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Ajit Pai, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, recently caused quite a stir when he announced his intention to repeal “net neutrality” rules introduced in 2015 by the Obama administration. The FCC is expected to approve his proposal in a December 14th vote. These rules, which classified high-speed internet as a public utility, put in place intrusive regulations for internet service providers that apply to no other internet company.

Pai’s announcement was met with outrage by supporters of the command-and-control approach to internet regulation. Prophets of doom warn that returning to the regulatory framework that governed the internet during the Clinton and Bush administrations, and the first six years of the Obama administration, would lead to a stifling of free speech and innovation, and the end of the internet as we know it.

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The debate has even spilled over into Canada, with Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains stating that “Canada will continue to stand for diversity and freedom of expression” and “remains committed to the principles of net neutrality.” Former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein and former vice-chair Peter Menzies took to the pages of The Globe and Mail recently to urge millennials to fight for net neutrality and warned of the dire impact on Canada’s broadband landscape if Pai’s proposal prevailed.