I think I'd use the word 'derailed' rather than 'failed', but I also think Michael Geist is right to suggest that maybe it's time for a reset (not just in Canada, but perhaps globally as well). There are three priorities: consumer telecom pricing, privacy protection and a modernized internet legal framework as priorities. We're stalled on all of them. In Canada we still pay among the highest mobile rates in the world, and rural broadband access is inadequate (and it is a national embarrassment that an indigenous CBC commentator has to participate on television from her car because there isn't adequate bandwidth where she lives) and government actually took some steps backward over the summer. Privacy protection is lagging and as Geist notes some provinces have felt the need to launch their own initiatives. And there are concerns about the evolving regulatory environment - we're not to the point of banning applications for political reasons, but we're skirting that line, which is an unwelcome development. Image: Michal Jarmolik.
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