Canadian pol: broadband not a luxury, but basic human right

In Canada, Progressive Conservative candidate Jack Carr has filed a complaint with the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission over the lack of high-speed broadband available to some rural residents. The New Brunswick government has already committed to getting everyone in the province access to broadband by 2010, satellite Internet is available (though costly and latency-prone) now, and Canada has had no cases establishing broadband access as a "human right." Carr is apparently targeting the "place of origin" rule with his complaint, arguing that slow Internet and high prices are discrimination against more rural residents of his riding. Newspapers in Canada have begun to pick up the story, which has spawned the inevitable comment-section arguments about the idea of broadband as a human right.