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We recap the inaugural appearance of Professor Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, before the CRTC, in which his statement and answers to the Commissioners' questions maybe revealed more about CRTC assumptions about the public interest and consumer interest than about how much money should go to whom under the new version of the Broadcasting Act.

PIAC speaks with George Burger, VMedia Chief Operating Officer, about the post-Rogers-Shaw competitive environment and why VMedia's acquisition by Quebecor Media Inc, is different, and better, for consumers than all of the other acquisitions of independent ISPs that followed. George is very convincing and he almost had us there, hoping against hope. In any case, we troll through the wreckage of the Canadian Internet market after its torpedoing by the CRTC's wholesale Internet rate reversal in 2021 and to some extent the prospects for Freedom to be good again. We'll see.

Ben Klass rejoins the podcast to discuss the dramatic holiday time decision(s) of the Competition Tribunal of Canada allowing (?) the merger of Rogers and Shaw, the Competition Bureau's instant stay and appeal of the CT decision and the upcoming Federal Court of Appeal hearing on the deal. We opine about the state of the market if the Competition Tribunal decision stands. It's not good folks.

Globalive's Simon Lockie joins the podcast to give the inside scoop on a past and future competitor's efforts to start a fourth national wireless company and whether Globalive can acquire Shaw's "Freedom Mobile" assets if Shaw (or Rogers) must sell them to obtain regulatory approval of the larger Rogers-Shaw deal, which is now before the Competition Tribunal.

We discuss Bill C-27, the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, Personal um, something AI and a tribunal, I think? It does not matter, because the federal government took the last bill ('the other' Bill C-11) to try to replace the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and MADE IT WORSE. Wow.

Returning guest Ben Klass and host John Lawford discuss the major outage of Rogers Communications Inc's wireless and Internet services experienced on 8 July 2022, the possible regulatory outcomes and consumers' expectations for what they might expect as compensation and future rules to avoid this situation in the future.

NOTICE TO LISTENERS: THIS EPISODE DISCUSSES A RACIAL SLUR (BUT WE DON'T USE IT) Returning guest Monica Auer of Canada’s Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) discusses the procedural and legal oddities of the CRTC's N-word decision such as why this decision was not dealt with as part of the CBC's licence renewal proceeding, which ran in parallel, and whether the decision can be appealed or petitioned to Cabinet.

In this Part 2 of two episodes on Bill C-11 - the "Online Streaming Act" we speak with Scott Benzie of Digital First Canada, a group representing Canadians making user-generated content on social media and related platforms. We discuss PIAC's proposal of "statIc" versus "dynamic" discoverability as a method to reach a compromise between promotion of Canadian content and user-generated content. Part 2 of 2 part special.

PIAC discusses, once again, Bill C-11 - the "Online Streaming Act" which is an Act to Amend the Broadcasting Act, to, among other things, require "Internet broadcasters" to be registered under Canadian law and contribute to the creation of "Canadian content" or more simply, "CanCon". We recap PIAC's appearance before the Standing Committee on Heritage at the House of Commons and in particular, detail our idea to "fix" C-11, in particular, the user-generated content issue. Part 1 of 2 part special.

We talk with University of Ottawa Master's in Law student, Guarav Arora, PIAC's unofficial cryptocurrencies expert after an internship at PIAC, about all things crypto and the blockchain that you wanted to know but were afraid to ask: NFTs, ICOs, metaverses, stablecoins, de-fi, DAOs and smart contracts, etc., etc. and how some of it could be used to improve financial services for consumers but how, at present, many financial and consumer risks (fraud anyone?) and regulatory challenges must be overcome first. Hopefully the first of many on this issue!

Howard Maker, Commissioner of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), whew!, the long-named ombudsman for telecommunications and paid television services, comes on the We Fight for That podcast to describe how Canadian consumers can get free, independent help with problems they cannot work out with Internet, wireless, home phone and TV providers.

Geoff White, Executive Director and General Counsel at the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) joins us to discuss why the CRTC is so slow to issue decisions and what effect that has on all telecommunications providers, but especially smaller competitive ones, like CNOC members.