My name is Devin Baines. I worked on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for Members of Parliament and Ministers of the Crown for over 15 years.

My advice? E-mail, yes. But print out what you e-mail and stick it into an envelope (all postage free) and send it to:

Name of MP/Minister
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

E-mail tends to get ignored, considering the flood that gets received.

Even hard copy mail only gets a cursory reply.

Your best bet? Send a personalized hard copy to your local MP asking that he/she forward your comments to the appropriate Minister with a cover letter. That has the greatest impact since it is elevated to a higher level in the Ministerial Correspondence Unit.

Trust me on this one. I know how this works. I used to do this for a living :)

All it will cost you is the paper and the envelope. No postage required.

Oh, and the C-DMCA sucks and as a life-long Conservative, Harper and his crew have just lost my vote. I have made my local MP painfully aware of this fact.

I sent 5 letters today. You should do the same.

Pay attention to Prof. Geist! Take his advice. Do what he suggests!

Jim Prentice, the Industry Minister, can be reached at Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca. I just fired off an e-mail and cc'd Cory and Michael. While e-mail to politicians ain't much, if they get enough of it, the tend to take notice. I spent 15 years on Parliament Hill, so I'm very aware of how this all works. Speak up. Make noise.