This page is dedicated the the never relenting fight for freedom of the press and the right to view foreign television channels in Canada.
Click here to get involved in a class action suit against the goverment, sign petitions, send letters.!!
7 steps to getting a monopoly in canada
1) You must first be a large corporate entity so you will be able to carry out steps 2-7
2) Make regular payoffs to goverment officials to as to maintain their favorism towards your company and products.
3) Hire several corporate "Bullies" to bully potential competitors, and to dupe consumers into believing that your product is the only legal choice. Your "Bullies" must be familiar with "legalese" and must be able to spew legal precedents and corporate propaganda on demand.
4) Hire a propaganda team to create and spread propaganda to the general public.
5) Team up with other large companies that have a vested interest in ensuring your products survival.
6) Tag-team with your allies and pummel your competition into a pulp.
7) When necessary, sue smaller competitors that are promoting a free enterprise system and selling competing products.
The year is 1994 and the US service Directv® begins service in the United States. Canadian DTH Company ExpressVu Announces that they too will have a service available by the summer of 1994. Canadians are excited about the prospect of finally having an alternative to cablevision. Expressvu begin to distribute dealership territories to satellite dealers in Canada. Many dealers are excited and begin to spend money on advertising, showroom improvements etc.
Summer 1994 Expressvu announces that it will not be able to meet its original deadline and moves its launch date up to December 1994. Dealers are disappointed, but still continue to spend money on the prospect of this exciting new opportunity. Afterall its backed by BCE, one of Canadas' largest corporations. Customers begin to get tired of waiting and begin to purchase "grey market" satellite systems and services from Directv® and USSB®. A much heated debate begins in Canada regarding the legality of the US services in Canada.
Winter 1994 Expressvu again announces it will not be meeting its deadline. By now several thousand US "grey market" dishes have emerged. Expressvu begins seeking intervention to stop the importation of the US dishes into Canada.
Winter 1995 Over a year from the date of original scheduled launch and Canada still had no DBS service. By Now over 100 000 US dishes were estimated to exist in Canada.
Winter 1996, Over 2 years later and still no Canadian service. Now over 250 000 US dishes are estimated to exist. ExpressVu has also files several injunctions and restraining orders against some of the larger distributors in Canada in an effort to curb the flow of US dishes into Canada. Canadians become excited again when it is announced that another company Starchoice, will be offering a service within 6 months to Canadians. Expressvu issues a plea to Canadians to wait for them to launch while filing with the CRTC to block the licensing of Starchoice, further resulting in un-necessary delays for a Canadian service.
Spring 1997, 2 1/2 years after ExpressVu first promised a service, Starchoice launches a test service. Shortly after, the decision to merge with Shaw Communications is made. Shaw will merge, transferring the Homestar transponders to Starchoice. AlphaStar Canada receives a licence also and promptly begins a Canadian service called AlphaStar Canada. Starchoice launches a limited service in Summer 1997. Two months later, AlphaStar goes into receivership, and then goes off the air, resulting in several thousand people losing money on equipment and prepaid programming.
Fall 1997, 3 years after first promising a service, Expressvu launches and promptly begins a campaign to "get even" and begins to pull out the stops suing dealers and distributors selling the US services.
Winter 1998, ExpressVu drops out of the law suits due to dealer and consumers launching a nationwide boycott against them. WIC and ohers coninue to pursue it.
