Is Broadband Internet Access a Legal Right?

Those Europeans are at it again – pioneering the future for the Internet with their whacky ways.

The latest – Finland has become the first country in the world to boldly declare broadband Internet access a legal right. As of July 2010, all telecommunications companies doing business in that country must provide broadband Internet services of at least one-megabit per second or face fines.

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That means all 5.2 million citizens in the northern European nation will have broadband Internet access. Though that won’t be hard for the small country, Finland is one of the most net-friendly places on the planet, with about 95 percent of the population already online.

And that one-megabit per second mandate will grow over time – that’s just to start out and facilitate the transition so that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Finland can expand their high-speed broadband networks to the rural areas that don’t presently have such services.

By 2015, the mandate requiring telecommunications companies to provide broadband access to the Internet will have increased from one-megabit per second up to 100-megabits per second.

Finland’s new law is part of a growing philosophy in Europe where the Internet is considered as vital a part of life as water, food and shelter.

This past June, the highest court in France declared access to the Internet a fundamental human right. This came on the heels of a major campaign by the United Nations (UN) to its member countries, which lays out the new basic essentials of life in a modern society, which include access to the Internet.

Many other studies have been done on our basic needs in this modern world, and if one were to compile a list based on these studies, the new world order requires:

• Healthy food to fuel our bodies
• Safe and secure shelter to protect us from Mother Nature’s wrath
• Clean drinking water to prevent dehydration
• Clothes which protect against the elements of the natural environment
• Electricity to power much needed electronics such as lights to see, fridges to store food, stoves to cook that food and heaters to keep us warm
• Safe and proper waste disposal, to prevent the spread of disease and death
• Banking or monetary services to be able to purchase these basic needs when they run out
• A communications system to keep in touch with the outside world

Most industrialized countries around the world have policies in place to promote high-speed broadband (as opposed to lower speed, narrowband dial-up) access to the international network of networks circling the globe, collectively called the “Internet.”

Canada’s government has mandated that the telecommunications providers wire Canada’s north, bringing broadband Internet to the country’s northern regions – that’s part of the reasoning behind the network access fees ISPs charge (a similar fee is also charged by cell phone and digital television providers, for the same reasons). These fees are supposed to be used to pay for the costs of expanding the digital communications networks by the ISPs, and other carriers.

Years ago, the nation’s largest phone company – Bell Canada – complained loudly about this government initiative, claiming they were being singled out by the Canadian government just because they were so big. However, all providers have since picked up the slack, and are also collecting various fees from their subscribers to maintain and expand their digital broadband networks.

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Ironically, one of the most powerful nations on planet Earth doesn’t have such a plan. The United States of America is the only industrialized nation not to have a formally recognized plan to promote, maintain and expand high-speed broadband Internet access to its citizens, according to a study released this past August by one of the country’s largest organized labor unions, the Communications Workers of America.

However, an American national plan is anticipated in February 2010, when the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to submit such a proposal to Congress.

Still, Americans are falling behind the Europeans, as Finland is the first – and only country so far – to legally declare access to broadband Internet a human right. Other European nations are expected to follow Finlands example in the coming years.

Although the Internet is an amazing tool for communications, is it a fundamental human right? Some form of communications should be a fundamental human right. One would have thought that the telephone would win that honor.

Think about it, during an emergency situation, what’s the first thing most of us would do – aside from panic? CALL 9-1-1 (or your local emergency number) using a TELEPHONE.

Most of us have email, some form of instant messaging program, and many even have the ability to place telephone calls over the Internet, using programs like Skype.

But if your house is on fire, are you really going to run to your computer and email the fire department? If you get into a car accident, are you going to tweet for a tow truck on Twitter? If a mugger attempts to rob you as you walk home from a night out with friends, are you going to instant message the police?

The Internet is a great resource for those trying to connect with family and friends during a major traumatic event. It has been used to help coordinate messages of hope, raise funds for victims, even as a way for friends and family to locate loved ones during major catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina in Mexico and the southern U.S., the Asia-Pacific Rim Tsunami, the forest fires off the west coast of North America, even the Red River flooding in Manitoba, Canada and other natural disasters.

But for immediate response with emergency workers, we use the telephone.

Yes, you can do so much more with the Internet than a phone. But playing online games, downloading movies, and poking someone on Facebook aren’t nearly as important as the ability to instantly connect with live-saving resources when they are needed.

Sure, we can conduct important life-changing tasks online, from banking, ordering food, even applying for a new way to earn a living.

But until the police, fire and ambulance services are just a point and click away, the telephone is the communications technology which should be a fundamental human right in the industrialized world.

The Internet is important, but not something our lives really depend upon.

