Freedom on the march - Showdown

Well, it looks like Captain Ed has really ticked off the corrupt Canucks. Over the weekend, he posted excerpts of the testimony which was part of a publication ban (commented on here), meaning that any information about the hearings couldn't be printed, posted online, etc. Apparently, the Canucks didn't learn from Stalin, Mao, et al that information wants to be free free free and bloggers like Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters are more than willing to open the cage and let it out.

Here's how the blog controversy is being reported:

A U.S. website has breached the publication ban protecting a Montreal ad executive's explosive and damning testimony at the federal sponsorship inquiry. The U.S. blogger riled the Gomery commission during the weekend by posting extracts of testimony given in secret Thursday by Jean Brault.

The American blog, being promoted by an all-news Canadian website, boasts "Canada's Corruption Scandal Breaks Wide Open" and promises more to come. The owner of the Canadian website refused to comment yesterday.

Inquiry official Francois Perreault voiced shock at the publication ban breach, and said the commission co-counsel Bernard Roy and Justice John Gomery will decide today whether to charge the Canadian website owner with contempt of court.

"We never thought someone would violate the publication ban," Perreault said. "Maybe we were more confident than we should have been."

CQB has created an entire Canadian section, for easy browsing.

Here's the original post on CQB which put the canucks over the edge. Nealenews.com provided just a link to this page and they're looking at shutting him down.

And here's how the Canucks are trying to combat this free flow of information. (I really thought they were smarter than this.)

Despite the publication of the material in an American blog and its review by thousands of Canadians, the Gomery Commission insists that the information is not public. Perreault warns Canadians that any link to CQ or even a mention of the blog name in any Canadian publication could lead to prosecution:

Perreault warned that even if Brault's testimony has been outed by a U.S. website, it doesn't mean it's now public information.

"Anyone who takes that information and diffuses it is liable to be charged with contempt of court," Perreault said.

"Anybody who reproduces it is at risk."

Well, you've been warned, my Canadian neighbors.

How.... Canadian...

Although, as mentioned here, there are plenty of people in power who'd like to see the blogs go away (or at least regulate them to death).

And, just to stick my middle finger in the air to the corrupt canucks, here's a copy of pertinent details from CQB's post on April 2nd:

On Thursday, Jean Brault began his testimony, subject to the publication ban, and revealed a massive pattern of corruption going to the highest levels of the Liberal party and government. Brault testified to hundreds of thousands of dollars of bogus transactions designed to benefit the Liberal Party of Canada over a period from 1994 to 2002.

Most of the illegal campaign contributions involved Brault either hiring “employees” -- who were in fact working full time on Liberal Party activities -- or paying invoices for Liberal Party campaign expenses (which were never declared as such) or making untraceable cash donations to Liberal officials. In exchange for helping the federal Liberals in Quebec, Brault received millions of dollars in federal advertising contracts.
[...]
In exchange for these large contracts for little or no work, Brault kicked back generously to the Liberal Party, putting Liberal organizers on his payroll while they continued to perform party work (including, at one point, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s brother, Gaby Chrétien), paying invoices to other companies for work actually done for the Liberal Party, and giving large donations -- in cash -- to the Liberal Party through Renaud or Liberal Party organizer (and close associate of Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano) Joe Morselli.
[...]
Towards the later part of the sponsorship program, the friends and associates of Public Works Minister and former ambassador to Denmark Alfonso Gagliano, some of whom have been linked to organized crime, played a larger role in the schemes.

At one point, Gagliano associate Tony Mignacca told Brault that if he didn’t rehire Renaud (who had left Groupaction to start a new company), he would lose his newly acquired contract with Via Rail -- Canada’s state-run passenger rail service. Brault broke down in tears after he recounted this testimony. At a meeting in 2001 with Joe Morselli, Brault said that he arranged to have the meeting in an overheated room in a restaurant -- so that Brault could ask Morselli to take off his coat and ensure that he wasn’t carrying a body pack.

This is just the beginning of Brault's testimony. If the Gomery Commission can corroborate Brault, then the reek of corruption goes through all levels of the Liberal party and may explain their ability to out-campaign the Conservatives. After all, they've siphoned off hundreds of millions of government dollars to promote their own party and to guarantee their monopoly on power. They hijacked the Canadian tax base to fund their own campaigns and hide the financial trail.

This really could be a Nixonian moment for the Canucks. I'll grab some popcorn and watch it all come tumbling down.

***UPDATE***
No comment ANYWHERE on the Leftist blogosphere... despite the ramifications this has on blogging, freedom of information, etc... I s'pose their affinity for the Libs up in Canada prohibits them from commenting and they're just obeying the publication ban. BTW, I could swear that Eric Blumrich did a flash ad attacking Stephen Harper, the Conservative candidate... can't seem to find it, though. Anyone know where it's at? Perhaps he just linked to some whacked out canuck who did it, but it reminded me of his "style" (if you can call it that).

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler