Current Legal Status
On May 28, 2008, the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) introduced a private member's bill, C-552, to the House of Commons that would entrench the principle of "net neutrality" and enact rules to keep the Internet free from interference by service providers. This bill died on the order paper at 1st reading on September 7, 2008, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked the Governor-General for the dissolution of the 39th Session of Parliament.
On June 8, 2008, a private member's bill, C-555, entitled "The Telecommunications Clarity and Fairness Act" was introduced by Liberal MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South) that sought to undertake, among other things, "an assessment of network management practices that favour, degrade or prioritize any packet transmitted over a broadband network based on source, ownership or destination". Like the NDP bill, this proposed legislation fell after the 39th Parliament was dissolved by the Prime Minister.
A new decision on January 25 of 2011, the CRTC (Canadian Radio, Television, Telecommunications Commission) ruled that usage-based billing could now be introduced. CRTC Prime Minister Harper signaled that the government may be looking into such a ruling: "We're very concerned about CRTC's decision on usage-based billing and its impact on consumers. I've asked for a review of the decision". Some have suggested that this adversely affects net neutrality, since it discriminates against media that is larger in size, such as audio and video. The new ruling significantly throttles the availability of access by small business owners as they would have to pay for services.
Read more about this topic: Network Neutrality In Canada
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