Internet/Phone Access Is not for Everyone in Canada

It is easy for people to assume everyone should have a ‘good life’ in Canada; we take all the convenience in our life for granted. The speaker from one of the side panels of CSW 62 gave us a glance at the opportunities and challenges Canadian rural women are facing in this Internet era.

Internet/phone is not affordable for everyone in Canada:

There are still “nearly five million people in Canada – that's one out of every seven individuals – currently [living] in poverty” (http://www.cwp-csp.ca/poverty/just-the-facts/). Census also shows that in 2015, “nearly 1.2 million children across Canada were living in low-income households, representing about 17 per cent of all Canadian children” (https://globalnews.ca/news/3739960/canadian-census-children-poverty/). For such families, basic life expenses such as food and water are the priority, and Internet/phone become a type of luxury. Monthly phone plans are also much more expensive compared with the United States: a $25 phone plan is unimaginable for Canadians.

How that looks in daily life

Insurance, paycheck… more and more essential work is based online nowadays. It is very hard for people, who live without phone or internet, to even manage their daily life. It is easy to take internet for granted, but some rural women need to drive 20 km for cellphone signal because of the poor signal from cheap telecom operators.  Those women are left behind because they cannot access the digital world.

ACTION/Strategies

·       We must work together to push telecom agencies to improve their signal / speed service.

·       Internet should be accessible in public places such as the library. But the security of privacy, especially banking information, should be a concern for public internet access.   

·       Emergency internet access for those vulnerable groups such as homeless girls; vulnerable groups should have 24/7 internet access.

Internet: Girls could be in DANGER

*Internet could also expose women to the danger of sex trafficking. 6 % of prostitution is taking place on the internet nowadays. Many of those girls encounter violence and might lose their life. The film “Girls of paradise” recorded some of those women who suffered violence and died . Please also follow the French NGO < Mou Vement Du Nid>< http://www.mouvementdunid.org/> to check out what we can do to help those women.

                                                  Retrieved from: https://clios.com/awards/winner/13503