Special Meeting November 1st Regarding Federal By-Election

Winnipeg business owner and Fair Copyright activist Jeff Coleman has been nominated as the Pirate Party of Canada’s first-ever candidate for Member of Parliament, in November 29th’s by-election in Winnipeg North.

There will be a special meeting on November 1st regarding his candidacy. At issue is whether he will be officially accepted as our candidate in the by-election, which as called after incumbent Judy Wasylycia-Leis stepped down from the seat.

Coleman is the owner of a small design and 3D printing business, and an outspoken advocate for updating Canadian Copyright, Patent, and other laws with the expanded potential and possibilities of the digital age in mind.

He is known for assisting immigrants and families with reduced access to technology by providing them with computer hardware, training and support. Jeff has also worked in the community with an after-school math club program, his local resident’s association, and met with Winnipegers as well as several MP’s to discuss the practical implications of poorly-written Copyright laws for regular people.

Coleman has pledged to run a “listening campaign”, focusing on learning constituents’ needs and views personally and addressing those needs directly, rather than on the preconceived objectives and ideologies characteristic of traditional Canadian politics. “Everyone is always telling us what we need to do to fix things, few people ever listen,” said Coleman.

PPCA Leader Mikkel Paulson recently travelled to Winnipeg to support Coleman’s pre-campaign canvassing, and to support his candidacy.

If you cannot attend the meeting, you can vote using our web based voting system at https://vote.pirateparty.ca . Remember that you need your ID # and your PIN to vote.

Voting will close at the end of the meeting on November 1st.

Becoming a party… contributing to the cause

With Jeff possibly becoming our first ever candidate, the Pirate Party of Canada will officially become a political party. What does that mean?

That means that we will be able to finally raise money more freely, in order to fight for fairness to Canadians. Once we have that status, we will quickly launch our improved user control panel, so that you and other members can update your information. More importantly, this control panel will allow you to make additional, tax-deductible contributions to the Pirate Party.

Making a contribution is very flexible. You can contribute anywhere from $1 to $1100. And when you donate, you can claim it on your personal income tax. For example, by donating $400 to the Pirate Party of Canada, you will recieve a $300 tax rebate, which means that you can make a significant impact on the party, for less than what it would cost you for a few video games.

We know that making financial contributions may not sound like fun, but every cause depends on its supporters. We may find ourselves becoming very dependent on money to manage operations - especially campaign printed materials and travel, which costs a pretty penny, even when we stretch our dollars, and that’s before we have a single employee. We get no money from taxpayers, and so we rely on you. We therefore urge all who feel that they are passionate about piracy issues - saving the open society, rescuing culture, and making sure our copyright and technology laws reflect the world we want to live in - to donate to the Pirate Party of Canada’s cause.

CRTC to allow usage based billing for resold broadband connections

This is true monopolistic and predatory behaviour at its finest.

Listening to Bell, it seems that costs have exploded to provide the broadband service, when in fact network improvements have been at a standstill for years. The cost of bandwidth to connect Bell’s customers to the rest of the Internet has steadily decreased. The congestion problem was on Bell’s own internal network, and not on the inter connections with the Internet. Basically we have a company that is simply finding it easier to increase the price from time to time then to do anything to improve the service.

The recent round of improvement (called Fibe) are even more anti-competitive tactics designed to suck more money away from Canadians. The conversion of the lines between an exchange and the cabinets makes it impossible for the competitors to use the lines for high speed Internet as only the exchange is open to competition. While the speed of the connection increases, the usage limit are ridiculously small.

The CRTC has shown time and time again that it doesn’t care about protecting consumer interest. In itself, it is a complete conflict of interest as the people heading the CRTC are people that used to head the telecommunication companies they are supposed to regulate. We are now lagging the OECD in terms of broadband speed and quality. We use to be on top, now we’re on the bottom.

While we do need a body to oversee the functioning of the telecommunication industry, we need it to be impartial and consumer focused, something the CRTC has proved it isn’t.

The CRTC reliance on non-existent “market forces” is letting monopolies impose their will on anything. True competition requires more then 2 players that are facing each other. Not only that but the CRTC is hard at work at removing the differentiators between the resellers and Bell by allowing throttling and usage based billing.

The current limit is 60GB, which is about 175 one-hour television episodes.

We are currently examining the various ways to introduce a third player in the mix and have actual competitors in this field.

Request for PR Volunteers

This is an exciting time at the Pirate Party of Canada! As we gear up for the fight against Bill C-32 and ACTA, and establish ourselves at a party, you have also chosen to walk with us on the path to good governance. However, there is a lot to do in our organization. That’s why we would like to invite you and all other members to go one step further as we build our voice in Canada, by volunteering your time with me and the PPCA team in building our brand.

The Public Relations arm of the Pirate Party takes the party’s message, and makes it as effective as possible through our visual brand, our public communication, and multimedia. That means that there’s a lot of things to work with, and we appreciate the work you put in!

Currently, we need:

• Graphic Designers, to create the materials we need, such as posters, business cards, web designs, and other things.
• Researchers, to help us look up information that we need for press releases and other communications, so we stick to the truth.
• Writers, to draft up and edit press releases, blog posts, brief announcements, letters, and more. The voice of the party!
• Audio/Video Technicians and Animators, so that we can move our message into YouTube™, television, and podcasts.
• Web designers, to spruce up the website and aide in a planned web campaign.
• Other PR talent to create unique ways to “sell” our name to the public, such as event organizers and marketing talent.

If you wish to participate, please, don’t hesitate. Email Mike Bleskie at [email protected] and send a message regarding what you are interested in doing. Mike will get back to you once things are ready. Without you, the party would cease to exist. Getting involved, in any capacity, means you have decided to participate in a democracy that deserves better treatment. We hope to see you around the PPCA forums. Let’s stand up for what we, as Canadians, deserve.

Motions passed at last meeting

Sean Hunt moved that the report of the Standing Committee on Meeting Framework be read and received, amended to specify that the 4th edition of RONR be considered authoritative.

The motion passes, 18-5-6.

Mike Bleskie moved to strike a special committee to develop a style guide.

The motion passes, 25-3-4.

Mikkel Paulson moved that members of the Federal Council be removed from administration, moderation, and IRC operator positions where practical.

The motion passes, 24-5-5.

Sean Hunt moved that the Select Committee on Platform Information be discharged of its duties and that the Federal Council be charged with returning a platform document for all-party review by the November general meeting.

The motion passes, 25-1-6.