Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

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Timothy MacDougall Denton, B.A., B.C.L., L.L.M.

Born: March 2,1950

April 2015: Elected Chairman of the Internet Society of Canada

Since 2014: Partner, the Windermere Group (www.thewindermeregroup.ca)

Since January 2009: member, Board of Trustees, American Registry of Internet Numbers and, in the period  January 2011 to August 2013, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

From August 2008 to August 1, 2013: National Commissioner, Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission.

Since 1990: Principal, T.M.Denton Consultants, renamed tmdenton.com in 1999

A firm which conducts

  • legal advocacy
  • representation before federal tribunals
  • policy analysis
  • strategic planning and
  • government relations,

and obtains radio spectrum licences in telecommunications, internet, broadcasting and other federally-regulated matters.

I have been intensely involved in domain name policy in the ICANN structure since 1999, and the remaking the telephone number-addressing system in North America compatible with VoIP, through a protocol called ENUM.

Career History

  • National Commissioner, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (2008-2013)
  • Student, Master’s of Law Program, University of Ottawa, 2007-2008
  • Project Manager, user-ENUM trial in the United States (2006-2007)
  • Secretary, ICANN-Registrars Constituency, in the Domain Name Supporting Organization of ICANN 2001-2003
  • Member of the Board, Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), representative of the .ca registrars 2002-2004
  • 1987-1989 Policy Advisor, Telecommunications and Broadcasting, office of the federal Minister of Communications.
  • 1980-1986 Senior Associate, Nordicity Group Limited. Telecommunications, broadcasting and regulated industries.1980 Assistant to the Vice-Chairman, Telecommunications, CRTC
  • 1976-1980 Staff writer, Royal Commission on Financial Management and Accountability
  • 1974-1976 Machinery of government directorate, Privy Council Office, Ottawa

Education

  • Masters in Law (Law and Technology propgram) University of Ottawa 2007-2008
  • Bachelor of Civil Law, McGill University, 1973
  • Bachelor of Arts (Honours) 1970
  • Lower Canada College, senior matriculation, 1967

Associations and Personal Interests

Languages

French and English, spoken and written

Clients (Past and Present)

Work History

Since graduating from law school in 1973, I have held the following positions.

National Commissioner, Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (since August 1,2008)

I was appointed a national commissioner on August 1, 2008 for a five year term which ended July 31st, 2013.

T.M. Denton Consultants (since 1990)

I run a legal and consulting firm which advises and represents clients in respect of regulated matters, such as telecommunications and broadcasting, on such matters as hearings, obtaining licences, the drafting of legislation, and the process of government generally. I also work to keep unregulated things like the Internet free within the boundaries of the rule of law. I also represent clients before federal boards and tribunals. I conduct studies of the implications of technology for policy. Specific pieces of work and clients are listed further below.

Minister’s Office, Federal Department of Communications

Between February 1987 and February 1989, I was on contract to the federal Minister of Communications. In that time I was part of a team that developed the Broadcasting Act (1990). I advised the minister on the substance of policy and cabinet appeals on telecommunications. I maintained liaison with other ministers’ offices, industry associations and Members of Parliament, and frequently acted as a kind of ombudsman for the public with the department.

In this period I was involved in significant issues related to the evolution of Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications policy, including the fight to legitimize long-distance resale, which led to long distance competition in Canada in 1992.

Consulting

In the period 1980-1986, I worked at Nordicity Group Ltd. writing reports and studies, principally in relation to telecommunications and the law, but also program evaluation, speech writing, drafting regulations and government organization.

Government

From 1978 to 1980 I worked as the executive assistant to the Vice-Chairman of the CRTC for Telecommunications.  I was involved in the cross-examination of expert witnesses, drafted parts of decisions, and generally learned about issues in Canadian telecommunications and broadcasting.

In the Lambert Royal Commission, I dealt with ministerial responsibility and wrote those parts of the report dealing with the role of the deputy minister. An article generated from work at that time is still used in university political science classes.

In the Privy Council Office between 1974 and 1976, I worked on:

1. The reorganization of departments and agencies pursuant to changes in the mandates of ministers;

2. Shepherding legislation on government organization through the bureaucracy and cabinet committees;

3. All dealings of the Prime Minister with royalty and royal representatives; and

4. Legislation on Crown corporations, the Access to Information Act and the Human Rights Act.

Broadcasting and Telecommunication Studies

Studies conducted after 1996 are available directly from my website. Ones that I did before modern web-editing software are listed below.

Check other pages of this website (Publications and its offshoots) for studies and reports since 1996.

The Consumer in the Information Society, with Glen Milne and Louis Vagianos, for the Executive Director, Consumers’ Association of Canada, March 24, 1995. In the electronic marketplace, the rights of producers are the rights of citizens and consumers, and not merely broadcasters and newspapers.

The Competition Act and the Program Delivery Marketplace, for the Director General, Broadcast Policy, Department of Heritage, March 1995. An examination of the moral basis of the Competition Act and its contrast with the assumptions, tools and objectives of the Broadcasting Act. “In a fully broadband interactive digital universe, every telephone number is a potential source of television programming.” {from p.24}

Information Highway Issues in Foreign Jurisdictions, for the Minister of Industry and the Information Highway Advisory Council, September 1, 1994, which examined which foreign jurisdictions understood the implications of the combined computer-bandwidth revolutions.

Transactions, not Transmissions: The Electronic Marketplace and the Computer Revolution, for the Bureau of Competition Policy, March 10, 1994. “Computer-mediated markets can be global, competitive, and almost instantaneously accessed, used, and, if need be, continuously reconfigured.” The paper that became the basis of the Bureau’s approach to the Internet.

