OTTAWA – The federal government could make or break a positive Internet experience for Canadians, Michael Geist, University of Ottawa law professor and Canada Research Chair in Internet law and e-commerce, said at an event in Ottawa yesterday.
Geist was speaking at the Canadian Internet Registration Authority’s (CIRA) Canadian Internet Forum 2012 where he noted that the federal government has tabled a number of pieces of legislation that could greatly affect how Canadians interact with the Internet in the future. Saying that the House of Commons is where “The Other Internet Forum” is taking place, Geist pointed to legislation on copyright, privacy and lawful access as well as the pending initiation of the anti-spam law.
He insisted that the decisions on copyright and lawful access will have a lasting impact on Canadians. “More than almost any other, they will define the opportunities and challenges of what the Internet looks like in Canada in the years to come. The choices we make now are going to have an enormous impact,” he said during a panel session titled, The Opportunities and Challenges of the Internet in Canada.
In his seven-minute presentation, Geist detailed the problems associated with copyright (Bill C-11, currently in committee) and lawful access (C-30, referred to committee after first reading for an overhaul after a huge public outcry). With respect to lawful access, or Internet surveillance as he describes, Geist pointed to three key elements of the proposed bill that will a significant detrimental impact on the Internet in Canada.
First, mandatory disclosure of subscriber data without a warrant “really blows a hole in one of the most fundamental privacy principles we have. That is that where there is a mandatory disclosure…there needs to be court oversight,” he said. In the vast majority of cases (95% of the time in 2010), ISPs and other providers voluntarily gave law enforcement subscriber information. It’s the remaining 5% where providers have told the police they won’t hand over customer data unless there is a warrant.
Second the law would require ISPs to install a massive surveillance infrastructure in their networks and could in fact see government install their own equipment in providers’ networks. And lastly, there are just simply too many unknowns because the government says it will deal with many issues with regulations. This just doesn’t cut it, he said.
Geist acknowledged there may be cases where waiting for a warrant to get customer information may not be practical, but added in those cases that this may actually be a warrant problem, not an issue where all consumers rights need to be tramped on. “That’s not a situation where what we need to do is throw out the principle of court oversight,” he said. “What we need to do is identify how can we establish a warrant for this specific, vary narrow form of information that retains court oversight and meets law enforcement needs for quite access to that same information.”
Frederick Gaudreau, a captain with the Sureté du Quebec (the provincial police force), suggested that there must be a way to find the appropriate balance between protecting the private information of Canadians and providing the law enforcement with the appropriate tools to fight crime. The goal is to be able to give police the ability to predict crimes.
He said that the police don’t want to intervene in personal lives without the right to do so, but he noted that there may be instances where waiting for a warrant may actual hinder the ability of law enforcement to do their job effectively. Gaudreau also added that law enforcement agencies are still somewhat stuck fighting crime as they did 20 years ago. For example, more information about an individual can be found by doing a search on Google than by searching the police databases, he said.
Steve Anderson, founder and executive director of Openmedia.ca, said there are a number of matters that if not dealt with correctly could greatly affect the Internet in Canada. He pointed to the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction and the rules surrounding that auction which have not yet been announced, as well as the saga over wholesale Internet rates (usage-based billing). “The future of mobile communications, potentially the future of the Internet, could be handed over to just three companies. I think it’s really critical that we get a strong set aside for independent providers,” he said.
Rates for wholesale services need to be reviewed annually and they need to set in a transparent way, he suggested, adding that Canada should give serious thought to following the UK‘s lead on functional separation. Describing this as “authentic competition,” the UK has seen low prices and increased competition, claims Anderson. Functional separation would see a telecom company's network operations split apart from its retail sales functions, something all of the Canadian telecom companies are against and that the federal government has said it opposes, too.
Jane Tallim, co-executive director of the Media Awareness Network, said a key part to Canada’s Internet future rests on digital literacy. “If adoption and not just access is our goal in Canada then we really need to support the development, the knowledge and skills that Canadians need to have confidence to go online,” she said.
There are three levels to digital literacy: use, understand and create. It’s at the two latter stages where the most care needs to be taken, said Tallim. At the understanding level, this is where kids who are starting to go online need to be made aware of tools they can use to ensure their safety and security while in cyberspace. With respect to the create stage, students may be getting the short end of stick when teachers tell them Wikipedia is not an appropriate site to visit for information because anyone can contribute to the site. The lesson here should be about the power of collective knowledge, Tallim said.
But as a whole, there isn’t a national effort on digital literacy, something that is desperately needed, she noted.
“Despite best efforts, we’re not really seeing much movement in Canada for a cohesive response to developing these skills. While governments and industry are focused on supporting access and developing employment skills, there just doesn’t seem to be any coordinated efforts between governments, industry and education sectors to support digital literacy among the generation public.”
