Un-needed petition launched following Industry Canada mistake

A strange story out of Canada where mis-information on the part of one of that nation's telecommunications regulators lead to an un-needed petition from the ham radio community - one asking that nation's political leaders force Industry Canada to resume regulating the nation's ham radio operators, even though it had never stopped doing so.

Here's what happened.

Back in early May, Eddie Pereira, VA3EDP, sent a letter to Industry Canada regarding interference complaints in the Canadian amateur radio service. The reply he received on May 13th from the Spectrum Management department in Toronto likely caught him off guard. It read, and we quote:

"The Amateur Band is self policing now because it has been de-licensed for the past few years. Industry Canada is no longer the regulatory body overseeing the Amateur Band operation."

This response did not sit well with VA3EDP, and he decided to do something about it. His action came in the form of that on-line petition to Canadian Parliamentary leaders that urged them to force Industry Canada to resume regulating the Canadian amateur radio service. The petition garnered close to 300 signatures in its short life. Some from real heavyweights in Canadian ham radio politics.

Well, you guessed it. The Industry Canada bureaucrat who had responded to Pereira's original information request was totally wrong. Industry Canada had not abandoned the nation's hams and has no plans to do so. But it took intervention from Radio Amateurs of Canada to straighten it all out.

On May 20th Radio Amateurs of Canada contacted Industry Canada which confirmed that the information sent to VA3EDP was incorrect. In fact, the agency affirmed it is the regulatory authority for Amateur Radio in Canada.

VA3EDP has since received a message from the acting Director of Industry Canada's Toronto office confirming that the original unsigned e-mail was sent in error. He says that he will be meeting an official of the Industry Canada in the near future to discuss a spectrum management issue that was the cause of his initial inquiry with.

Source: ARNewsline, RAC, others

Erroneous E-mail sparks petition