Still fighting against telco's limiting other ISP

[Amanda Yilmaz]

I'd love to write a letter of my own about this, ASAP.

However, I may be limited in what I can do because I'm not a citizen of Canada yet, though I am a permanent resident (landed immigrant) and intend to apply for citizenship once I'm eligible, which should be next year.

Before I start composing my letter, does anyone here know what the legal situation is for non-citizen residents who wish to contact MPs or other government officials urging them to act on a major issue such as this one?

Is it okay to contact them, with the understanding that a letter from a non-citizen would obviously carry less weight? Or is it considered interference from an outsider, illegal and a deportable offence?

Even if it's legal to contact them, I'm also concerned about marking myself as a troublemaker and inviting retaliation before I manage to obtain citizenship.

To be clear about this, I'm not talking about misrepresenting myself as a citizen, since that would almost certainly be illegal, as well as dishonest. But I live here too, and I'd like to know what I can do to help on this issue.

Amanda

On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:29 -0400, "S P Arif Sahari Wibowo" <arifsaha at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Just got this from TekSavvy:
> 
> ------ http://www.arifsaha.com/ forwarded messages ------
> Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:47:20
> From: TekSavvy Solutions Inc <support-R6A+fiHC8nRWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org>
> Subject: We need your help -- CRTC Ruling would challenge telecom
> competition
> 
> (Une version française de ce couriel sera envoyé plus tard 
> aujourd'hui.)
> 
> Hello,
> 
> We need your help -- we need you to lend us your voice and state 
> your opinion on a recent CRTC decision that could allow the 
> incumbent phone companies (such as Bell and Telus) to 
> discontinue offering services (Internet and phone) to wholesale 
> providers which in effect would eliminate competition in Canada.
> 
> With no competition to help fuel the market; Internet innovation 
> could come to stand still and prices for broadband access could 
> skyrocket out of control. The incumbents would also be free to 
> do with the lines as they please.  This would open up future 
> privacy invading Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technologies and 
> direct marketing/advertising based on *you* and *your families* 
> internet activities and habits.
> 
> They could also use this same technology to turn the Internet 
> into a pay-per-website service the same way that TV is a 
> pay-per-channel service. Can you imagine a world where you have 
> to pay to use the Google website to search for information? 
> Then, if you find what you are looking for you may be restricted 
> to the content because your ISP doesn't have a "peering" 
> agreement with said company.
> 
> Please help us stop this major potential catastrophe.
> 
> All concerned consumers please visit:
> http://www.competitivebroadband.com/consumer/
> 
> All concerned businesses please visit:
> http://www.competitivebroadband.com
> 
> Read the information presented and decide for yourself.
> 
> Once you've decided what you think is right, you can click the 
> "Make a Difference" link, fill out the form with your details 
> and send a pre-written message to Minister of Industry Tony 
> Clement, Prime Minister Harper, the Opposition Leader, and your 
> local MP or choose to write your own.
> 
> Together we can make a difference.
> Thank you,
> TekSavvy Solutions, Inc.
> 
> ---------------- end forwarded messages -----------------
> 
> -- 
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists