With SOPA and PIPA dead in the U.S., lobbyists may be working behind the scenes to pass similar legislation in Canada.
Because of the music industry's proposed changes to copyright reform bill C-11, Canada could be "a prime target for SOPA style rules," warns Ottawa law professor Michael Geist.
The main point of contention is the industry's push to expand and add statutory damages to an "enabler provision" that would target a wider range of websites and run liability into the millions of dollars for a target website. Other groups are pushing for language that some fear could be used to shut down sites like YouTube.
The massive public protest over the SOPA and PIPA provisions was due to their threat to the Internet and freedom of speech. The same protest is needed to stop SOPA-like changes to Canada's C-11 bill.
Byron Sonne’s trial is currently in progress and I have been following it as closely as I can without actually being there. I blogged on this issue during the G8/G20.
Byron Sonne is a hacktivist who was black box testing the security surrounding the G8/G20.
I initially thought that Sonne had been recruited to participate in the Dirty Tricks campaign that I believe occurred at the time. However, friends of Sonne contacted me and assured me that I was wrong and that Sonne was an innocent victim.
Note that there is now evidence coming out that my general assessment of what occurred during the G8/G20 in 2008 was actually a direct result of a Dirty Tricks campaign,was correct even though it appears that I was wrong about Sonne.
If the media keep digging I don’t doubt the rest of the story could be revealed. If they don’t well then an opportunity to expose some pretty ugly corruption will have fallen by the wayside. Of course, the fact that Elliott was the Commissioner during that period also means that much of the evidence could have been destroyed or fabricated to be intentionally misleading.
Based on what I’ve seen to date I would have to agree with Sonne’s friends about his innocence.
I publicly admit my error and apologize to Sonne.
It appears that their trust in their friend was well founded. Sonne does indeed appear to be an innocent victim of this particularly ugly Dirty Tricks campaign, and I thank his friends for calmly and rationally presenting their case and giving me the time to evaluate it based on it’s own merits.
One of my reasons for saying that Sonne appears to be an innocent victim is the published interrogation of Byron Sonne by Tam Bui. There are several things that become obvious in that interview and indicate that Bui was trying to make a lot more out of Byron’s actions than the evidence itself indicated. His questions about Byrons attitudes and beliefs towards the Jewish community as well as the one's related to an alleged conspiracy were baseless because there was no evidence to support them.
Given that a Ms. Bich Bui is a donor to Mount Sinai Hospital (a relative of Tam Bui?) one has to wonder if Sonne was arrested and held without bail, simply because Tam Bui and/or his personal friends held a personal bias based on nothing more than Sonne downloading a document.
One has to wonder if they held a personal bias which resulted in Sonne unjustly being held in prison without bail for three hundred days and charged for numerous offenses for which there was no evidentiary foundation?
If anyone bothered to research Sonne and read his online stuff it’s pretty clear that he isn’t antisemitic. Unless one thinks that reading something automatically means that the reader must believe it or agree with it.
That would be a pretty absurd conclusion for a presumably experienced lead police investigator to come to and one would have to question his competence if he did that.
Was Sonne simply being punished
because someone, somewhere came to baseless and therefore wrong conclusions about his
political beliefs and decided to make him pay irrespective of his clear and unambiguous explanations in the interrogations?
It's Ontario. Why wouldn't that surprise me.
(Please note that the above is not a commentary on the good people of Ontario. It is directed towards a specific circle in the wealthy elite here who has effectively bought the Liberal government and for whom the Liberals work exclusively at the expense of not only other members of the wealthy elite but the citizens of Ontario).
Sonne’s trial can be followed on the following site: Free Byron Sonne!
The Occupy Movement was discovering it’s wings. WikiLeaks and Anonymous were maturing and coming into their own as critical components of this new, dynamic social movement that was inspired by the Arab Spring.
While everyone is still working on finding their way and their focus there’s a sense of excitement and hope in the air from those of us who have tired of the rank corruption, abuse of power, and culture of impunity that has been allowed free reign in our respective countries.
What we need is focus.
What we need is Transparency, Accountability and Justice with an end to the “reconciliation” approach that permeates our system in Canada and which allows criminals to walk freely among us without being held accountable for their crimes.
My hopes?
I hope the move by Americans to recall the politicians who voted for the NDAA picks up even more steam in the US. The ball has started to roll and this is an important one for Canadians and Americans alike. It’s important for Canadians because what happens in the US impacts us. The NDAA could certainly have an impact on the current Border Security Agreement being negotiated by the US and Canada.
