Harper’s Deputy Opens New Conservative Attack on Political Dissidents, Freedom of Speech
The following is the official opinion of the Conservative government, as stated by Stephen Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary Dean Del Mastro, who by all indications is a man with a deep and abiding respect for the law:
This morning I read comments on a news story posted on an electronic news publication… The common denominator is that none of them identified the person that wrote them; this strikes me as something that Parliament should address.
I’m kind of surprised to have to tell a supposed Reform Party libertarian this, but freedom of speech is actually absolute. We don’t carve out exceptions just because someone is saying something we don’t like, or because we happen to think that they’re a useless brain-dead moron. That is certainly why you are allowed to continue speaking, you pompous, egotistical, hypocritical fool.
Sixth Estate and Blazing Cat Fur do not agree on very much, but it seems we agree on at least one thing: freedom of speech is freedom of speech. I would be interested in hearing how the Conservatives propose to enforce non-anonymity online. Will it be through fines, or through jail time? How many days in jail should posting an anonymous comment receive? One? Ten? Sixty? A year less a day? What about serial offenders? Should someone who posts three anonymous comments be banished from computers for life?
So in fact, I take back my hostile and negative remarks from two paragraphs ago. Del Mastro, please keep digging! Please explain, in considerable detail, what new powers you think the government should have to regulate freedom of speech, and exactly how long a jail sentence you think someone deserves to be given for failing to put their name next to their comments. Go on. Explain.
I don’t know about you, but I feel safer already.
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the anonymous salamander
Come Come … you have bigger fish to fry than stinky and timely red herring, You are an exemplar of Canada, 6th.. and that’s oceans of wonderful talent that can’t be wasted poking for sign of political life-sign in a washed up politically radioactive blusterer famous for reading from his dull provided talking points … ‘Baseless Smears’ .. many many many times .. Don’t feed the trolls Sixth ! (with great glee & temerity and knowing you will smack me down mightily, I say this to you!)
Mighty n manly Del Mastro .. one of the largest in girth, well tailored & certainly a man with good hair, Dean exemplifies the front line cadre of Harper’s cabin boyz. Hell, he held his tongue and now, so sadly after being twilite zone smoked n damaged goods for the best part of the spring summer fall BBQ season is still being smacked silly willy nilly by those unproven very ugly allegations. Now.. dammit.. he gots his 4 big hoofs and mouth freshly emeshed into the twitter wringer..
So sad .. Too bad …
My advice to Mr Del Mastro is to remain calm .. the PMO rude backroom policy-page boyz ss will use a geiger counter
let him know very publicly or privately whatever his boss tells them to let him know..
about his political health and unrestricted free agent status.. or that he was cut in mid-season.. batting avg y’know .. salary cap
Conduct Unbecoming !!!! Gone Like Guergis …
Assume his rad counts are reading screaming right off the scale @ this moment..
with sincere respect, he’s close to Fukushima to the PM right now
and nows an awful lot of DIRT ….. I see him as a soon to be Senator ..
or as disposable friendly and huggable Ambassador to Palestine
Surely the shrieks and shouts, red herrings and jowly anti-Palestinian, democratic suppressive, pro cluster-bomb cant of more important Alpha cabin boy Big Dawgs & strange political bedfellows Kenney and Baird are more critical to the nation, plus the search for Democracy and The Wonder Of The Lost Election Live Call and Robo-Records Investigation That Took 20 Years. We have no proof that Peter Kent is not in fact a crude older version robot, that Joe Oliver is not a Chinese agent hired by a Shantung brokerage firm or The TSX.. Clement.. Mackay both are overdue for a new scandal.. the new fashion is Prorogation across the Nation.. close legislatures-save on carbon … and that’s why we will shoot or poison the boreal wolves, legislate the damn caribou to extinction if we want.. and cancel-make illegal and scrub and say the 25 cent piece that shows Canada once harbored them.. never existed
Sixth … I think the Beaver and Robins are next on the Con hit list ….
as are the caribou, wolves on some crazy politico ‘Ethical’ hit list
The eradication of the boreal forest creates jobs, good government..
transparency, accountability. and promotes Ethical Oil and friendship with China .. ?
We have an egotistical militarily adventuristic, theocratically dazed and crazed Petro bumboy government that quite likely manipulated and shifted a federal election result… without penalty .. End result a freaky electoral power trip-high they snort and spank with a whip… a political animal dog/lout/whackjob crankpot pack let off leash with muzzle off… with Budgetary Power and free lawyers .. with zero need to reflect in any way, the needs, wished or dreams of their electorate.. or their nation …
or in any way .. Stand On Guard For Thee ….. more like Look Out For ME ….
Sixth Estate
Don’t feed the trolls Sixth ! (with great glee & temerity and knowing you will smack me down mightily, I say this to you!)
Sure, what but happens when the troll in question is the Parliamentary representative of the Prime Minister of Canada?
This shit is not acceptable and it must be enthusiastically attacked whenever and wherever it appears.
Sixth Estate will never require commenters to use their full names. I’m not sure how I could in any event. If you came on here and identified as “Bruce Alexander Weatherington III,” there’s not really any way I could verify that anyhow.
the anonymous salamander
Just to be very clear ..
