“Mr. Scott held at least 11 reported solo meetings with Bell, Rogers or Shaw during the course of the CRTC’s open and active file.” https://t.co/xdgiAP6BDa

— EBOX (@EBOX_CA) June 28, 2021

This is the head of the CRTC with Bell President and CEO Mirko Bibic. Actually, that’s Mirko’s face and Ian’s back.

The media world is scared to death of these two men who look like their mtg in a pub over a couple of pints which is hilarious when you consider what these two are trying to do to your internet rates and free speech. It was one of 75+ solo meetings Bell reps had with Ian Scott (a former pal and lobbyist for Telus – another Telco).

The Telco guys all HATE each other but man, when they want to fuck us over, they work REALLY well together.
Remember last month when Ian Scott scrapped a two-year-old decision that guaranteed competitive internet rates for all Canadians? Yeeeeah, it was as a result of meetings like this that got the last head of the CRTC fired.

This is from Peter Nowak, exec with Tecksavvy.  They have a blog and Peter’s latest summary of
In 2017, the Liberal government appointed Ian Scott, a former lobbyist for Telus, to head the CRTC. Now it’s time they fire him – which is precisely what TekSavvy has today asked the government to do.

Scott’s CRTC just released the most anti-consumer, Big Telecom-friendly decision in the regulator’s history, scrapping its own 2019 decision to lower wholesale internet rates and guaranteeing that the prices Canadians pay for internet service – already among the highest in the world – will continue to rise with no end in sight.

This decision reverts the wholesale rates that independent internet providers such as TekSavvy pay to Bell, Rogers and others to use portions of their networks back to 2016 levels, effectively handing Big Telecom hundreds of millions of dollars in unfair charges.

The CRTC itself determined that those 2016 rates – which account for indie ISPs’ largest operating expense – are grossly inflated because of Big Telecoms’ “very disturbing” rate-fixing tactics. In 2019, the regulator issued new, final rates that were significantly lower and ordered the big companies to repay indie ISPs the amounts they had overcharged for years.

The Federal and Supreme Courts both rejected Big Telecom’s appeals of that 2019 ruling, with the Federal Court of Appeal adding that the companies’ arguments were of “dubious merit.” Cabinet rejected them too. Scott’s CRTC, however, has simply jettisoned five years’ worth of its own evidence-based work and handed yet another massive subsidy to Big Telecom.

With obscenely high wholesale rates locked in and the repayments cancelled, independent ISPs will now be unable to offer competitive pricing or grow their operations. Some are likely to fold. Jobs will be lost. Investments will be pulled back.

This is a massive power/revenue grab attempt by Bell (and Rogers to a lesser extent) and as a former telecom exec who may or may not still have business interests in that field, I imagine Mr. Scott is perceptive to their needs.  And while Ian’s at it, why not pass bill C10 to ‘level the playing field with online content providers by subjecting them all to regulated content to REALLY give Bell and Rogers absolute control over the media/content landscape in Canada.

That’s why I’m laughing my balls off at these two talking about their big old screw job in a packed pub at happy hour IN OTTAWA with 32-ounce beers.

If it doesn’t all work out.  Blame them.

Cheers fellas!

Dean Blundell

PS: Ian looks like he’d be A LOT of fun.