Television Advertizing, Fragmentation, and Viewer Choice, for the Director General, Broadcast Policy, Department of Communications, December-February 1993

Issues in Television, briefing and analysis for the Consumers’ Association of Canada, December 1992, for the CRTC’s hearing on cable television.

Licence Fees: The Case for Relief, for the RadioComm Association of Canada, September 1992

Telecommunications Services in Canada, March 1990 A wide-ranging study of telecommunications developments since 1984 in Canada and the United States, for the Consumers’ Association of Canada, illustrating what has and has not happened as a result of long-distance competition in the United States, and the relationship between technology and pressures for competition (January – March 1990), with Hans Kieferle

The Pro’s and Con’s Of Long Distance Competition for the City of Toronto, January 1991, for the City of Toronto

Final Argument for the Consumers’ Association in proceedings pursuant to Telecom Public Notice 1990-73 (long distance competition)

Final Argument for the City of Toronto in proceedings pursuant to Telecom Public Notice 1990-73

A Policy Framework for the Consumers’ Association of Canada, which related the results of the above study to the issues before the Association, and which examined telephone consumption patterns and the issue of consumer subsidies, with Hans Kieferle, April 1990

The Prospects for Competition in International Telecommunications, for Unitel Communications, of Toronto, in 1990

Cabinet Appeals in Telecommunications Matters, for Unitel Communications of Toronto, in 1990

An examination of different Institutional Arrangements for Canadian Direct Broadcast Satellites, for the Department of Communications (1983)

A study of the Potential Impact of U.S. Direct Broadcast Satellite Services on the Canadian broadcasting environment, for the Department of Communications [DOC] (1982)

A study of Legal and Regulatory Implications of Electronic Publishing in Canada, including videotext, for DOC (1985)

Proposals for amendments to licence fee regulations, for the CRTC, in the wake of the licensing of pay television (1983);

Legal and Regulatory Issues pertaining to the Introduction of Optical Fibre Transmission Plant, and its effect on the cable television industry (the telco-cable crossover issue, for DOC 1986.

Various specific interventions for the Consumers’ Association of Canada, 1990, before the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, committees of the House of Commons and the Senate.

Policy Studies (outside telecom and broadcasting)

Cryptography Issues and Internet Service Providers: A Consultation for Industry Canada, September 5, 1997

Response of CAIP to the Department of Justice Initiative on Undue Exploitation of Violence, June, 1996

“The Civil Service and the Economy” A briefing for the panellists at the annual APEX Conference of senior civil servants April-May 1993 tracking 21 years of expenditure growth

“An Examination of Options for the Delivery of Book Publishing Subsidies”, for the Director, Publishing Policy and Programs, August 20, 1992

A Report on New Media (informatics and new telecommunications media) for the Director General, New Media, Department of Communications, April 1992

“Copyright Royalties and the Consumption of Blank Tape”, for the Director General, Cultural Indistries, Department of Communications, January 1992

“Legal and Economic Issues in Marketing Government Databases”, for the Interdepartmental Working Group on Database Industry Support, February 1992

Selected Demographic and Income Characteristics of the Secretary of State Department’s Clientèles, with Hans Kieferle, September, 1984

Grants and Contributions to the Voluntary Sector, Secretary of State Department, December 1984

Youth Policy, Secretary of State Department, September 1985

A thought-piece on reform of the civil service, for John Edwards, Chairman Task Force 2000, January 1990

Legal Studies (Outside of Communications)

Recreational Fisheries Regulation in Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Spring 1986

The Status of Governor-in-Council Appointees: Tenure and Severance, Federal Progressive-Conservative Party, Committee on Government Planning, April 1984

The Foundations of Local Self-Government: A comparison of municipal with proposed Indian Band Government, DIAND, June 1982

Publications, Papers

Gaining Access to Telecommunications Facilities, an address to the British Columbia Internet Association, Whistler, BC, May 12, 1998.

The 1994 Electronics Consumer, by Hans Kieferle, a multi-client study published by TMD. The first comprehensive statistical and pictorial report on Canadian patterns of consumption of electronically-based or -delivered goods and services: computers, phones, CDs, cable, and so on.

The Impact of Convergence on Canadian Cultural Policy, a paper delivered to the Pacific Telecommunications Council in Honolulu on January, 1995, and published as part of its proceedings.

“Ministerial Responsibility”, in Schultz, ed. The Canadian Political Process, 2nd edition, 1980

“The Impact of American Direct Broadcast Services in Canada” in Proceedings of the 11th Telecommunications Policy Review Conference, Annapolis, 1982

“Dancing in our Lenses: Why there are not more intelligent civilizations”, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, November, 1984, being a look at why our radio telescopes are not filled with alien signals: a rebuttal to Carl Sagan.

“A better way to make the budget”, with James Burns, in Policy Options, May-June 1983. (The government has since followed these recommendations).

A brief outline of Telecom Decision 85-19: Resale and Shared Use and Interconnection of Interexchange Systems”, a presentation to the Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance in Toronto, November 1985 and Montreal, February 1986

“Cable Retransmission and Copyright Liability in Canada”, 14th Telecommunications and Policy Research Conference, Airlie House, Virginia, 1986

“The GST Watchdog Agency”, for the Consumers’ Association of Canada, June 1990, a presentation by the CAC to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs.

Program Evaluations

Consultations with Associations in the Food Sector, March 1985, for Consumer and Corporate Affairs Canada

Beaufort Sea Environmental Assessment Review Intervenor Funding Program, April 1985, DIAND

Funding of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, July 1984, for DIAND

Funding of Native Representational Organizations, September 1985, DIAND and Secretary of State

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