Roger Varley has been in the news business almost 40 years with The Canadian Press/Broadcast News, Uxbnridge Times-Journal, Richmond Hill Liberal and Uxbridge Cosmos. Co-winner with two others of CCNA national feature writing award. In Scout movement over 30 years, almost 25 as a leader. Took Uxbridge youths to World Jamboree in Holland. Involved in community theatre for 20 years as actor, director, playwright, stage manager etc. Born in England, came to Canada at 16, lived most of life north and east of Toronto with a five-year period in B.C.
Linking Egypt and the Zephyr library
?It's a helluva stretch to link the current troubles in Egypt with the closing of the Zephyr library, but I'm going to give it a try.
Faced with growing protests and demonstrations, the Mubarak government completely closed Egypt off from the rest of the world on the weekend by shutting down almost all Internet service in the country. No Internet, no Facebook, no Twitter. They also shut down the cellular phone network.
The idea, of course, was to severely limit the protestors' ability to exchange information about planned demonstrations and to coordinate actions. It also hoped to shield from the rest of the world the government's actions against the protestors.
Mubarak, of course, recognizes that information is power and the less information the protestors have at their disposal, the better for him.
The Egyptian government isn't the first to control access to the Internet. A number of countries, particularly China, use some form of censorship to keep unwanted information away from their citizens. But no other country has ever shut it down quite as completely and quite as fast as Egypt.
Access by the general population to information is one reason the printing press is one of the most important inventions in the history of mankind. It was also one of the reasons why the early church in Europe made it a crime for ordinary people to possess books. The church recognized that the more information people have, the harder it is to control them. It's why totalitarian regimes delight in book burnings and a tightly controlled press. But totalitarian regimes realize that the Internet is even more dangerous than books because it enables information to be spread more quickly and widely.
Now, in no way am I suggesting that Uxbridge council wants to control the residents of Zephyr, but shutting down the Zephyr library branch does, in effect, limit that hamlet's access to information. It might be small in the grand scheme of things, but it is nevertheless a limitation. As Sheila Maloney pointed out in an e-mail to Mayor Gerri-Lynn O'Connor last week, it will make it difficult for schoolchildren in the hamlet who do not have computers at home to use the Internet for research on homework projects. It will make life a little more difficult for seniors in Zephyr, who now will have to travel to Uxbridge or Mount Albert to avail themselves of library services.
The fact that only a few people used the branch is beside the point. Public libraries were never intended to be profit-making institutions and those few people have as much right to library access as other residents of the township.
If you think that putting a little crimp into Zephyr residents' access to information is not much to get worked up about, consider the following. How would you feel if someone decided - in what might be described as a mini-version of Egypt’s actions - that they were going to limit your Internet usage, particularly if, like me, you use it a lot for research, gathering information and entertainment? In fact, I spend so many hous on the Internet each week that I barely watch television anymore. Well, if you haven't had your head buried in the sand over the last week, you will know this is exactly what is being planned.
The CRTC is going to allow the telecommunications giants and the Internet service providers to start charging you not just for using the Internet, but for how much you use it. The bills you begin to receive for your Internet service could be such that, depending on your financial status, you will be forced to cut down on the time you spend on line. In effect, that is limiting your access to information. Isn't it strange that a government agency should be responsible for such a move?
Of course, despite growing opposition to the move - which many see as just a money grab by the major telecommunications corporations - I strongly doubt the Harper government will do anything to reverse the CRTC’s decision. The government has shown full well its reluctance to share information over the last few years, even with other elected members of Parliament. In fact, Mr. Harper has muzzled his caucus and his ministers to the point they can only say in public what he allows them to say.
It seems to me that such moves by government, even little moves like shutting down a tiny library branch, should be protested loudly.
Tell me, am I wrong?
