Class-action lawsuits against telecommunications providers are flying like text messages from a teenager. Websites and Facebook groups protesting cellphone rates are popping up faster than spam in your inbox. People are even rallying on Parliament Hill to oppose the purposeful slowing down of internet connections.

There is a new disconnect happening — one that politicians in the upcoming election need to take note of. Normally placid Canadians are speaking up. Consumers have never been angrier with their telecommunications service providers and they are letting the companies know it.

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The biggest class-action of them all, however, is Regina-based lawyer Tony Merchant's lawsuit over the system access fee paid by the large majority of cellphone users in Canada since 1986. Merchant started the lawsuit in 2004 and a Saskatchewan court gave it the go ahead last September. Merchant says Canada's cellphone companies have been misrepresenting their system access fees as government charges, and he is seeking a repayment of nearly $20 billion.

Merchant says he will soon be launching another new suit over the 911 emergency fee charged by cellphone carriers.

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