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Mayor Miller’s Lastman

After over a month without many of the services major urban centers take for granted, Canada’s largest city is slowly starting to resemble what it once was.

The public parks are gleaming clean of trash, the lawns are being trimmed. And once again line ups are forming at the various city-run permit and licensing offices.

On June 22, all 24,000 inside and outside workers for the City of Toronto walked off the job, as both their respective unions called a legal strike. Until late last week, that meant there wasn’t any garbage collection, parks or recreation services, even emergency medical services were on a work-to-rule campaign, delaying ambulatory care across the city.

Much has been said in the press about how the long and brutal labour disruption has created a rift between the city, its unionized workforce, and the union leaders.

Image by nyxie via Flickr

But the real victims during all of this are on an even bigger war path - and rightly so. We’re talking about the over 2.5 million residents of Toronto, whose lives were put in disarray for over a month.

Without garbage collection, residents had to haul their own trash to temporary dump sites, only to be met by angry striking workers, who had setup picket lines and intentionally were blocking their access. Some of these confrontations even turned violent, with picketers jumping in front of moving vehicles, or simply attacking innocent residents with their signs.

In this world of two income families, many had to suddenly find someone else to take care of their kids, as all of the city’s daycare centers were immediately shut down due to the strike.

Even celebrations for our nation’s birth, Canada Day, on July 1 were cancelled due to the strike, because there was no one around to manage and run them. I guess Canada’s largest city employs people that just aren’t real Canadians - because if they were, they would have been patriotic enough to put aside their differences for their country for a couple of days. It wasn’t as if we were asking them to put their lives on the line, as we do our soldiers - who are among the most patriotic Canadians. Our city’s employees can learn a thing or two about patriotism and being Canadian from our military members.

Paramedics cut their services in half, as they worked-to-rule. An investigation is already underway as to whether their own arrogance has cost the life of a Toronto man, who may still be alive today, if the ambulance had arrived a few minutes earlier.

And just as the strike began, conveniently just as schools ended for the summer, all the public parks, playgrounds, splash pads, and community centers were forced to close and cancel all of their summer programs, leaving thousands of kids out in the street.

The real victims during the civic employees strike are those who live, work and play in Toronto, which is sad, because the residents of Toronto had no say whatsoever in the whole collective bargaining process.

Or maybe they do.

Last time the city’s staff went on strike, back in 2002, none forgot, especially when it came to the municipal election. Toronto’s Mayor at the time, Mel Lastman, was the running favourite, but he lost the election. Although many things contributed to Lastman’s outing, the strike was probably the biggest sticking point which ultimately pushed him out of the mayor’s chair.

History has an unfortunate way of repeating itself, and we’re bound

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to see current Toronto Mayor David Miller take some heat from this strike during the up-coming municipal elections in 2010.

If history repeats itself as in the past, Mayor Miller won’t be the mayor of Canada’s largest city after the next election.

Is this fair? Is this right? Is Mayor Miller to blame?

Who knows? We aren’t privy to what goes on in the backrooms during the negotiations between the city and its staff.

But what we do know is this year’s summer was a washout for the 2.5 million people that call Toronto home. Not because of the weather, and not just because of the economy, but mostly because the city where they choose to live, work and play wasn’t there when they needed it.

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Changing Economic Realities Bring Out the Fight

Earlier this year, one of Canada’s largest universities – York University, in Toronto, had one of their longest and most painful labour disputes. Teaching Assistants and part-time faculty went on strike for over three months, displacing students and those who work on and near the university’s two campuses. The school year had to be extended over a month, delaying graduating students their degrees, and returning students the chance to find summer work.

Just over a month ago, the 24,000 inside and outside civic employees that keep Toronto clean and safe went on strike. They still are on strike, affecting garbage collection, parks and recreation programs, ambulance services, and

Image by Gavatron via Flickr

just about anything that makes a city run.

Late last night, Via Rail, Canada’s national passenger rail service announced that locomotive engineers would be in a legal strike position this Friday. Today, they reduced service on some routes, to avoid stranding people across the country in the event a strike were to take place.

The world of work is not what it once was. The economy has shrunk – not only are people losing their jobs in record numbers not seen since the Great Depression, but many of those jobs are gone forever. Companies aren’t planning on asking many of those people back, instead they are looking at combining roles, so one person may be doing the job of two, or more employees.

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That is if the company is lucky enough to still be. Many companies have gone out of business completely, others have had to go into bankruptcy protection to dodge their creditors long enough to regroup – not to name names – General Motors (GM).

We do live in challenging times, which might explain why labour unions are fighting harder for what they believe are the best interests of their members.
Can’t blame them for trying, but part of the collective bargaining is negotiating.

