"Canadians shouldn't be forced to buy a mobile device from a specific company or subscribe to its internet service simply to access their favourite television programs." In Thursday's net neutrality press release, he said: "The guidelines we issued today will help Canadians understand which practices are permitted and how to make a complaint." Well, well, well. Welcome to the party, CRTC. Nice of you to show up. Where have you been? It's hard not to be cynical about the apparent change of heart. After all, this is the same regulator who for years has been endorsing and pushing anti-consumer regulations and decisions, like the bone-headed approval of usage-based billing, the attempt to block the launch of Wind Mobile and the ongoing failure to enforce net neutrality in the first place. It's the same regulator whose spokesman the inimitable David Ellis quotes on his blog as saying, "We are not a consumer protection agency." With vertical integration, the regulator earlier this year approved Bell's takeover of CTV with some conditions, the biggest of which was the requirement of a big investment in the production of Canadian programming. It also rubber-stamped Shaw's acquisition of Canwest last year and launched a hearing into the effects of such vertical integration, which apparently resulted in Wednesday's ruling. While it's true the CRTC placed a moratorium on any exclusive content arrangements when the Bell-CTV deal was announced in March, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that such was the end game of all