Free Dominon Strikes Back! Right-Wing Website Threatens To Expose CPoC Operatives If IP21C Is Not Killed!!

Connie and Mark Fournier, the owners of FreeDominion, a well known right wing forum, have had it with PM Stephen Harper and the CPoC (Conservative Party of Canada). Harper and Co. have disappointed on Free Speech issues often enough, and now the Conservative government is trying, via the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century (IP21C) Act, to "strip every single citizen in this country of their online anonymity". So the folks at Free Dominion plan to strike back! Connie writes:

... if this government insists on doing this [IP21C], we strip them of their anonymity, too.

Every blogger and forum owner in Canada should begin compiling a list of usernames that have been used by IP addresses owned by the Conservative Party of Canada or the House of Commons, and we should set a day for a collective "reveal".

And then Connie admits what long-time FreeD watchers have always suspected:

These people have had no problem using FD and sites like it as a free vehicle for their Party propaganda. Why should they have the advantage of distancing themselves from their own anonymous comments when they are trying to take that freedom away from us?

So that's where it stands at the moment. Conservative operatives have long been frequented FreeD, along with the likes of Bill Whatcott, Arthur Topham, and Peter Kouba. A list of their IP addresses is even now being prepared and, if IP21C has not been killed by a date yet to be determined, these IPs willed be spilled to to the world.

Free D denizens seem to be down with the plan, and I don't believe the Fournier's threats to be entirely empty. The roots of FreeDominion extend deep into the Conservative Party. For example, Mark Fournier once served as campaign manager for CPoC MP Peter Goldring.

When it all goes down, you can bet BCLSB will be there.

C-15 Stalled In The Senate; IP21C Looms

C-15 is the law imposing mandatory minimum penalties on drug dealers that the Liberals got behind a few weeks ago in an attempt to dodge the "Soft on Crime" (SoC) label, thus triggering a certain amount of angst among loyal supporters and more generally anyone blessed with a lick of common sense.

I've argued many times during Dion's tenure that, given the LPoC's position of weakness, it was okay to play a bit of political jujitsu and let stuff pass in the HOC knowing it would expire "in the process" behind the scenes somewhere. However, I thought that those days of weakness were all behind us now and it would be possible to fight some of these battles in broad daylight.

It appears I was mistaken.

IP21C is the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act (read Geist for background). This is another bill that I have assumed will go nowhere. However, Roblaw (a decent Libertarian-type dude who visits occasionally and argues with Ti-Guy) tells me it resembles previous, LPoC introduced legislation, and so perhaps there will be discussions re "How do we weasel out of this one without looking SoC?" in LPoC backrooms over the summer.

Frankly, this looks to me like the kind of legislation (like C-15) more likely to split the Tory constituency rather than progressives, and therefore something LPoC could safely stand tall against, but what do I know?