Canadians #TellVicEverything In Response To Bill C-30 84
First time accepted submitter beerdragoon writes "In order to protest the government's new Internet snooping legislation, some Canadians have started a somewhat unorthodox protest. Vic Toews, the minister responsible for tabling the legislation, has had his twitter account bombarded with tweets regarding the boring, banal aspects of regular Canadians' lives. The idea is that since Toews wants to know everything about your personal life, we should oblige him and #TellVicEverything."
Re:It gets better ... (Score:5, Informative)
He isn't asking the speaker to investigate the protest. He is asking for an investigation into one particular account, Vikileaks30 or something, which is releasing *his* personal information (details of his divorce, etc) on twitter. Apparently the tweets on the account were made from an IP address from the House of Commons.
vikileaks3 traced back to the NDP opposition party (Score:2, Informative)
The latest twist is that a trap was set to catch the IP address of the source Vikileaks30 of the original smear campaign on Minister Vic Toews. It was traced back to the House of Parliament IP address and one that has been used to edit material on wikipedia.org in reference to pro-NDP stances. References are here:
Vikileaks Twitter account on Vic Toews linked to ‘pro-NDP’ address in House of Commons
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/16/vikileaks-house-of-commons/
Tories accuse NDP of ‘dirty, sleazy’ Twitter attack on e-snooping champion
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/tories-accuse-ndp-of-dirty-sleazy-twitter-attack-on-e-snooping-champion/article2342111/
Vikileaks30 linked to House of Commons IP address
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Vikileaks30%2Blinked%2BHouse%2BCommons%2Baddress/6165497/story.html
It is just a matter of time to trace the actual MP's office responsible for the source.
Shows that the internet as it is, is never really anonymous.
Some background (Score:5, Informative)
Toews is Canada's version of Newt Gingrich with a bit of John Edwards thrown in for good measure. When he tabled an invasive citizens spying bill this week he declared that citizens were either with him or with the child pornographers [slashdot.org].
Toews campaigns on family values and "worships the ground that his wife walks on" (more on that below). He is a devout Mennonite and runs on his faith. He is on record for being anti-same sex marriage, anti-abortion and pro-gun. So, what does a fine, upstanding anti-pedophile Christian like him do on his days off? Why, he knocks up his family's teenage babysitter [conspiracy-cafe.com], of course. In Canada the age of consent is 16, but goes up to 18 when the younger party is in a position of trust - such as between a babysitter and employer. The girl in questions is believed to have been 17 when the affair started, so it's just plain sleazy on any level.
The Vickileaks site (rumoured to be from a Parliament Hill staffer) has been publishing the (public) records of his ugly divorce. What Toews is missing here is that information, once collected, takes on a life of its own. The parallel between his public divorce file and the impact of his proposed snooping legislation is a delicious irony, especially considering that the remarkably fertile prick is himself basically a child molester with better PR.
Re:Some background (Score:2, Informative)
You must know jack shit about Canadian politics. The Liberals are basically Democrats (centre-left). The NDP are the left wing party, and the Greens are far left.
The Conservatives are Bush-style neocons.
Re:Some background (Score:5, Informative)
The Progressive Conservatives were the equivalent of centrist Republicans, but they joined with Reform to become the just-plain Conservatives, who are roughly the Tea Party Republicans. Reform in Canada was pretty much the same as Ross Perot's Reform in the 'States.
--dave
[Full disclosure: I partnered with Perot Systems in my Siemens days: Ross' company was cool]
Re:vikileaks3 traced back to the NDP opposition pa (Score:2, Informative)
one that has been used to edit material on wikipedia.org in reference to pro-NDP stances.
Not just pro-NDP stances. Also pro-Conservative ones.
It's the public-facing address of a NATted internal network. It could be any one of hundreds of different people.
Of course, the Conservatives and their apparent lapdog, the Ottawa Citizen, don't care about that.
Re:It gets better ... (Score:5, Informative)
Notice that, if this account was posting on a Canadian website post-C-30, the RCMP or CSIS would be able to compel the site to reveal the poster's private IP/email address, and the ISP then compelled to provide an address and name.
There's a reason why this bill should not pass. A chilling effect on dissenting speech is not a good thing.
(Yes, the Twitter account attacking Toews and his divorced wife is tacky, but Toews himself has been extremely tacky and hypocritical in general, and is outright threatening Canadian's privacy and freedom right now. Plus, all of this stuff is in the public record, so I fail to see any legal issues here.
As it is right now, all we know is that a newspaper says they've tracked it to the House of Commons, and they did that on their own using the ol' "send them a link to your server, then watch the logs for an access" trick. If it is a criminal problem, a judge can issue a subpoena, as far as I can tell.)
Re:Some background (Score:2, Informative)
so they figured their chances would be better if they merged.
Actually it was a hostile takeover. The Reformers (calling themselves the Alliance) launched the 2cards campaign, where Reform members would pay for a membership in the Progressive Conservatives to vote for merger. It wasn't even wasting any money since the Tory bank accounts went to the new party after they merged. Canadian political parties have since changed their internal bylaws to stop anything like that happening to them.
Re:Never have so few done so little to enrage so m (Score:3, Informative)
Stephen Harper has always been very far from Canadian values. It's more apparent now because he has a majority government.
No crime was committed. (Score:2, Informative)
The information about his divorce was taken from the public records. Specifically, the affidavits that mentioned that he was, among other things, banging his sister-in-law's babysitter for 7 years, then banging his own babysitter for 3 before getting her pregnant and leaving his wife.
And let's not forget - this was the guy who was dubbed the "Minister of Family Values" because of his defense of conventional marriage and opposition to gays and lesbians. He really should have been called the "Minister of Family Affairs" because that's what he seems to do best - have affairs.
No crime was committed.