Angry in the Great White North

Michael Bryant and a total car ban

If the allegations are proven, the former Liberal Attorney-General Michael Bryant endangered a lot of people on his way to killing a cyclist.

And of course, let's not forget that this cyclist is dead.

What could possibly explain Michael Bryant's alleged reckless driving?  Who knows, but I can be certain of this.  If the government had simply not allowed Michael Bryant, or anyone else, to buy cars or allow cars to be imported into this country, we wouldn't be talking about this today.

No Gun, No Funeral, No Patron -- Michael Bryant ousted as Attorney General

Michael Bryant is no longer the Attorney General of Ontario. Not suprisingly, he is no longer interested in the No Gun No Funeral crusade. It really doesn't fit his career plans, I guess.

All quiet at Michael Bryant's No Gun No Funeral

Glancing over at Michael Bryant's No Gun No Funeral website, I see things are quiet. They've been quiet for quite some time.

Targeting guns instead of criminals

In Britain, we have an interesting case study of what happens when guns become the focus of police efforts instead of the criminals themselves. The results are obvious in hindsight, but are also so absurd that perhaps the British can be forgiven for not realizing what would happen.

But in Canada, we have no such excuse, since we can study the British experience and draw lessons from it.

The twisted revolver at No Gun No Funeral

I am intrigued by the imagery used by the No Gun No Funeral website. It seems completely at odds with what Attorney General Michael Bryant's group wants to accomplish.

Did Michael Bryant deliberately obscure the link between No Gun No Funeral and the riding association?

If you look at the registration records for the two domains attached to Michael Bryant's No Gun No Funeral website, there are two obvious differences.

If those differences are connected, then it suggests a deliberate effort to obscure the link between the website and the constituency office.

No Gun No Funeral is registered directly to Michael Bryant's constituency office

Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant has admitted that the website No Gun No Funeral is his. It is promoting his idea of a handgun ban, but is doing so anonymously. Or it was until it was revealed that all the people who administer the site were members of the Michael Bryant's constituency office.

Bryant insisted, however, that constituency resources were not used to make the website.

Perhaps we should revisit that question, since it can now be revealed that the .com version of the domain was registered in the name of the constituency office itself.

But then maybe none of this will matter, as the site itself seems to have suffered a serious technical problem, with the SQL database that serves up content now offline.

Update: The site is back up (it's 1pm on Thursday). No apparent changes that I can see. The registration information isn't any different either (though changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate). I would say they had a serious SQL Server issue, or a major upgrade or patch being applied -- something behind the scenes.

The paucity of inbound links to No Gun No Funeral

The key to success for any low-budget grassroots website is inbound links. A blog is a good example. Unless you are a celebrity of some sort, a new blog will get zero direct traffic. That is, no one is going to know the name of the blog or even know to look for it. Instead, you build up traffic by going to like-minded websites (other blogs, forums, etc) and leaving comments and links back to your new site. Visitors come trickling in, and if you are lucky, one day you reach a tipping point when people come to your site because they know about it already.

So when I study the inbound links to No Gun No Funeral, I am struck by the fact that the only inbound links are from conservative blogs who are criticizing the site either for its message or for the way it was being delivered without full disclosure of the source.

There are no links from liberal-minded blogs, from left-of-centre forums, from any site that would send traffic supportive of the No Gun No Funeral message.

Given that this purpose of this site, ostensibly, is to collect petition signatures, this doesn't look good.

More of Michael Bryant's associates tied to No Gun No Funeral website

The site created by Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant to promote a handgun ban in Canada, No Gun No Funeral, has strong links to the Liberal Party and to Michael Bryant in particular. More information is available, and even more links are discovered.

Wondering about the No Gun No Funeral petition

No Gun No Funeral might be getting a fair share of traffic from me. I've been linked by Instapundit, and the link is bound to drive Americans to the No Gun No Funeral site. Many of them will not be fond of gun control, and even less fond of what looks like an attempt to be underhanded in promoting a gun control agenda. Others will like the idea of a ban in Canada, since it might help their own efforts to promote strict gun control in the United States. Either way, they might make their opinions known to Michael Bryant via the online petition.

And whether these visits are critical or supportive of Michael Bryant's idea of a total handgun ban in Canada, their visits are bound to make things more complicated for Michael Bryant.

Is No Gun No Funeral political advertising now?

Before yesterday, the website No Gun No Funeral was not considered political advertising by Elections Ontario because it did not promote a party or a politician.

Well, hasn't that changed? The silly thing is that it was staring me in the face, and it was only now that I actually realized it.

Who made No Gun No Funeral for Michael Bryant? I have a theory.

I love sleuthing. Poking around and seeing what sort of inferences I can draw from the smallest clues. In this case I found a small clue that might point to who designed the No Gun No Funeral website for Attorney General Michael Bryant.

No Gun No Funeral is Michael Bryant's site

Attorney General Michael Bryant has come out to say that he is responsible for No Gun No Funeral. But it is not political, nor is it designed to have him re-elected, nor is it using Liberal Party resources.

Or so he says.

Gun ban group -- Grassroots organization or Liberal Party sock puppet?

No-Gun-No-Funeral is a group dedicated to having handguns banned outright in Canada. The group will apply pressure to the federal government.

It implies that it is a grassroots organization.

If so, why is it that the only information I can find out about this group points to the Liberal Party, both the federal and Ontario wings of the party. Very interesting is the fact that the phone number for the site goes to the riding association for Michael Bryant, Attorney General of Ontario, who has promised to lobby for a handgun ban.

Update: Attorney General Michael Bryant announces that No Gun No Funeral is his website.