The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has defended his stand on Net neutrality, an issue on which the two countries have recently diverged. The Globe's Christine Dobby writes that Ajit Pai delivered a brief, prerecorded video address on Wednesday to a telco conference in Toronto. Mr. Pai outlined his reasons for proposing to reverse rules that classify Internet provision as a public utility. Those regulations were passed under the previous FCC chairman Tom Wheeler and they gave the commission the authority to enforce rules around Net neutrality -- the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated the same. Mr. Pai is seeking to undo those rules, saying he favours "a light-touch approach to regulation," a common theme of President Donald Trump's administration. Mr. Pai has faced criticism in the U.S. for his stand on the Open Internet Order. He says he supports a free and open Internet, but consumer-advocacy groups say without the rules treating broadband providers as public utilities, there would be no legal framework with which to enforce Net-neutrality rules. Canada insists that ISPs not give "undue preference" to traffic.