The fact that these negotiations are secret when they should be transparent is another serious concern. Our governments should not be allowed to arbitrarily determine what can be kept a secret from the citizens who elected them. And we citizens should have input into a process that could have such a deep. long-lasting impact on our relationship with the US and our ability to travel freely between countries.
Ironically, no-one should know this better than the Conservatives whose roots were in the Reform movement in the 1980s and whose movement grew out of an opposition to corruption, greed and abuse of power. It was the Reformers who were demanding transparency and the ability to recall politicians. And now, we are seeing them return to the same corrupt politics that has permeated Canada’s political system historically.
This is precisely why Canadians also need the right to recall politicians, that is, the right to representative recall. The only place in Canada that allows this currently is BC. We cannot do this in any other province or federally.
Calling for the right to representative recall is something the federal Conservatives would be hard pressed to refuse or ignore given that it was the Reform Party, their root organization, that initiated this demand. And if they did so, their hypocrisy would be exposed.
In addition, the right of recall should be established as a Constitutional change so that it cannot be arbitrarily denied on a whim.
In fact, we should consider a complete rewrite of the Charter of Rights and the elimination of the “notwithstanding clauses” which effectively limit our rights to the whim of the government or state at any given time.
Rights are and should be legally established as inviolable. Only a few should be allowed to be restricted and only under exceptional or extreme circumstances limited in the most minimal way. Personally, I would like to see a republican style Constitution.
The Canadian Medical and Psychiatric system is wide open to corruption and abuse and the only reason that the corrupt haven’t been caught is because it is so wide open. Medical and Psychiatric Doctors and other personnel are given a free pass on the unwarranted and baseless assumption that they have the best interests of the patient at heart.
This is demonstrably not true and our experience in Ontario under the current Liberal regime is evidence of this sad fact. We need Patients Rights legislation and tighter Psychiatric Patients Rights legislation to protect patients from this rank systemic corruption which includes but is not limited to extreme and gross medical neglect potentially resulting in medical murder as well as incompetent mental health evaluations by GPs which can have a huge and seriously negative impact on an individual’s life.
In the sick and twisted minds of some medical “professionals” in Ontario, objecting to negligent medical care is an indication of mental illness. Sure it is, when the medical “professionals” are corrupt and want to cover up their gross and sometimes intentional negligence inflicted on a patient under who knows what bizarre rationale.
Our police services should not available for hire by private corporations and private individuals. Allowing this removes the fine line between who is acting on whose behalf and enables corruption.
On a personal note, I would like to see serious criminal legislation in place to deal with the crime of Stalking. The Criminal Harassment legislation does not even come close to describing and dealing with this crime. January is National Stalking Awareness month. Keep an eye on my blog. There will be lots of information on this topic this year, including an analysis of employer, community and organizational participation in this crime and the serious impact it has on a victims life.
And last but not least we need ideas to build a stronger participatory Democracy whether that means changing our parliamentary system to a republic or something else.
The eviction of the Occupy Toronto posters is occurring now (7:39AM).
One of the comments made by protesters was that the police were violating numerous by-laws in the process of the eviction.
May I respectfully remind the Toronto Police Service that they are not above the law including Municipal By-Laws.
8:00AM. The Livestream and several protestors are indicating that CUPE Local 416 is participating in tent removal.
May I also respectfully remind CUPE Local 416 that it is not their job to to perform TPS duties. Clearing the tents amounts to enforcing the law. This is a TPS duty.
8:24AM. Sound cannon (LRAD) observed and police announce that they are planning to use it as a speaker. Request protestors move back.
8:30AM. Police announce (using LRAD as a speaker) that they are attempting the peaceful removal of all structures in the park and are asking for the cooperation of protestors in complying with the court order by removing their possessions and leaving the park. Anyone needing housing and support is invited to attend Adelaide Women's Center for assistance. Once cleared, St. James Park will be open to the public and protestors will be free to engage in their right to free speech. (Paraphrased).
(2)
Every one who willfully disturbs or interrupts an assemblage of persons
met for religious worship or for a moral, social or benevolent purpose
is guilty of an offense punishable on summary conviction.
Idem
(3)
Every one who, at or near a meeting referred to in subsection (2),
willfully does anything that disturbs the order or solemnity of the
meeting is guilty of an offense punishable on summary conviction.
