Media Advisory: ACORN Canada Demands That Bell Canada Cut Prices, Not Access, as Part of Digital Access to Opportunity Campaign

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - June 24, 2013) - ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) Canada members will launch the new Digital Access to Opportunity campaign outside Bell Canada in downtown Toronto demanding a meeting with the CEO George Cope. "The high prices charged by internet service providers make the digital world a burden rather than an opportunity for many Canadians, excluding low-income individuals from accessing digital literacy skills and causing a divide in who can access employment and academic success," said ACORN leader Kay Bisnath. ACORN Canada members want to see affordable pricing at $10/month + subsidized computers for low income families, particularly from the "Big Three" (Rogers, Bell and Telus).

The "Big Three" have dominated the telecommunications market in Canada, a market stranglehold leading to higher prices and exorbitant profits, while gouging low-income Canadians. George Cope, president and chief executive officer of BCE Inc., earned total compensation of $11.1-million last year, up from $9.61-million in 2011.

A 2010 Harvard report on global internet deployment and usage found that Canada has some of the most expensive and slowest internet in the developed world. Also from 2010, a Statistics Canada survey found that 97% of households in the top income quartile of $87,000 or more had home Internet access, compared with as little as 54% of households in the lowest quartile of $30,000 or less.

ACORN Canada's campaign to Close the Digital Divide aims to eliminate this inequality by demanding fair pricing - $10/month for high speed internet if you are below the poverty line plus subsidized computers.

ACORN Canada - www.acorncanada.org - the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Canada - is among the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social and economic justice and stronger communities. ACORN Canada is an independent national organization with nearly 51,000 members across seven cities organizing a movement of low- and moderate-income families for social and economic change.