has  come" (March 6th 1999
Editorial).  Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode  away! Send this
email to  all Canadians on your list and tell your  friends and
relatives to  write to their MP and say "No!" to Bill  602P.

Kate Turner Assistant to Richard Stepp QC
Berger, Stepp and Gorman Barristers at Law
216 Bay Street Toronto, ON MlL 3C6


GULAM RAJANI

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