The CRTC is also largely responsible for the mess we are all in. The CRTC has always been hungry for power. In the late 1970's when the first Big Dish systems started emerging into Canada, The CRTC one day decided that they were illegal. Yes you can't watch TV on Satellite, you have to have Cable vision. If you didn't have access to cable tough, you can't watch anything. Well a lot of people didn't agree with their ruling. Who were they to tell people what they could watch on TV. So the CRTC decided to get a bunch of ole' boys together and round up these self proclaimed "illegal" dishes. After all its OK to steal other people property as long as the goverment does it right? So these boys went around looking for dishes, when they found one, they would casually sashay into the yard and make off with peoples satellite equipment. This turned into a much heated debate. One day the "legal thieves" were bravely dismantling a fellows dish, preparing to take it away when the owner came home, mistook them for "illegal thieves" and shot them dead. The CRTC had their hand slapped and it was decided that they were not a law enforcement agency and had no right to violate peoples property and seize equipment. Now here we go with round two;
We as Canadians, live in a country where citizens are free to believe in whatever they want to and they can come here from virtually anywhere in the world and be welcomed, and yet the goverment and large corporations are working hard to insure that we are restricted in what we can watch in the privacy of our own homes. The enemy?: American Television! The CRTC and goverments have taken it apon themselves to decide what is okay for you to watch and what you can't. The CRTC's so called "white list" contains all the American and International channels that can be distributed in Canada. And all the other channels that aren't on it are forbidden to you as we as Canadians are obviously considered too dumb by our goverment to choose for ourselves what we should watch and so the decision is made for us like we are a bunch of preschoolers. The channels that are on the "white list" are the ones that are available on cablevision. There are literally hundreds of channels that our goverments say are "illegal" to watch and discourage us from disobeying them by slapping our wrists and delaring that Canadians watching "grey market" TV are lawbreakers and we dealers that are giving access to US television are likened to "Dopepushers" The simple fact of the matter is THEY SCREWED UP! And now they are trying to fix their little boo boo by SCREWING US! If I have the ability to watch a program on television (With satellite)and I want to watch it in the privacy of my own home, then I should be able to do so! Without any goverments or corporations declaring me a lawbreaker! I can't seem to recall the last time that someone was convicted of watching television that they are subscribing to and legally paying for! Silly me I was also under the impression that we lived in a free country, but that also is proving to be a falacy. The goverment and CRTC Screwed up in 1995 by declaring that no company shall be granted a DBS licence unless they carry a ludicrious 50% Canadian content on their service. I agree that we do need a voice, but a 50% edict is far too much. Especially considering that cable companies are only required to carry 35%. (Favoritism or what!) At the same time as they are doing this they are also working to shut down the CBC and further limit our Canadian choices. This tactic can be likened to shooting yourself in the foot and while you are bandaging it, you are shooting yourself in the other foot with the other hand! Absolute nonsense! Canada for some reason seems to favor monopolies and biopolies. Competition in many sectors is discouraged. Major telephone companies in Canada held monopolies for over 100 years until deregulation in 1992. Hydro in Canada is monopolized. Cellular phone service is a biopoly between Cantel and the major phone companies. And so on. I agree with the fact that Canadian companies have paid big money to aquire the broadcasting rights of some of the American companies, but the last time I checked, viewership was a privilage not a right, and if these Cdn. companies want us to watch their programming instead, then they should do so by making it worth watching! And not because we are forced to! Our goverments are trying to shelter us from an invisible enemy. I for one am sick of it and I don't need protecting...thank-you very much!! Anyone of reasonable intelligence is quite capable of deciding what to watch on television, be it a documentry, nature show or a good movie (or a crappy one for that matter) This "Big Brother" attitude must be curbed here! Or it will set a precedent for other things! If this continues one day it may be illegal to read anything other than Canadian magazines. (Sound like nonsense? What if I was to tell you 5 years ago that it would be considered illegal to watch non-Canadian tv? You would probably have laughed and said it could never happen!) Well it is happening people and we need to wake up and make sure it ends here! These Cdn. companies have it made! Why put up with competition when our gullable goverment can make competition illegal!!!! We are already one of the most heavily taxed countries in the world! We can't allow to be dubbed "most restricted" also. A recent court decision in May that declared US satellite services "legal" in Canada can be viewed Here! However another one a month later reversed it and declared the US services "illegal" That can also be viewed Here! Another factor to consider is they seem to be ignoring completely the Supreme law of Canada, The Canadian Constitution!! Here is a related excerpt: Section 52 The Constitution is the supreme law of canada, and any law that is inconsistant with the provisions of the constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect. Section 2 2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a)Freedom of conscience and religion; (b)Freedom of thought, belief opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other means of communication; (c)Freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d)Freedom of association. Perhaps our goverment feels that they are not subject to constitutional provisions. You be the judge. Clearly they are trying to discourage International competition, protecting the cable monopolies and hiding it behind "Canadian Culture" excuses. I wonder if the fact that the CRTC is funded by Canadian Broadcasters has anything to do with it? (Hmmm...)
Recent Canadian court decisions have added even more confusion to everything, with one judge ruling US dishes are legal, and another ruling they are illegal etc.
Here's one that the ruling was that not only is watching US services legal, but so is descrambling the signal for free.
Here's a civil case that ruled that it is illegal to sell US services in Canada.
Here's a related article.
Here's an appeal that upheld the illegal ruling.
Here's another desision that ruled that pirate boxes are legal
Here's an article about RCMP talking about raiding.
Here's an article about the lawsuits thats Expressvu, Wic and some Canadian broadcasters are talking about lawsuits.
There are several things you can do.
1) You can write a letter and email it to the following parties and explain what they are doing is wrong.
Western International Communications WIC(Law suit plaintiff)
TMC Networks(Law suit plaintiff)
Family Channel(law suit plaintiff)
2)Talk to your local MLA about the issue and let him know that you are concerned about this violation of your freedom.
3) Get Involved in signing petition, more letters, and a class action suit.