Harper's Censorship of Political Enemies Websites 4500 webpages do

[William Ashley]

http://www.tgdaily.com/trendwatch-brief/45237-canadian-government-shuts-4500-websites

Comments?

This is all that is left of the two pages

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:GR1uSX-xIDcJ:enviro-canada.ca/+enviro-canada.ca&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:0ECKaykEhQYJ:www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp%3Flang%3Den%26n%3D390af41b-1+http://enviro-canada.ca/default.asp%3Flang%3DEn%26n%3D390AF41B-1&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

Edited January 1, 2010 by William Ashley

[DrGreenthumb]

Didn't Hitler go around burning books too?

[waldo]

Canada! Say it ain't so! You mean Prentice/Harper were punked? You mean this heartfelt Ugandan response was misguided?

The Ugandan delegation to the COP-15 climate talks has been the first to react to Canada's announcement of ambitious new emissions-reduction targets and vigorous climate-debt reparations to African nations.

The Ugandan delegation convened a press event shortly after the surprise Canadian announcement, in a breakthrough moment for a summit marked until now largely by gridlock. Delegates, NGO representatives and members of the press crowded the room to listen to the impromptu address, although delegates from the United States, the UK and China were largely absent.

"This is the day that will define our century," said Margaret Matembe, MP and member of the Climate Committee of Uganda. "Today, we no longer have to wait for a COP20 or COP100 before the voices of our children are heard."

In a press release distributed this afternoon, Canadian environment minister Jim Prentice repeated calls to other developed nations to follow Canada’s lead. "The threat to world stability from climate change is too important for short-sighted negotiating postures," said Prentice.

The key question as negotiations enter their final week in Copenhagen is to what extent other countries of the developing world will take Canada’s lead. The outcome and efficacy of any final agreement largely depends on the answer to this question.

A huffy Canada shuts down 'Yes Men'

The Canadian government reacted to the parody in Copenhagen by throwing a public tantrum.

An aide to Harper sent Canadian newspapers a furious denunciation of what he called "a childish prank," and was filmed furiously (and falsely) accusing a leading Quebec environmentalist of being behind it.

On the same night, however, CBC News revealed a paper circulating in Harper's cabinet. It listed a much lower emissions reduction target, and plans to go easy on Canada's oil and gas industry.

A trio of Canadian provincial premiers - most notably Quebec Premier Jean Charest - excoriated the federal government for its weak environmental politicies.

The Climate Action Network, a global coalition of "green" groups, awarded Canada its "Colossal Fossil" prize for worst behavior in the Copenhagen negotiations.

[Michael Hardner]

This article overreaches. It's silly to think that the Canadian government has the power to shut down the unrelated global environmental websites, IMO.

[Moonbox]

I agree. This is a pretty stupid topic and you can probably imagine how unsurprised I was by who the original poster was....

[Keepitsimple]

I agree. This is a pretty stupid topic and you can probably imagine how unsurprised I was by who the original poster was....

Ditto.....

[waldo]

Didn't Hitler go around burning books too?

basic Conservative paranoia with an overwhelming need to control... much like the unprecedented "war room" set up by the Conservatives to attempt to counter the negative messages concerning Canada coming out of Copenhagen. Apparently, Conservatives don't like to labeled as obstructionist - go figure!

even if simply considered collateral damage, the net effect of the Conservative paranoia and message control was to bring down thousands of web-sites... google translate:

[waldo]

as it turns out... the Harper Conservatives engaged in their own brand of hoax (read lies) in moving to shut down the parody web-sites.

Internet providers frequently are asked to remove content, yet most reputable firms only do so with court oversight or a clear statutory mandate. One exception to this rule involves cases of phishing, which is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire personal information such as user names, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity. This occurs when fraudsters create websites that look much like a popular bank or online auction site in the hope of prying personal data from visitors tricked into thinking they are dealing with a legitimate site.

.

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Within days of the Yes Men incident, both Environment Canada and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre, which is part of Public Safety Canada, wrote to the hosting ISP to ask that it shut down the fake websites. While officials understandably pointed to trademark and copyright concerns (the sites were designed to look confusingly similar to actual government websites), those claims alone would not have been enough for most Internet providers to act.

Instead, officials used both the persuasive power of an official government request combined with inaccurate claims that the sites were engaged in phishing to escalate the issue. One email to the hosting company noted the request was sent on behalf of the Minister of the Environment to demand prompt deletion and removal of the hosted sites. The same email claimed the sites were involved in phishing, leading the German-based Internet provider to promptly shut them down.

[robert_viera]

as it turns out... the Harper Conservatives engaged in their own brand of hoax (read lies) in moving to shut down the parody web-sites.

There's a simple solution to the problem of fake web sites: Make the WHOIS information for .CA domain names public.

The WHOIS information service allows you to see the name of the owner of a domain name.

Unfortunately, CIRA, the organization that regulates .CA domain names, changed their WHOIS policy so that WHOIS information is, by default, not publicly available.

There are companies who offer 'private registration', a service in which the company registers a domain in their name on behalf of a customer.

Both the CIRA policy and the availability of private registration services allow web site owners to hide their identity.

Edited January 12, 2010 by robert_viera

[waldo]

There's a simple solution to the problem of fake web sites: Make the WHOIS information for .CA domain names public.

not so simple... from a personal information privacy... and spam, perspective. CIRA's default change was to align with PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) guidelines, while, unfortunately, providing a back-door access means for law-enforcement (and trademark holders) that circumvents appropriate oversight - something that would have reached a legislative mandate level if Harper Conservative perogy action hadn't put the kibosh on so-called "lawful access" bills c-46/c-47. Hmmmm... perogies - good!