Negotiating involves compromise, a give and take on both sides to ensure a fair work arrangement for all parties.

Problem is, unions these days seem to have forgotten this, because they stand firm, holding out for the impossible, even when the companies they deal with try to come up with a balanced and fair compromise.

The City of Toronto has proposed several such compromises, giving the union some of what they want for their members. The union on the other hand, continues to hold the city and its resident’s hostage, saying they want it all, or no deal.

That was the problem for the union representing the Teaching Assistants and part-time faculty at York University as well. Though as the strike continued, public support shifted away from the hard working employees out on strike, turning instead towards the poor students unable to get their education.

The longer a strike lasts, the less support the union and its members have, and that prejudiced attitude can continue long after the strike.

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Many years ago, when Major League Baseball Players went on strike, causing the season the end early, the jokes circulating about grown men – most younger than you and me – playing a kids game for millions of dollars, going on strike weren’t just jokes. It took several years for fans to warm up to spending money on tickets, ball caps, team jerseys and other such items again. Some baseball teams went out of business or were bought out and relocated because people simply weren’t going to the games – remember when Montreal had the Expos?

Most people are lucky in this economy to have a job of any kind, many don’t get benefits, and job security is pretty much unheard of in today’s working world. So it is hard for most of us to sympathize with a group of people out on strike, until they get something most of us don’t have.

Yet unions continue to fight for job security, and better benefits for their members, holding out until provincial or federal governments step in. Provincial or federal governments will intervene with their mediators, to bring both sides together through negotiations. But, when the union continues to hold out, failing to negotiate, the government has no choice but to order the employees back to work.

And when unionized employees are ordered back to work, the whole collective bargaining process has failed.

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How A Labour Dispute Can Kill Off The World’s Human Population

Canada’s largest city has been without some essential services for the past month, thanks to a strike by the city’s 24,000 inside and outside unionized workers.

Paramedics, daycare centers, public parks, municipal offices, and garbage collection have all been affected by the strike.

The most visible concern affecting Toronto residents are the massive piles of trash, overflowing in community center parking lots, public basketball courts, baseball diamonds, and even children’s playgrounds.

The so-called “garbage strike” hasn’t crippled the prosperous city, ofte

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n referred to as the economic engine of the country – but it could in far reaching ways.
As the mounds of garbage fill the city’s makeshift temporary landfill sites fill – which residents have to cart their own trash too – countries around the world issue travel advisories, warning people not to come to Toronto.

Rats, raccoons, cockroaches, seagulls, and other wildlife are having the time of their lives, feasting on the simmering stinking mess. They could bring and spread diseases to people, at a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) is already concerned about the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic sweeping across the globe.

WHO’s six-stage scale is at level six – the pandemic stage – as H1N1 Swine Flu has proven deadly to thousands worldwide.

With the ongoing strike – now over a month old – new concerns are popping up, as the city’s health department won’t be properly prepared to handle any sudden outbreaks of the deadly H1N1 Swine Flu.

WHO says the deadly bug’s infection rates have recently begun to decline, but as new strains of the virus have been found in the population, they are anti

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cipating a relapse of the outbreak – one which may not be as easy to fend off, thanks to mutations making it more resilient against anti-viral medications like Tamil Flu.

If that more resistant strain hits Canada’s largest city and the local healthcare system isn’t ready, chaos will be the result. Millions of people commute back and forth from the neighboring communities outside Toronto, all of whom could fall sick, and possibly die, due to an uncontrolled outbreak. As Toronto is the hub for much of Canada’s travel, with over 50% of those coming to Canada by air, landing at the city’s Pearson International Airport, any outbreak could easily affect citizens from other countries.

If the city’s health department – which is on strike – fails to act immediately upon discovering an outbreak of the H1N1 Swine Flu, infected individuals could board planes heading for other countries, and create a global catastrophe.

All because the unions representing the city’s inside and outside workers can’t come to reasonable terms with the City of Toronto on issues of job security and sick leave.

Image by artriguing via Flickr

Ironic how the union is holding the city hostage over sick leave benefits, when the H1N1 Swine Flu could make much of the city, the country, the continent, and even the world, extremely sick, just because some staffers aren’t working because of the strike.

Scientists have been predicting the next great pandemic, far worse than the bubonic plague which wiped out most of Europe’s population, for the past decade. These scientists, using models charted over time, show how pandemics occur every century, and show how we are overdue for our century’s outbreak.

Due to economic, geographic, social, and other demographic conditions, these scientists predicted that the next great plague would come from a third-world country, where clean water and food sources are scarce.

Toronto, one of the world’s most prosperous cities, was never thought of as being a potential source for the next great pandemic. But because of the labour dispute between the city and its staff, it could be just that.

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