Rogers and the digital divide
OTTAWA—Don’t spend that five-day Rogers credit in one place, y’all. It’s now nearly two weeks after the outage that rocked the country, caused by Canada’s fastest and most reliable network. The Rogers outage laid bare that telecommunications infrastructure is critical for participation in society, much less industry. Strong and reliable networks were missed once 911, […]
Put Shaw merger back on the hot seat, say researchers, analysts, as politicos await answers from Rogers
Rogers Communications has until the end of the week to provide detailed answers to the country’s telecom regulator, explaining the “how” and “why” of the recent nationwide service outage, but policy analysts are already asking how much worse it would have been had the proposed merger with Shaw already gone through. The July 8 outage […]
Critical rethink needed following Rogers outage
Last Friday, a nationwide Rogers internet and wireless services outage left millions of Canadians and businesses reliving the pre-internet days. The company was still working to restore service to some customers throughout the weekend. Beyond cutting off the company’s 11 million wireless subscribers from their steady drip of social media, businesses—including banks—that use Rogers saw […]
Will the ‘superclusters’ ever live up to their superstar status?
TORONTO—They are no longer the “superclusters.” With a new minister we have a new name. Navdeep Bains, as minister of innovation, science and economic development, rhapsodized over the name ‘superclusters.’ His successor, François-Philippe Champagne, is much less enamoured. He has renamed them “global innovation clusters.” This is what often passes for progress in Ottawa. A […]
Liberals on collision course to entrench anti-Blackness
OTTAWA—Do the Liberals choose their cabinet through varying degrees of anti-Blackness, or is that just a bonus they throw in? Given that the Toronto Police Service recently gave an apology for their systemic anti-Black racism, reporters should be asking Bill Blair what his contribution to the cause was. Nevertheless, Blair is not in my crosshairs […]
Why a Foreign Influence Registry Act is necessary for Canada’s national security
The Trudeau government finally decided to ban Huawei and ZTE from our 5G networks after three years of controversies around the China telecoms equipment-makers and long after the United States’ first ban through a national security order. As a member of the Five Eyes, Canada is becoming one of the major targets for Beijing’s grand […]
Let’s stop pretending there is no racism in tech
“Perhaps you can just observe and take notes for this one.” “We had something else in mind that might be easier for you to manage.” “I think we need someone who’s done this before and is a more traditional fit.” These are some of the comments most white men in the innovation sector will never […]
Cyberbullying more common for adults than children during pandemic, say experts
Cyberbullying among children may have decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but adults in the workplace may be at greater risk, according to experts. “I suspect the vitriol is greater than it’s ever been, because collectively, the world is engaged in a pandemic that has led to polarized viewpoints,” said Tracy Vaillancourt, a counselling psychology professor […]
COVID-19 changed bullying, and it’s time for governments to respond
According to Statistics Canada, 75 per cent of Canadians report having used the internet more often since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly every Canadian between the ages of 15 and 34 said that they used the internet more frequently, and younger children spent far more time online as a result of school closures—children […]
COVID-19 paused a lot of things, but not cyberbullying
COVID-19 has been the top global story since 2020. When the pandemic began, people quickly moved to working online from home. School-aged and university students also moved to virtual learning through a variety of software and applications. For the past two years, nearly everyone has been spending more time online. Personally, I had to get […]
