Elections B.C. is having a hard time keeping up with a boom of bloggers who are publishing partisan messages during the current election campaign. They're supposed to register themselves as advertising sponsors if they post a partisan position on a candidate, party, or referendum question."Under the Election Act, it will fall within the definition of election advertising, and we would ask them to register," says Jennifer Miller, of Elections B.C. Miller says the volume of sites is overwhelming, and doesn't rule out asking for a change to the Election Act.
"If we feel certain parts of the act can be amended to make it more effective and efficient, we will definitely make that recommendation," she says.
That's not sitting well with bloggers like Mike Culpepper of Nelson, whose website advocates the "no" side of the referendum on the single transferable vote. He says Elections B.C.'s definition of blogs as advertising is akin to calling a letter to the editor advertising. And he says that going after bloggers sends a chill over the right to free speech. "If you start looking on each person as an advertiser, then you begin to suppress political debate."
In the meantime, Culpepper says other bloggers who have asked Elections B.C. for guidelines are being told to register as advertisers - so he's decided not to ask.
Hey, Culpepper, why didn't you say something earlier?
Here is Miller's contact info at Elections BC. Email is electionsbc@elections.bc.ca.
A few hundred blog posts coming in from across Canada and the US submtted for "review" to Ms. Miller, might help get the point across.
The Internet allows anyone to set up a blog anywhere in the world. If they try and control blogs, the bloggers will go elsewhere. Encryption, anonymizers, proxy servers etc. will allow the truth to be spread. Do not underestimate the power of this technology. The cost of transactions are very small, the cost of enforcement too great for even our government to effectively shut down the blogosphere.
Anonymizers aren't necessary as the point of origin is not in the province of BC. If it gets to that point.... it's time to leave the country.
Only in Canada.
Imagine if any jurisdiction in the US was arrogant enough to think that they could "control" blogs. Not a chance.
What's next? Passing laws to control the wind? Rain?
I would openly flaunt them if I lived in B.C.
Blog censorship; think,Iran,Nkorea,China,(canada).
Welcome to the People's Republic of Kanada.
Your papers, please Comrade?
Free speech has been dead in Canada for years. The communist Libranos are rightly afraid the blogsphere will revive it.
Sean, if I had a blog in BC, I would relocate it to Seattle, or whatever, some place close, just out of reach, just across the border, then I would beat the hell out of them.
Being so close, and untouchable, would really get the fur standing up with no means of control.
this is as silly as that story years ago about canada post demanding a cut of the e-mail action.
and it will go about as far I'm sure.
Daryl
And they call the US fascist?
"Sean, if I had a blog in BC, I would relocate it to Seattle, or whatever, some place close, just out of reach, just across the border, then I would beat the hell out of them."
Doesn't matter. If you live in B.C., they can still nail you. PolSpy is hosted on servers in the U.S., but I am still subject to Canadian laws if I post information on my blog that attracts the attention of the authorities so long as I reside here.
I'm glad these guys aren't scary like those damned Conservatives. I wouldn't like to think that they had a hidden agenda like Stephen Harper. Anyways, most Canadians don't trust Harper. Not like we trust trust the Liberals, and Elections Canada and the RCMP and CCRA...
Not scary at all.
I thought when Jennifer Miller of Elections Canada said she "doesn't rule out asking for a change to the Election Act.", I obviously thought they meant to get rid of the stupid blog registration.
But Noooooo. Foolish me, what was I thinking? She meant, "If we feel certain parts of the act can be amended to make it more effective and efficient", meaning that they think they can catch all this stuff? Good Luck - and you know they'll burn millions trying.
One could argue that it's like the government trying to collect taxes on internet sales. It absolutely makes them crazy in Ottawa that all that revenue is slipping through their grimy little fingers.
I know they've spent millions on special I.T. consultants to mastermind a way to tax the internet, only to be told that there is no viable technological means to intercept each and every message, and go sniffing for unpaid GST. This truly does make them crazy.
Much as I believe that the concept of medical marijuana has little to do with the comfort and aid of sick people, and all to do with the control of the biggest, untapped tax bonanza in the known world. But that's another thread...
Next, we'll be required to register lawn signs.
Correction: I see now that it was Elections B.C. not Elections Canada.
She means well.
This won't go anywhere - Captain Ed has made sure of that. He has made the point very clearly that the reach of officious regulators is too short to have any effect in a world blessed by blogs. All we need is to find a couple of bloggers in the US or Britain who will, in the service of free speech, publish the contents of private letters sent to them by email.
It's worth noting, CodeTech, that noises of the same sort were made in the US about 2 months ago - the FCC, I think, was suggesting that under McCain-Feingold, blogs should be considered as advertising and regulated. Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Jarvis, and others were all over this awhile back. Here's a link to a post discussing a TV station's offer to register any blogger who wanted as a reporter for the station so they would be exempt (a strategy we could try in Canada if there's a helpful newspaper or tv station):
http://instapundit.com/archives/021548.php
Why do all governments want to stifle
free speech. Blogging is no different
from talking to p[eople on the bus
or train on the way to work.
> Blogging is no different
> from talking to people on the bus
> or train on the way to work.
Actually, given the traffic levels of a lot of blogs, talking to random people on the bus or train would be _much_ more effective! ;-)
You're right that, if you live in B.C., you are bound by the B.C. law.
You know, there really are no new issues here. Posting a statement on a website is no different from posting it on a sign in a public place. You could always put up signs just outside the border that would be visible to people inside.
If a B.C. resident does that, then he's breaking the law. But a resident of Alberta, let alone Alaska or Washington, is free to do as he likes.
If someone in Blaine puts up a billboard at the border, you're free to tell everyone in B.C. that it exists, so they can go and have a look at it if they want to. You are just as free, and for the same reason, to post a link to an out-of-province website. Telling someone where a message can be read is not repeating the message.
If you live in B.C. and you send a private e-mail to someone outside, who then posts the information from the e-mail onto a website, you've done nothing wrong. To break the law you must be shown to have been responsible for the posting; that is, that even if he had the information from another source he would not have posted it, but did so only because you wanted him to. If you paid him to do it, you would be convicted. If you merely urged him to do it, or invited him to do it, you could be convicted, although you would have a chance of escaping. But if he made it clear that he intended to post the material as soon as he could and no matter where he could get it, then it's him that's doing the posting and not you. You can't be convicted of posting the material, and you could only be convicted of assisting or enabling the posting, which might not be illegal depending on how the statute was worded.
And if he has declared no intention and simply posts your message because he feels like it, then you have a defence even against enabling or assisting. You are entitled to write anything you want in a private e-mail. If it then appears on someone else's website, that's not your doing.
This isn't legal advice, it's just common sense. Judges of course don't normally care about sense or law, and they will convict you if they don't like you and let you walk if they like the Crown less, pretty much regardless of what you do or what the rules actually are. But it's exactly like a sign on the border. If you arrange to have it put up, you're breaking the law; if it's the fellow on the other side of the border acting on his own initiative, then it's nobody's business if he talks to you first.
Patrick, don't ever forget which side wanted the blogs looked at: the side that took a big hit from Swift Boat Vet revelations...
In the US, freedom of speech is holy. In Canada, it's kinda thrown in at the last minute and subject to removal at the whim of government.
And what is BCElection's view of "Burger Polls"?
a simple minimicrophone stuck on everyones neck would clear up spreading of nonPC speech, or even implanted lip sensors..
It's really pathetic anyone, even dorks in B.C.s guv, would suggest a virtual BUSINESS kiss of death like that.
The liberal whirlwind continues.
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