NDP Innovation, Science and Industry Critic Brian Masse made the following statement on Canadians' sky-high cellphone bills
MEDIA RELEASE: Liberals are standing by while cellphone giants make huge profits off of Canadians
MEDIA RELEASE: Liberals are standing by while cellphone giants make huge profits off of Canadians
“Cell phones and the internet are more than a luxury. They are necessary for people to communicate with loved ones, for school or work. But most Canadians are paying hundreds of dollars a month for barebone cell plans, all while costs keep rising. It’s wrong.
Canadians pay some of the highest telecom costs in the world. Instead of defending consumers, the Liberal government is just letting them soar even higher. Justin Trudeau has the ability to lower these costs, but he keeps quiet while ultra-rich corporations make huge profits off Canadians. And the Liberals are just letting the market get even worse with the Rogers-Shaw merger.
The Liberal's “ask nicely” strategy when it comes to fighting for fairness for Canadians isn’t working. Canadians deserve a government that's fighting for them.
New Democrats are calling for the government to protect and ramp up competition in the telecom sector in Canada and to put a price cap on basic cellphone plans – so Canadians can get better access at better prices.”
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How your data determines what you pay!
What if the price you pay at the store is different than the person standing next to you?
Corporations can use personal data such as location, device type, browsing history, purchase behavior, login status, and loyalty cards/programs to profile consumers and determine what different people are charged for the same goods and services.
How can we stop this from happening in Canada?
Join MP Jenny Kwan, Patrick Johnson - President of UFCW 1518, Jim Stanford - Economist and Director of Centre for Future Work, Avi Lewis - NDP Leader and Benjamin Fung - Canada Research Chair in Data Mining for Cybersecurity and other experts, for a public forum and community conversation about what surveillance pricing means for consumers and workers, how technology and personal data are changing the way prices are set, and what everyday people can do to fight back.
*Scan QR code, click the image or this link to register your attendance - https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/your-data-their-price-a-town-hall-on-surveillance-pricing-tickets-1998495899032
IRCC taking 33 months to process applications in wake of 'lost Canadians' law
When Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith prepared in January for the arrival of their first child, the choice seemed simple.
Smith would give birth in her home country of Jamaica where she had family support, and then they would together return to Montreal three months later.
At the time, the wait time for the citizenship certificate that their daughter, Sofianne, needed to fly back to Canada was between four and six weeks.
But more than eight months later, they're still waiting.
Sud is back at work in Montreal while Smith and Sofianne are still in Jamaica.
"It's been very frustrating," said Sud. "I was lucky to be there for three months … but I've been missing every step since, and it's been very difficult to be apart from them."
He's not alone.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is struggling to handle a flood of citizenship applications — many of them from a change to federal law late last year that allows anyone who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor to apply.
That backlog is preventing Canadians born abroad like Sofianne from coming home.
According to the department's most recent update on Sept. 3, there are 136,000 applications waiting to be processed. Those applying for a citizenship certificate now face a wait of 33 months.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan called on the government to restore staffing and resources that were cut at IRCC, calling the processing delays "simply unreasonable and unacceptable."
*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-lost-canadians-c3-backlog-9.7366981