Sunday, August 30, 2009

Olivia Chow Threatened

...for handing out fliers at a Toronto town hall copyright forum. The forum, part of the federal government's consultation process as it prepares new copyright legislation, was meant to facilitate discussion of issues surrounding this legislation from the various stake-holders. The fliers contained an interview with NDP MP Charlie Angus in which he called for "balanced" copyright legislation, but when Ms. Chow attempted to distribute this material, private security personnel hired by the event organizers--who appear to have been entertainment industry shills-- told her to lay off or be removed from the hotel at which the consultation was being held.

Members of the Canadian Federation of Students were also set upon for distributing similar material. Their news release re the incident can be found here.

9 comments:

Dr.Dawg said...

Why is Geist blocking access to his site??

bigcitylib said...

Slashdot effect. Thats where I first found the article, but geist is being bombarded by their traffic and I had to go use other sources.

Dr.Dawg said...

Thanks, BCL. H/t to you at my place.

Gerrard787 said...

Well, unlike Iggy, Chow knows how to pull off a stunt to get some news coverage.

Dr.Dawg said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dr.Dawg said...

What, handing out on-topic flyers at a stacked meeting is a "stunt?" Way to support freedom of speech.

Gerrard787 said...

LOL Dawg. If Chow was interested in freedom of speech, she would have registered and particpated in the copyright consultation instead of generating a fake controversy.

Dr.Dawg said...

Yeah. Like the students did.

Gene Rayburn said...

"If Chow was interested in freedom of speech, she would have registered and particpated in the copyright consultation instead of generating a fake controversy."

Paul S, if your argument was a boat, it would have sunk before it got into the water. Pathetic.