Re: Fwd: surcharge on email

[Ace24 <ace24@morrilton.net>]

Friday, 16 April 1999, Jean-francois wrote:

> Can anybody confirm that?

> Is it a hoax or a fact?

I doubt the goverment can force people to pay because they decide
not to use a goverment owned company. If they could you'd be paying 5
cents / phone call to the Canadian Post as 200 years ago, you would
have had to send a letter instead of making phone call.

So, common sense would say its a hoax, but i checked the toronto star web
site anyway, this is the editorial for March 6th 1999:
http://www2.thestar.com/thestar/back_issues/ED19990306/opinion/index.html
There is nothing there about email.

Anyway i doubt any isp would let a bill like that pass without letting
everyone who will listen know that they are against it.
So i'd expect it to have gotten way more coverage than an editorial in 1 newspaper.

I decided to check http://www.parl.gc.ca/cgi-bin/36/pb.pl?e before i
mailed and couldnt find anythign about it there either.

But i'm not currently living in Canada so i may be wrong :)

> ========== forwarded via the Canadian Firearms Digest ===========
> Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 05:39:43 -0600
> From: "Steven W. Klassen" <steve@geonexuscorp.com>
> Subject: surcharge on email

> The following was sent to me by a friend.

> Steve Klassen (klassens@acm.org)


> - -----Original Message-----
> From: <name withheld>
> Sent: Thursday, April 15, 1999 1:42 PM
> Subject: ...

> Internet Subscriber:


>   Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online and
> continue using email:

>  The last few months have revealed an alarming trend in the Government
> of Canada attempting to quietly push through legislation that will
> affect your use of the Internet.  Under proposed legislation Canada Post
> will be attempting to bill email users out of "alternate postage fees".
> Bill 602P will permit the Federal Govt to charge a 5 cent surcharge on
> every email delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at source.
> The consumer would then be billed in turn by the ISP.

>    Toronto lawyer Richard Stepp QC is working to prevent this
> legislation from becoming law.The Canada Post Corporation is claiming
> that lost revenue due to the proliferation of email is costing nearly
> $23,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have noticed Canada Post's
> recent ad campaign "There is nothing like a letter". Since the average
> citizen received about 10 pieces of email per day in 1998, the cost to
> the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents per day, or over
> $180 dollars per year, above and beyond their regular Internet costs.
> Note that this would be money paid directly to Canada Post for a service
> they do not even provide. The whole point of the Internet is democracy
> and non-interference. If the Canadian Government is permitted to tamper
> with our liberties by adding a surcharge to email, who knows where it
> will end. You are already paying an exorbitant price for snail mail
> because of beaurocratic inefficiency.  It currently takes up to 6 days
> for a letter to be delivered from Mississauga to Scarborough. If Canada
> Post Corporation is allowed to tinker with email, it will mark the end
> of the "free" Internet in Canada. One back-bencher, Liberal Tony Schnell
> (NB) has even suggested a "twenty to forty dollar per month surcharge on
> all Internet service" above and beyond the government's proposed email
> charges. Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story,
> the only exception being the Toronto Star that called the idea of email
> surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come" (March 6th 1999
> Editorial) Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode away! Send this
> email to all Canadians on your list and tell your friends and relatives
> to write to their MP and say "No!" to Bill 602P.

> Kate Turner
> Assistant to Richard Stepp QC
> Berger, Stepp and Gorman
> Barristers at Law
> 216 Bay Street
> Toronto, ON
> MlL 3C6

> ================= end of forwarded post ==================

- Ace24 (ace24@morrilton.net)
Senior Admin at morrilton.net
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