Industry Canada Busted Trying to Censor Wikipedia

Michael Geist, a specialist in Internet law at the University of Ottawa Law School, brought to public attention on June 4th an effort by Industry Canada to buff up the Wikipedia entry on Industry Minister Jim Prentice. Their edits included ridiculous praise of Prentice and speculation that he is in good position to be the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. More important and insidious, they attempted to get rid of references to Conservative efforts to introduce a clone of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act from the United States. Fortunately, Mr. Geist tracked the IPs of the edits, and the Wikipedia community has restored the information that was deleted. This seems like a classic example of the Streisand Effect.

Do the Conservatives (and I say Conservatives because the only people with the motivation to do this are members of Prentice's political staff at Industry Canada) really think no one will notice when they pull this kind of stunt? There are tools on Wikipedia specifically to track who makes edits to avoid exactly this kind of situation. Did they not know this because Conservatives are Luddites (of the Marjorie "I Don't Use Facebook But I Think It's Dangerous" LeBreton variety)? Or did they think they could get away with it because they think we're all stupid? Either way, it isn't a good thing. Just another indication that this government has no respect for transparency or accountability, and that it lacks simple common sense (seriously, if you are going to do this, take your laptop to Starbucks which has a different IP address).

This government is undemocratic, anti-constitutional (since they plan to ignore the private member's bill on climate change passed on June 4), warmongering and tyrannical. And yet they continue to poll 30%+ support. What needs to happen for Canadians to wake up and smell the coffee? If Americans are waking up, and about ready to give their most egregious liberals the boot, why can we not do the same?

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 229