Did Big Brother blink?
The story of the blocked web site is just getting weirder.
Recall this in this posting, word came that the Ontario Provincial Police had blocked access to a web site highly critical of the force's performance during the Caledonia land dispute. A comment from another reader implied that access to the website was not barred only for police computers, but for all Ontario government employees.
Then I get another email from yet another government employee that says that he has no problems seeing the site.
One more twist, and this story might form the script for the next M. Night Shyamalan movie.
Well, get the popcorn ready, because I received that next twist via email from an employee at another Ontario government ministry:
I work for the Ontario Ministry of Finance.
Up until yesterday (July 24) access to the Caledonia Wake Up Call website was blocked.
As of today (July 25) access to the Caledonia Wake Up Call website was no longer blocked.
An interesting coincidence.
Did Big Brother blink?
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Comments
...truly the power of information is something we need to respect.
Again, probably a knee jerk reaction done by a listless management.
Wonder if they blocked the defenceless poor-me-done-in-by-whiteman native sites...
http://video.gogle.com/videoplay?docid=-7656369446563615988
add another "o" above
Posted by: tomax7 at July 25, 2006 04:02 PM
One point no one's brought up -
Doesn't the government pay employees to work?
Why are government workers surfing anti-native or pro-native sites during work hours? Your Ontario tax dollars at work ...
Posted by: Cynapse at July 25, 2006 05:31 PM
Oh come on, give them a break, they're not slaves, let them check the occasional random website. Can't imagine my workday without an occasional random website break.
Posted by: Meany at July 25, 2006 05:47 PM
I bet rabble.ca isn't blocked.
Posted by: Levesque at July 25, 2006 05:55 PM
My personal experience is that government employees are quite adept at taking breaks.
As for the censorship ... anyone with even a minor amount of tech saavy can get around most work firewalls. Anonymous proxies are the key. Nonetheless, another victory for Steve. The website has a lot of questionable material, but that does not excuse politically-motivated censorship.
Posted by: Cynapse at July 25, 2006 06:02 PM
Good job Steve, you might have made him blink!
Posted by: CanForce 101 at July 25, 2006 06:58 PM
tis a small victory yet a(nother) victory nonetheless, keep fighting the good fight angry
Posted by: kelly at July 26, 2006 12:04 AM
Steve, the Ontario government computer system is not monolithic so possibly some subnets have been closed to the site and some haven't, or some were and now they aren't.
That the site was banned and that the OPP tried to get it shut down surprises me not at all. Typical socialist response, shut off the flow of information immediately, then stall, deny, lie and bury evidence. I'd be very surprised if the OPP didn't have the ability to block pretty much any site they want at any time. It might not be legal but that's never slowed them up before.
The question I have is, since when does the Premiere or the cabinet (or the OPP hierarchy)have the power to quash a court order? The judicial branch is distinct, Duhlton shouldn't be able to do what he's been doing.
Posted by: The Phantom at July 26, 2006 01:47 PM
steve, it would alleviate all your catchup and reversals if your sources would revert to their traditonal publishing venues: urinal walls.
Posted by: Ottawa Core at July 27, 2006 01:27 AM
See the mess that has been caused because of the Ontario Government's failure to act decisively? Now, we have a new controversy, this time over a freedom of speech issue with Big Brother. The OPP brass have failed their troops miserably; as did the Ontario government. The army should have been called in to crush these criminals a long time ago.
And it all started with some criminal native scumbag protesters, who are getting away with criminal activity.
These natives in Caledonia are human scum. They are not even worth a pile of excrement. They all need to be driven out of their barricades with the utmost force.
Posted by: Donno at July 27, 2006 06:29 AM
Hmmm Donno ... I agree with Ottawa core ... go back to writing on urinal walls ... in your own excrement... you are not ready for the real world yet!
Posted by: saga at July 28, 2006 09:27 AM
The OPP and the Prov.Gov. has had a grip on all information viewed by all Gov. sites over the WWW for years. ( I use to work for the Gov. )by filtering web sites, or words, THEY deem you should not use. This will put a stop to obvious sites that should not be viewed in public.
eg: An OPP officer can NOT view other police web sites that provide info on various organized crime groups due to the graphics or language used on some of thoes sites. They do NOT allow any comments or inference to anything racial or prejudice agains any group. ( Even Bad Guys )
The OPP will discipline any officer that violates these blocked web sites.
So they can without much haste censor what ever they want ...
Posted by: ALfer at July 29, 2006 12:19 PM
 
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