Has anybody heard this yet. Just wonder this whta i got in a recent email:
WORTH A READ
>>>>I guess they can't pass this until after Jan. 23 but lets be
>>>>prepared. E-mail charges proposed by Canada Post AND legislation
>>>>is going forward. The last few months have revealed that the
>>>>Government of Canada is attempting to quietly push through
>>>>legislation that will affect your use of the Internet.
>>>>Under proposed legislation Canada Post will be allowed to bill
>>>>email users out of "alternate postage fees". Bill 602P will
>>>>permit the Federal Government to charge a 5 cent surcharge on
>>>>every email delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at
>>>>source. The consumer would then be billed in turn by the ISP.
>>>>Toronto lawyer Richard Stepp, QC is working to prevent this
>>>>legislation from becoming law. The Canada Post Corporation is
>>>>claiming that lost revenue due to the proliferation of email is
>>>>costing nearly $23,000,000 in revenue per year.
>>>>You
may have noticed Canada Post's recent adcampaign "There's
>>>>nothing like a letter".
>>>>The average citizen receives about 10 pieces of email per
>>>>day.Since 1998, the cost to the typical individual would be an
>>>>additional 50 cents per day, or over $180 dollars per year, above
>>>>and beyond their regular Internet costs. Note that this would be
>>>>money paid directly to Canada Post for service they do not even
>>>>provide. The whole point of the Internet is democracy and
>>>>non-interference. If the Canadian Government is permitted to
>>>>tamper with our liberties by adding a surcharge to email, who
>>>>knows where it will end. You are already paying an exorbitant
>>>>price for snail mail because of
bureaucratic inefficiency. It
>>>>currently takes up to 6 days for a letter to be delivered from
>>>>Mississauga to Scarborough or longer from Vancouver to Calgary.
>>>>If Canada Post Corporation is allowed to tinker with email, it
>>>>will mark the end of the "free" Internet in Canada. One
>>>>back-bencher, Liberal Tony Schnell (NB) has even suggested a
>>>>"twenty to forty dollar per month surcharge on all Internet
>>>>service" above and beyond the government's proposed email
>>>>charges. Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the
>>>>story, the only exception being the Toronto Star that called the
>>>>idea of email surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come"
>>>>(March 6th 1999---
Editorial).
>>>>
>>>>Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode away!
>>>>
>>>>Send this email to all Canadians on your list and tell your
>>>>friends and relatives to write to their MP and say "No!" to Bill
>>>>602P.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Kate Turner
>>>> Assistant to Richard Stepp QC
>>>> Berger, Stepp and Gorman Barristers at Law
>>>> 216 Bay Street Toronto, ON
>>>>
>>>>
*JMHO* - to be taken with a grain of salt!
