Communicating is one of the most important things we can do as humans.
Over the past few centuries it’s gone through a whole lot of advancement, from the printing press to the telephone. The creation and adoption of the internet just decades ago was a real turning point. From then on, the rate of change increased rapidly as well. Smartphones are . . .
relatively new development in the history of the internet, but in a few short years they were the primary way people accessed it.
An over abundance of connection — “like trying to drink from a firehose” — is often assessed as the problem with this sort of advancement, as cultural critic Neil Postman was laying out all the way back in 1993:
“A peek-a-boo world, where now this event, now that, pops into view for a moment, then vanishes again. It is an improbable world. It is a world in which the idea of human progress, as Bacon expressed it, has been replaced by the idea of technological progress. The aim is not to reduce ignorance, superstition, and suffering but to accommodate ourselves to the requirements of new technologies … We are a culture consuming itself with information, and many of us do not even wonder how to control the process. We proceed under the assumption that information is our friend, believing that cultures may suffer grievously from a lack of information, which, of course, they do. It is only now beginning to be understood that cultures may also suffer grievously from information glut, information without meaning, information without control mechanisms.”
As it turns out, one of the most effective ways to avoid these issues is to live on Allumettes Island or elsewhere in the upper Pontiac. Not only is their internet and cell phone coverage abysmal, but it has come to light over the past few weeks that their landline service from Bell is also horrible. A local resident has documented at least 10 interruptions since the start of the year, which when combined with the state of the rest of their options, is an invitation for disaster. These people live just outside the nation’s capital and they are regularly cut off from electronic communication entirely.
One image that sticks out from the flooding in the Pontiac region in 2019 was the state of affairs in Waltham. THE EQUITY rode along in Mayor David Rochon’s truck as he relayed information between the different work crews in the community because nobody could call each other. They don’t live in the boondocks, their community lies along the region’s major highway, but they have next to no service.
This is an enormous public safety issue and it’s not acceptable.
Our region’s elected officials have all made some kind of commitment to this issue, but what’s actually been fixed in the last five years?
It should be obvious to everyone that having a government enforced duopoly controlling the country’s telecommunications isn’t in the public’s best interest. The profit incentive isn’t enough for Bell or Rogers to provide adequate communications infrastructure to large swathes of rural Canada. This should be considered a public utility, but it’s not treated as such.
How can we talk about attracting new residents to the region without a significant investment in this file? How can we even retain the few folks we already have?
There’s a good chance of a federal election this year on top of the municipal races. Anyone gunning to represent this region should have a solid handle on the telecommunications file if they want to win a seat.
Caleb Nickerson
