Today, CBC.com posted a CP story about an interim decision in the CRTC’s ruling on Bell’s practice of deliberately slowing the speed at which independent ISPs can relay information. The issue: Bell, which operates the infrastructure, reduces the speed at which outside providers of Internet service can move traffic. In other words, if you pay for access to the Internet from a small, independent company, odds are Bell is deliberately making it take longer than it should for you to download.

In the article, the CRTC places the burden on the independent ISPs to prove “irreparable harm” before they declare the handicaps illegal. Which is to say, they have to prove that they have suffered irrecoverable financial losses because of Bell’s practice. Anti-competitive? Forget the harm to consumers, who face longer download times or (like me) infinite download times, when the whole deal just seizes up and stops. Should it really take 20 minutes to download a 2 minute clip, in Toronto, in 2008?

Tom Copland, chair of the Internet providers association and spokesman for the independent ISP, is quoted as saying “We have lost our status as one of the world’s most connected nations, and it is decisions like this that should cause Canadians and the government serious concerns.” May those words echo through the halls of Parliament!