Archive for June 2nd, 2011

Media Piracy Roundtable Coming to Ottawa

IDRC is hosting an open event in Ottawa on Friday, June 3rd on the Media Piracy in Emerging Economies study it funded. I will be participating along with Joe Karaganis, the lead editor of the study, and Ronaldo Lemos, the Director of the Center for Technology and Society at FGV […]

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June 2, 2011 9 comments News

Cabinet Minister Mandate Letters for The Digital Era

With the new Parliamentary session set to kick off today with the election of a new speaker, new cabinet members are busy brushing up on the myriad of issues they will face in the coming months. The appointment to cabinet comes with a private mandate letter from the Prime Minister that sets out his expectations and policy goals. If Canadians focused on digital policies were given the chance to draft their own mandate letters, my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) speculates that they might say the following:

Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry: As the new Minister of Industry, it falls to you to make the digital economy strategy initiated by your predecessor Tony Clement a reality. The centrepiece of the strategy should be universal, competitively priced broadband service. With a majority government in place, we have four years to open the market to new competitors, facilitate the introduction of new wireless broadband alternatives, encourage the market to offer fibre connections in all major markets, foster new local competitors, leverage the role of high speed research and education networks, consider using spectrum auction proceeds to fund broadband initiatives, and address anti-competitive pricing models. We should set realistic but ambitious targets for broadband speed, pricing, and competition that allows Canada to reverse a decade of decline and once again become a global leader.

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June 2, 2011 1 comment Columns

Cabinet Minister Mandate Letters for The Digital Era

Appeared in the Toronto Star on May 29, 2011 as What Harper’s Ministers Should be Doing Digitally With the new Parliamentary session set to kick off later this week, new cabinet members are busy brushing up on the myriad of issues they will face in the coming months. The appointment […]

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June 2, 2011 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive