Canadian Big Telecom Attacks Citizen's Org. Campaign

With your help, we have a tool to fight back

by OpenMedia

As you may know, following the release of our Time for An Upgrade study, Big Telecom’s lobbyist army targeted the media to suppress your voice and our message of change – they even went after journalists on Twitter to get them to change the story.2

And there’s more:

Last week one Big Telecom lobbyist went so far as to write a 42-page attack paper using cherry-picked data to undermine Canadians’ call for more affordable and respectful telecom services.3

Members of our online community caught no less than three telecom lobbyists spamming our Facebook Page.4 Those lobbyists only admitted they were employed by Big Telecom after being outed.

Canadians are getting under Big Telecom’s skin; we’re starting to win. It’s not often that we get to see the execs’ out-of-control sense of entitlement undermine their credibility like this.

We recently asked for your support to help us all fight against Big Telecom’s army of lobbyists and public relations experts and you answered. Today, thanks to your contributions, we’re launching a powerful tool to help Canadians speak out in local papers. It’s your tool, so you should give it a try.


We’re making progress because tens of thousands of you sent our Time For an Upgrade study to your Members of Parliament and signed our petition against Big Telecom price-gouging. Taking action online is how we continue to demonstrate our momentum, and get attention from the media and decision-makers. Thank you so much for being a part of this.

Your letter-writing tool is a powerful way to speak out and wake up your local MPs. Write to your local newspaper to speak out against disrespectful service, price-gouging, and a lack of choice for telecom services in Canada.

Thank you for playing a special role in safeguarding the possibilities of our digital future – you inspire us to keep going. We couldn’t do any of this without you.

For a connected Canada,

Steve and Josh, on behalf of your OpenMedia.ca team

P.S. OpenMedia.ca is a small non-profit organization working overtime to safeguard your digital future. We rely on donations from people like you to continue our efforts. If you can, please join us by chipping in whatever you can afford to sustain us today.

Footnotes

[1] Your Cell Phone Horror Stories in the News. Source: OpenMedia.ca.

[2] Telus Spokesperson Shawn Hall versus Globe and Mail reporter Iain Marlow. Source: Twitter.

[3] Internet law expert Michael Geist notes that “the oldest data I've seen in the myriad of recent posts on these issues can be found in McTaggart's [from Telus] response as he relies on 2005 data to argue that Canadians use their wireless devices more than most people in the world.” Both Professor Michael Geist and Internet policy reporter Peter Nowak’s analysis point to a severe lack of credibility and understanding in Telus’ response to the cell phone grievances of Canadians.

[4] Telus lobbyist spams our Facebook page. Source: OpenMedia.ca.

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