Q&A: One David v. many Goliaths — a Quebec man’s quest to eliminate ‘junk fees’ from the telecoms sector

Emile Arsalane is fed up with what he calls “tricks” from Canadian telcos that pass on ‘junk fees’ to Canadian consumers who sign up for their services. In fact, the computer programmer from Gaspésie, Que., was so disgruntled that he filed an application with the CRTC, challenging practices from companies Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., Telus Corp., all of whom he believes are hiding added fees for customers who pay with credit cards. In an interview with The Wire Report, Arsalane spoke about his goals for the application, as well as the dynamic of one man taking on some of the country’s largest corporations. Can you give me a rundown of where this came from and what you’re trying to accomplish? It just came from a moment of frustration. We had the worst Black Friday in terms of deals, and it was the same for Boxing Day. And, even with these bad deals, you have to jump through hoops. You had to sign up and give them access to your bank account through a PAD (pre-authorized debit) agreement. They also wanted you to go through Plaid, this third-party that accesses all of your banking history. I remember two years ago, Telus made an application to the CRTC to charge credit card fees and people went mad, and tons of people commented and told them to withdraw their application. But, even though the application was withdrawn, the CRTC made a decision that, should the practice of charging credit card processing fees continue or should it become a practice within the telecommunications industry, the commission is prepared to explore all available regulatory options in the near future. In that decision, they said they wouldn’t allow credit card fees, but then telecom companies applied credit card fees in a convoluted way. They give discounts to people who don’t pay with credit cards. So, they just went against what they said they wouldn't do. That’s the main frustration. With this application, were you targeting Telus or all the big companies? It’s a widespread practice. Telus and Koodo, along with Bell and Virgin, are forcing people to auto-pay through bank accounts. Rogers and Fido are doing a soft version of it because they’re still allowing credit cards, but even that is kind of sketchy because they want to sign you up for auto-pay. And, the strange thing is that if you’ve signed up for auto-pay with Rogers, they will charge you a NSF (non-sufficient funds) fee of $70 if your payment doesn’t go through. If you don’t sign up for auto-pay, you won’t have to pay that fee. So, auto-pay is a way for these companies to trigger that fee earlier. It’s basically another hidden fee. So, it’s all about forcing people to go through hoops and pay hidden fees. What’s the best case scenario coming out of this application? What would you like to see these companies do? We’re simply asking them to charge the advertised price because these discounts are not really a discount. It’s more of a penalty because the advertised price is the price with the discount included. So, we want them to charge the advertised price to all customers, no matter the payment method. Have you heard from any of these companies directly? No, everything is online. There have been interventions that both support and oppose your application, and Telus has asked for the application to be suspended. The CRTC recently extended the deadline for interventions to be submitted. What did you make of that? I’m not sure if it’s really a good thing because that’s part of why we’re complaining. These issues have been unresolved for two years and now they’re adding more delays. So, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing, but that’s part of the process. Finally, can you speak to the experience of being one individual that is taking on these massive corporations? What do you make of that? It’s kind of crazy. But it came from frustration. It may have taken more time than I thought, but making the application wasn’t too bad. I used Perplexity AI a lot, and I had to tweak the application a lot, but it was crazy good. Perplexity made a crazy good application, so I think that’s a good thing for customers who want to make applications. dlegree@thewirereport.ca Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q&A: One David v. many Goliaths — a Quebec man’s quest to eliminate ‘junk fees’ from the telecoms sector

Telecom |
By Davis Legree
|February 13, 2026

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Q&A: One David v. many Goliaths — a Quebec man’s quest to eliminate ‘junk fees’ from the telecoms sector

Telecom | By Davis Legree |February 13, 2026

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|February 13, 2026