A little over a month has passed since Bill C-61 was introduced by Industry Minister Jim Prentice in the House of Commons. The bill generated considerable negative media attention and a remarkable outpouring of concern from tens of thousands of Canadians. We are now also seeing those concerns played out at a local level:
- At least two MPs have promised town hall meetings, including Sukh Dhaliwal, MP for Newton – North Delta, who has announced plans for a townhall meeting on July 30th.
- Local groups are meeting with MPs and the Minister. Several have established wikis to share information (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver).
- Bill Siksay, the NDP MP for Burnaby-Douglas devotes the front page of his monthly household flyer to the bill (hat tip: Digital-Copyright.ca)
- IT World Canada runs an interview with Vancouver Centre NDP candidate Michael Byers, who is highly critical of C-61.
- Tom King, NDP candidate in the Guelph by-election, has already declared that copyright should be an issue.
- Local papers are covering the story and featuring regular letters to the editor such as this one from the Nanaimo News Bulletin that declares C-61 a "blatant sellout."
While it is far too early to predict what this will mean, there should be no doubt that copyright is quickly emerging as a political issue that each political party ignores at its peril.
Copyright party is … the NDP?
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Canada’s Copyright party is … the NDP?
//Who needs a Canadian Pirate Party?//
I wrote a letter to Jim Prentice with copies to The Heritage Minister, PM, Dion as Official opposition, Layton as head of the NDP and my local MP.
I got the standard form letter back from the Heritage Minister, an obvious form letter from Dion, a less obvious form letter from the NDP and nothing from either Prentice or the PM\’s office. As for my local MP – I got a nice form letter regarding his stance on Bill *C-51* and no comment on C-61 at all.
It\’s time for individual Canadians to snap out of their apathy and demand that their elected representative be accountable when it comes to representing the general publics desires.
Same here WDM. I wrote to Prentice both before and after the bill. His office didn’t even bother to give me the standard BS reply that some people got. Seems the idiot is great at ignoring the concerns of Canadians. Either that or he just ignores people from Ontario permanently, seems like the conservative thing to do.
I got some crappy reply from Dion’s office saying they’re too busy to respond at the moment, but to rest assured that my views have been discussed and considered (yeah right.)
Got the standard NDP response from my local MP, but at least his party is doing something. Looks like the liberals are going to lose my vote next election if they don’t wisen up and grow a pair. Nice opposition party, they’re certainly not standing up for the majority of Canadians that voted against this fascist leadership. It’s time to step it up and start challenging this disgusting bully of a PM.