SaveourNet.ca is partnering with Rabble.ca and TheTyee for a very special event. Held during Net Change Week in Toronto, SaveourNet.ca and Rabble.ca present Toronto’s Open Internet Town Hall, which will be filmed by TheREALNews.com and available through live video streaming to a national audience on: theREALnews.com, rabble.ca, TheTyee, Beyond Robson, p2pnet, StraightGoods, Michael Geist, SaveOurNet.ca

Where:

Live from the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom - 1214 Queen St. West

When:

Monday June 8, 2009 at 7pm

Featured speakers for the Town Hall include:

*Mark Surman (Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation)

*Olivia Chow (Member of Parliament (NDP))

* Raymi the Minx of raymitheminx.com & Sass of zucket.com

*Rocky Gaudrault (CEO, Teksavvy Solutions Inc.)

*Steve Anderson (Co-founder, SaveOurNet.ca)

*Derek Blackadder (National Representative with CUPE)

Moderator - Geraldine Cahill - TheREALnews.com

Special Guests:
* Jesse Brown – Search Engine

*David Skinner – Communications Professor, York University

* Mark Kuznicki – remarkk consultant,

*Dan O’Brien – ACTRA *

*Ben Lewis – Canadian Federation of Students,

*Wayne Mcphail - w8nc, Rabble.ca

Live Music afterwards by:
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Interact with the panel, have a few drinks, engage in open discussions, and enjoy some live music afterward. Seating is limited - register online here: http://saveournet.ca/toronto


Sponsored by:









Until now, Canada’s Internet has been an open network and a level playing field for free speech, innovation, and consumer choice. All that is now under threat.

Being held during Net Change Week in Toronto, Toronto’s Open Internet Town Hall is designed to give local citizens the chance to shape Canada’s broadband future. As Canada falls behind other OECD countries on Internet speed, cost, and openness, SaveourNet.ca will host a lively discussion guided by panelists representing web innovators, social change leaders, and public policy gurus.

We will gather citizen testimony that SaveOurNet.ca’s Steve Anderson will use to guide his presentation to the CRTC at the July 6 “Traffic Management” hearing. We will also record the town hall meetings and present video testimonials to the CRTC and share them online. Information gathered at the town hall meeting will also help us develop the “Open Internet Declaration” which we will put before MPs and policy makers.


We want to engage the public in discussion on what the future of the Internet should look like by addressing the following questions:

* How can we ensure Internet services for everyone in Canada?
* How do we expand consumer choice and lower costs for Internet services?
* How can the Internet be a catalyst for economic growth, jobs, and prosperity?
* How do we preserve the Internet’s level playing field so everyone can access the content, applications, and services of their choice?
* What roles should the federal government, local governments, private industry, and everyday citizens play to build a better Internet?
* What can and should citizens do right now?

Toronto’s Internet Town Hall will be held in the historic Gladstone Hotel Ballroom

7 - 10pm

$10 – the associated cost will cover venue rental and production costs.

For more information about the campaign, visit http://saveournet.ca/

Some Speaker Bios:

Mark Surman
Mark Surman is in the business of connecting things: people, ideas, everything. A community technology activist for almost 20 years, Mark is currently the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, with a focus on inventing new ways to promote openness and opportunity on the Internet. On the side, Mark convenes conversations about 'open everything' in his home town of Toronto and around the world.

Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow is a New Democratic Party Member of Parliament and former city councillor (1991–2005) in Toronto.

Rocky Gaudrault:
Rocky Gaudrault is CEO of TekSavvy Solutions Inc. - based in Chatham, Ontario. Rocky is consider a hero to many who believe in the importance of the open Internet both for his open Internet offerings, and for Rocky's weigh in on telecom policy issues and evening taking on the biggest telecom carriers in the country. In May 2008 Rocky even went so far as to bus most of his employees to Parliament hill to rally for Net Neutrality.

Steve Anderson:
Steve Anderson is the current National Coordinator of the Campaign For Democratic Media and co-founder of the SaveOurNet.ca coalition. Steve is an active writer, video producer, and social media consultant, and has worked for The Real News, FreePress, The Center For Media and Democracy, and Free Speech TV. Steve’s writing has appeared in numerous local and national print and online publications such as TheTyee, The Toronto Star, Epoch Times, Adbusters, Canadian Dimension, Rabble.ca, Common Ground, Vue Weekly, and Social Policy Magazine. Steve is a contributing author to Censored 2008: The Top 25 Censored Stories, and Battleground: The Media. Steve also writes a monthly syndicated column called “Media Links”.

Derek Blackadder:
Derek Blackadder is a National Representative with CUPE and Senior
Correspondent for LabourStart.org in Canada. CUPE (Canadian Union of
Public Employees) is Canada's largest union with 590,000 members
across Canada. Derek has been playing and working with computer-based
communications for unions since the 1980's. Derek writes a column
called "Webwork" for Our Times.

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