We fight for that John Lawford, Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

We recap the inaugural appearance of Professor Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, before the CRTC, in which his statement and answers to the Commissioners' questions maybe revealed more about CRTC assumptions about the public interest and consumer interest than about how much money should go to whom under the new version of the Broadcasting Act.

PIAC speaks with George Burger, VMedia Chief Operating Officer, about the post-Rogers-Shaw competitive environment and why VMedia's acquisition by Quebecor Media Inc, is different, and better, for consumers than all of the other acquisitions of independent ISPs that followed. George is very convincing and he almost had us there, hoping against hope.
In any case, we troll through the wreckage of the Canadian Internet market after its torpedoing by the CRTC's wholesale Internet rate reversal in 2021 and to some extent the prospects for Freedom to be good again. We'll see.

Ben Klass rejoins the podcast to discuss the dramatic holiday time decision(s) of the Competition Tribunal of Canada allowing (?) the merger of Rogers and Shaw, the Competition Bureau's instant stay and appeal of the CT decision and the upcoming Federal Court of Appeal hearing on the deal. We opine about the state of the market if the Competition Tribunal decision stands. It's not good folks.

Globalive's Simon Lockie joins the podcast to give the inside scoop on a past and future competitor's efforts to start a fourth national wireless company and whether Globalive can acquire Shaw's "Freedom Mobile" assets if Shaw (or Rogers) must sell them to obtain regulatory approval of the larger Rogers-Shaw deal, which is now before the Competition Tribunal.

We discuss Bill C-27, the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, Personal um, something AI and a tribunal, I think? It does not matter, because the federal government took the last bill ('the other' Bill C-11) to try to replace the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and MADE IT WORSE. Wow.

Returning guest Ben Klass and host John Lawford discuss the major outage of Rogers Communications Inc's wireless and Internet services experienced on 8 July 2022, the possible regulatory outcomes and consumers' expectations for what they might expect as compensation and future rules to avoid this situation in the future.