I begin this petition grounded in a shared love for music, specifically, for Taylor Swift's music. 20 years ago, as a nine-year-old child, Taylor's music came on my radio, and for the first time, I understood what power music had. Music wasn't something you listened to, it was something you felt. Her music made me feel it deep in the core of my soul. From the innocence of girlhood to dreaming of my first kiss, to my first heartbrake, to having everything and loosing it all, spending years not knowing who I am, grieving who I was and learning that life's not fair, but it's also extraordinarily beautiful, her music has paralleld my life. Her lyrics like letters from an older sister, telling me I would be okay, telling me to be strong, telling me to slow down and enjoy what I have. Growing up learning the people who were supposed to love me, would only hurt me, I had no one I could trust. I had no stability. But I had music. It was always there, it always understood how I was feeling even when I didn't have the words. 

Knowing she was touring with a 3.5 hour show, playing her discography felt like if my mother who died when I was three, was giving me a scrapbook of photos she took in heaven, sitting and flipping the pages with me, watching myself grow up in pictures the way she saw me, even though I couldn't see her. I had to go. 

I signed up for the ticketmaster verified fan sale, I had my boyfriend and two friends sign up too just to increase my chances. Not one of us got a code. When my boyfriend got sick and couldn't work, I spent the next year supporting us and his daughter, slowly putting every penny I could spare away to buy just one ticket. I met a girl online in a fan club group, she had just won a contest for Miami tickets, and posted in the group that she would be selling her Vancouver tickets. She picked me, we talked for over a week (she asked to wait until the Miami tickets were in her account and it took a few days) She showed me her Taylor tattoo, we talked for hours about our favorite songs. So when she sent me fake screenshots that the tickets had been transferred, I sent her the 2000 I had spent a year saving. I spent a year, having no money after rent and groceries and bills because I wanted to see Taylor. And this girl just took everything from me. My boyfriend died from a heart condition a month later. I lost him, his daughter moved to live with her mom, I had to move out of my apartment. I fell into such a dark suicidal depression, and spent months in and out of the hospital. I rent a small room in a basement and have gone back to work full-time but I'm still struggling so much. I can't get my boyfriend back, my life back, and knowing I won't be able to see Taylor because I don't have 5 grand laying around, this grief is paralyzing. Her music has always been that one thing, and now I get to spend the next two weeks, watching all the excitement in the town so close to mine where the tour ends. She's right there, and I can't go because someone bought a $150 and thinks it's okay to make $4,850 off of separate girls like me. I will never heal from this. But if I can stop anyone else from feeling this way, it might just make it a little easier to breath.  

A study showed that 75% of concert tickets in the U.S. are purchased by professional scalpers using bots, then resold at extortionate prices (Pollstar, 2020). This predatory behavior hurts people, and let's scalpers get away with making an income without paying income taxes. 

In 2019, the EU, implemented an anti-scalper law banning the use of bots to buy large quantities of tickets, and capping the resell costs tickets are allowed to be sold for.

I am urging, no, I'm demanding the Government of Canada to follow suit. Developing a similar law in Canada will protect fans, enabling them to purchase tickets at their original prices and ensuring that music remains accessible to all, but especially to the people who it means the most too.

Music brings people together, its a universal language, it touches such a deep part of us in ways we can't explain. It's something to be experienced, celebrated and shared. It's not a commodity to be exploited. 

There are websites offering courses on how to program bots and resell tickets and quit your day job and live off of the money you scalp. It's clear this is just going to keep happening. 

Please sign this petition to help me fight it.