Don’t Toews Me Bro! – Harper’s NCC Letter

Read the First Part, if you want.

This following letter may be the most hilarious thing the Vic Toews Internet Spying Bill scandal has produced. Stephen Harper, the 2001 President of the NCC, wrote supporters the following:

“The jackasses at Elections Canada are out of control.”
Please excuse my language,but when I learned Elections Canada’s bureaucrats have pressed charges against a Canadian citizen, I just blew my cool.That is the exact language I used.

Was he mad at Election’s Canada for charging Conservatives (who later pleaded guilty for a reduced penalty) with the In-Out scandal? Nope, the Conservative Party and their electoral fraud scheme hadn’t been invented yet. He was mad for a legitimate reason: Early publication of election results to elsewhere in Canada – a practice common thanks to social media.

What’s strikingly funny (also), is this:

What was Paul’s crime?
He simply posted news on his personal website. And no, it wasn’t part of a criminal conspiracy, or luring children toward violent pornography. It was actually something government officials seem to believe is a lot more dangerous – information.

In fact, this is the first attempt by our government to control the Internet and press charges – just for the sake of controlling information. The implications are very ominous, very scary.

—
Hat Tip to Susan D.

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More gold is contained in the NCC Harper letter. He basically makes the case for WikiLeaks, years before that website was founded (and its primary creator’s {Assange} life threatened by Harper’s former primary adviser {Flanagan}).

Paul saw Section 329 as nothing more than a gag law and an archaic gag law at that. As he put it,“People can beam around information worldwide in micro-seconds, and government wants to ban our use of it when it becomes inconvenient. It’s time for the Canadian government to join the rest of us in the 21st century.” So he purposely defied the law on the principle that the government has no business controlling the free flow of public information on the Internet. He believes, as do I, that all Canadians should have the right to disseminate public information. It’s called free speech.

I believe the Jean-Pierre Kingsleys of the world fear Paul Bryan. Or more to the point, they fear what Paul represents – a free, independent-minded citizen using technology to give power back to individuals. After all, information is power. The less control the government has over the flow of information, the less control it can exert over its citizens.

So Elections Canada has charged him with breaking a law that’s as dangerous as it is ludicrous.