A Hamilton family is mourning after facing a life or death situation last week during Rogers’ disruption that left the country faltering, and an expert says it is proof of the “fragility” of the networks of Canada.
Shane Eby said his father and aunt, Gregg and Linda Eby, who are brothers and both in their 70s, were doing their weekly errands in the city center on Friday morning.
Shane said it was past 10am ET when Gregg realized Linda was not feeling well and made her sit in a parking lot near a bench.
“He saw he was in trouble and needed help, more than my father could offer him,” Shane told CBC News.
Gregg called a bank security guard who also realized Linda was in trouble.
According to Shane, the next five to 10 minutes were brutal for his father.
Finally, the first people in charge arrived
Without cell phone service, Gregg was “revolting.”
Shane said his father and security guard tried to alert someone nearby to help call 911, but found no one.
“My dad started running down the street passing through the parking lot trying to locate people,” Shane said.
“He had to keep leaving her to try to find help,” she said, crying.
Shane said his father never found anyone with cell phone service, but that the first people in charge finally arrived.
Shane believes the security guard could have been able to get help from someone at the bank or through a landline.
MIRAR | The consumer group is asking the telecommunications control dog to investigate Rogers’ disruption:
The consumer group is asking the telecommunications control dog to investigate Rogers’ disruption
John Lawford, executive director of the Center for the Defense of the Public Interest, has called on the Canadian Telecommunications and Broadcasting Commission (CRTC) to conduct an investigation into Rogers’ national disruption and establish new rules for all telecommunications providers.
Although the ambulance did not have a defibrillator, the first fire truck at the site did, according to Shane.
Dave Thompson, a Hamilton paramedic service supervisor, told CBC Hamilton on Tuesday morning that paramedics were notified of the call near James Street South and Main Street at 10:25 a.m.
He said they arrived four minutes after the call. He added that paramedics had a defibrillator and used it immediately, but noted that they include heart monitors and do not look like standard defibrillators.
Shane said they revived Linda and took her to the hospital without Gregg. He said his father could not use his vehicle at the time because police considered him part of a possible crime scene.
He left Gregg struggling to get to the hospital, but eventually found a taxi. When Gregg got there, Shane said, “he was involved in the decision to take away his life support.”
Days after Linda’s death, the family is still trying to cope with her loss.
“She was the matriarch of our family and both parents are dead, so now my father is alone,” Shane said, adding that he had two children and had “all the stories that most people from the family does not know “.
Shane said he never imagined people would have trouble contacting emergency services.
He added that doctors at the hospital said Linda’s aneurysm would probably have been fatal even if Gregg had been able to call 911 immediately. An aneurysm is an abnormal balloon in the wall of a blood vessel and can rupture and cause internal bleeding.
“That interruption didn’t cause my aunt to die, but … every minute counts when something like this happens, and when it’s not available, it looks like it could be worked on,” Shane said.
MIRAR | Rogers responds to a massive network outage:
Rogers CEO apologizes for mass outage, blames maintenance upgrade
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri apologized for a long network outage that affected customers across the country and blamed it for a network system failure after a maintenance upgrade to its main network .
Tony Staffieri, chairman and CEO of Rogers, said the outage was caused by a network system failure after a maintenance upgrade.
On Monday, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne convened a meeting of telecommunications CEOs, including Staffieri, to discuss ways to avoid similar service disruptions and asked them to develop a plan to strengthen the resilience of Canada’s mobile and Internet networks.
In addition, the Center for the Defense of the Public Interest made a formal request to the Telecommunications and Broadcasting Commission of Canada (CRTC) to conduct an investigation into the disruption.
The disruption was not an “affection,” the expert says
Vass Bednar, McMaster University’s executive director of the master’s program in public policy in the digital society, told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning that this disruption should not be seen as an “affection”.
Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s master’s degree in public policy in digital society, says Rogers should provide comprehensive information on what caused the disruption and what the company learned. (CBC)
Bednar said the disruption put Canada “on the map in a humiliating and shameful way in terms of the fragility of our system and how it is interconnected, and that is what makes people rethink it.” .
The public needs and wants to engage in conversations around telecom companies, he said.
“These services have the feeling that they are now essential services and vital public infrastructure, but they are controlled by private corporations.
“It’s not just that we benefit from stronger competition in space … people are frustrated and feel like they’re paying rising prices for something that keeps disappointing them.”
Bednar said Rogers should give full information on what caused the disruption and what the company learned.
Shane said he hopes sharing his experience can help others and show telecom companies what’s at stake when their services don’t work.
“It’s not just an economic transaction,” he said. “Life or death scenarios unfold every day.”
LISTENING Shane Eby tells Metro Morning about his father’s experience:
Metro Morning14: 10 Rogers outage shows we need serious change in telecommunications in the country, says technology expert
Shane Eby is a resident of Hamilton whose aunt suffered a fatal aneurysm during Rogers’ interruption. Vass Bednar is the executive director of the Master’s in Public Policy in Digital Society at McMaster University and talks about the impact of disruption.