I wuz born in Toronto, to a lovely young woman and a Canuck WW2 artillery veteran
of France and Italy … Thusly.. would seem, I was named after Thomas D’Arcy McGee
and my first name = Thomas D’Arcy
(you probably can find this info faster and far more efficiently that Vic Toews …
or The Minister of Defense or Ray Novak)
I added Patrick upon Catholic confirmation (age 10 or so ?)
I grew up on a cow-calf beef farm ..
Ancestors from the west… ancestors from the east.. I adore both regions ..
O’Donnell is my last name .. famine immigrants from county Donegal, y’know
I think we are clear now, re my anonymous salamander name … nom de plume
and I admire, trust fully… your refreshing attitude re the privacy of commentators identity..
I’ve lived n worked across Canada Eh ..
tractors, hitchhiked, drove combines, bartending.. mediocre waiter… built silos, painted barns
motivated freelance photographer
then a video producer/director .. edu/corp/docu/bio
then a frustrated fiction writer…
You are one of the most respected and capable.. far beyond priceless
valued, alternative, non-mainstream, learned, curious, incisive sources
& dare I say scathing, controversial and confrontational – inspiring …
Who never ever is Ever Ever healthy to Harper or other Conswervative pablum ..
and is out there one hand waving free… out there.. strong and free
I stand on my sparse, shrinking remaining freedom of opinion.. as I recognize you do
and shelter my precious few altruistic beliefs.. as I’m very sure you do
I admire your exceptional temerity … (I will never surrender that !)
I am stunned by the time and effort it must take you
to examine… research first.. shape .. then craft your wonderful essays
Please pass on dead and adrift easy targets like Del Mastro…
Despite how much we appreciate the updates
He’s like a Conservative that ran himself over with his own vehicle
That’s not smarts we need to fear …
Lets prioritize the inner core… that truly have no conscience … ethics or morals
Desperate and truly dangerous grasping folks with serious mood disorders
needing professional help …
jrkrideau
This strikes me as a great idea if we could extend it a bit. Unnamed officials and sources close to {Insert politician of your choice}
/i> would also get to have their names in the newspaper.
Just think of how nice it would be to know who was leaking what and just what agenda was being served.
I suppose it means that no author would be able to use a nom de plume of course but, oh well, we all have to make sacrifices for democracy.
I had thought that the silly season was over but clearly global warming is affecting government heads if not government policy.
jrkrideau
Blasted italics indicators!!
me-me-me-its-all-about-me
Sixth,
I agree the comment was rather startling and half-baked (Okay, from DdM, what do you expect?).
But I could see some use for this idea if it was tied to some specific activities that most of us don’t want to have happen. For instance, “Cyber-Bullying”. That is probably what prompted DdM’s idea. If the police want to go before a judge and present their evidence that they need to find out who is anonymously posting “bullying” comments, I don’t have any objections to that. (And maybe the police can already do this?)
Of course, we don’t know if that is what DdM really has in mind. And quite possibly DdM saw a bunch of critical comments about HIS GOVERNMENT and was annoyed. (Okay, maybe this is the most probable scenario?)
If Parliament were actually allowed to debate this issue, some sort of sensible proposal might come out of it.
Sixth Estate
They can already do that. And will be able to do it even easier if Towes’s snoop bill ever goes through. But frankly, I don’t know why you’d want to outlaw anonymus cyer-bullying. Presumably what you’d want to outlaw is cyber-bullying period.
The second scenario is actually what happened. Del Mastro posted a Facebook rant complaining that comments on the Internet were too hate-filled and that we’d have a more productive dialogue if everyone had to sign their name on what they wrote.
Which may or may not be true, but in either case, it’s kind of abominable to talk about enforcing it through the law, which is waht he closed off with. I thought these Reform types were supposed to be in favour of small government.
kootcoot
I think all we can do now to make the world right for asphalt throat Dean del Mastro (who loves having a relative with employees 200 mile away donate to his campaign voluntarily) is dig up Mark Twain and execute him retro-actively! Might as well dig up George Sand while we’re at it and do a gender check before the execution.
Beijing York
I’m sick of this authoritarian crap. It’s an act of intimidation and/or a trial balloon for ushering in heavy-handed Internet restrictions. Where’s Ezra Levant, #mrfreespeechwarior?
Maharg
It’s amazing that bullies like del Mastro complain as they do. He certainly needs more than a little self-reflection.
As for you Sixth, the anonymous salamader characterized you well:
“…You are one of the most respected and capable.. far beyond priceless valued, alternative, non-mainstream, learned, curious, incisive sources & dare I say scathing, controversial and confrontational – inspiring …”.
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[...] On "Haywood J. Blome" Posted at 5:01 on October 29, 2012 by bigcitylib Sixth Estate laments Dean Del Maestro’s proposed ban on anonymous comments, missing an obvious countermeasure were it to become law. Incidentally, P.P. “Weiner” [...]
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[...] On "Haywood J. Blome" Posted at 4:45 on October 29, 2012 by bigcitylib Sixth Estate laments Dean Del Maestro’s proposed ban on anonymous comments, missing an obvious countermeasure were it to become law. Incidentally, P.P. “Weiner” [...]