I certainly hope that Occupy Toronto lawyers are taking note of all of this.
Occupy Toronto is asking people to go down to St. James Park in order to document the events (eviction) and support the protestors who have been camping there.
Judge's Decision:
XI. Conclusion [128]
For the reasons set out above, I conclude that the Trespass Notice is constitutionallyvalid. I dismiss the application. The parties have agreed that there will be no order as to costs inlight of the public importance of the issues raised by this proceeding
Correction to the info being
circulated about contact info regarding the current situation in NYC:
The Canadian company that controls Zuccotti Park is called Brookfield
and the number to call is 416 359-8620. A
receptionist will direct you to a voice mail box specific to Zuccotti
Park, where you can leave a message.
PLEASE CIRCULATE AS THE INFO GOING
OUT IS INCORRECT.
RCMP officers and employees have slowly been coming forward in greater numbers in recent days to talk about some of the abuse that they are subjected to and corruption that they see, on the job and from senior officers and/or co-workers.
I have to say that it takes a huge amount of courage for a member of the RCMP or any other Police, Intelligence and Military agency to do this and these officers should be commended and supported by Canadians. They certainly have my personal respect and admiration.
I’m referring to both the women who were sexually harassed in a way that can only be described as both vicious and malicious and to the men who were bullied and abused likely for no other reason than they disagreed with the wrong person or objected to some unethical behaviour.
The fact is that it is these members of the RCMP who are coming forward to bring these issues out in the open that are the ones who actually care about the integrity of the RCMP.
Those who cover up the abuse, enable and promote the abusers and enforce silence on those who object, are the ones who are undermining the integrity of Canada’s largest police force and destroying it’s professional reputation.
Why should the treatment of Police, Intelligence and Military employees matter to Canadians outside of those agencies?
For two reasons:
First and foremost, Charter Rights apply to every Canadian. There should be no exceptions under any circumstances.
The same employees that are corrupt and abusing their power against their co-workers are also going to be abusing their power against Canadians outside of those agencies. The only way to end the Culture of Impunity and Secrecy that protects the abusers is to support the abused as well as demand a Culture of Transparency. The abused are the ones courageously standing up to defend the integrity of their agency and they are the ones that can ensure that integrity is maintained for all Canadians as well as themselves and their co-workers.
And hopefully members of other agencies like other Police Departments (Provincial and Municipal) and CSIS as well as our Military complex will also come forward so that we can deal with the entire problem and resolve it for everyone, not just one segment at a time.
I'm going to go with the assumption that you are not pedophiles.
Regular Pornography is obviously not the same thing as Child Pornography. Regular Pornography involves consenting adults and is viewed by consenting adults. If you have to make money through the production of pornography is there a reason why you can't (or won't) focus on the Adult side.
I'm assuming that you are aware that Child Pornography uses real children who do not have the legal ability to consent. We are talking about adults who are actually physically, psychologically and emotionally abusing/sexually assaulting real children and posting pictures of that abuse on the Internet.
This is a criminal act. It's a criminal act because children don't have the ability to consent and it's the responsibility of each and every person in our society to protect those who are vulnerable. Children are at the top of that list because they are the most vulnerable. That makes it your responsibility too.
This is also why pedophiles don't have the right to engage in pedophilia whether it's a sexual orientation or not, or whether it's limited to viewing images on the Internet or not. The few who have publicly claimed to limit their activity to viewing these images have been demonstrated to be liars.
Are you aware of the fact that one pedophile can and often does physically, psychologically and emotionally abuse/sexually assault numerous real children, sometimes hundreds.
When Anonymous identified 190 pedophiles who frequent these seriously hard-core and seriously abusive pedophile sites, they may also have contributed to identifying and saving hundreds of children from continued abuse.
For this, Anonymous deserves our thanks and appreciation.
If you want to find out what the impact of this kind of serious abuse can have on a child, then I suggest you read a book called, When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase. There are also numerous others written by victims of child abuse/sexual assault.
If you are hosting these sites, and if you are doing so based on some misguided interpretation of "free speech", you should do well to remember that the limitations on these pedophile sites are not free speech limitations. They are legal limitations based on the necessity of protecting our children from serious abuse which is a criminal act.
Please stop enabling them.
The TOR system is a good system and has been invaluable to those who live in oppressive countries.
And those who contributed to the creation of the TOR system also deserve our thanks and appreciation.
