lonster1
03-06-2012, 04:35 PM
C/P Winnipeg Free Press
OTTAWA – Attacks and threats made against Public Safety Minister Vic Toews on YouTube will likely be studied by a House of Commons committee after the Speaker of the House of Commons found the online videos breached Toews' parliamentary privilege.
Andrew Scheer delivered the ruling this morning. He dismissed two of the three claims of privilege Toews made related to the Vikileaks issue.
The first – related to the actual @Vikileaks30 Twitter account – Scheer said was over because the Liberals apologized. A Liberal staffer, Adam Carroll, was found to be behind the anonymous attacks which saw personal details of Toews’ divorce file released on Twitter.
Scheer did say the account was an improper use of house resources. The computer used by Carroll was traced back to a Parliament Hill IP address.
Scheer also dismissed the privilege request by Toews, who said the overwhelming amount of emails and contacts he received as a result of Vikileaks made it impossible for him to do his job as an MP.
However on the issue of the Anonymous videos, Scheer said MPs should be free of threats.
The hacker group Anonymous posted several videos threatening to divulge personal details of Toews’ life if he did not withdraw the Internet spying bill and also resign as minister of public safety. The videos use a robotic voice and the image of someone in a mask. They generally end with the threat "we are legion, do not forgive, we do not forget, we are here."
Toews made a motion to send the Anonymous videos to committee. A vote on the motion will be held later today but is almost certain to pass with the Conservatives having a majority of votes in the House of Commons.
The Vikileaks issue erupted last month after Toews introduced the bill and suggested a Liberal MP was standing with pedophiles because he was criticizing the legislation. The bill would allow the government to force internet service providers to give police or the government information about their clients including names, addresses, emails, phone numbers and IP addresses, all without a warrant.
Critics slammed the bill as an invasion of privacy and said if the government needs such information a warrant should be required to get it. The government countered by saying sometimes the information is needed in order to get a warrant. While much of the information is available to the government anyway, access to the IP address – a code that identifies specific computers on the Internet – could give the government the ability to track certain movements online.
The Twitter account opened with a line "Vic wants to know about you. Let’s get to know Vic."
The Ottawa Citizen traced the user to an IP address on the Hill. While there are only four IP addresses used by computers on Parliament Hill, Scheer’s office managed to track the use to Adam Carroll, an aide in the Liberal Research Bureau.
Carroll resigned Feb. 27 after Scheer let the Liberals know Carroll was @Vikileaks30. Liberal Party Leader Bob Rae publicly apologized to Toews in the House of Commons that same day.
OTTAWA – Attacks and threats made against Public Safety Minister Vic Toews on YouTube will likely be studied by a House of Commons committee after the Speaker of the House of Commons found the online videos breached Toews' parliamentary privilege.
Andrew Scheer delivered the ruling this morning. He dismissed two of the three claims of privilege Toews made related to the Vikileaks issue.
The first – related to the actual @Vikileaks30 Twitter account – Scheer said was over because the Liberals apologized. A Liberal staffer, Adam Carroll, was found to be behind the anonymous attacks which saw personal details of Toews’ divorce file released on Twitter.
Scheer did say the account was an improper use of house resources. The computer used by Carroll was traced back to a Parliament Hill IP address.
Scheer also dismissed the privilege request by Toews, who said the overwhelming amount of emails and contacts he received as a result of Vikileaks made it impossible for him to do his job as an MP.
However on the issue of the Anonymous videos, Scheer said MPs should be free of threats.
The hacker group Anonymous posted several videos threatening to divulge personal details of Toews’ life if he did not withdraw the Internet spying bill and also resign as minister of public safety. The videos use a robotic voice and the image of someone in a mask. They generally end with the threat "we are legion, do not forgive, we do not forget, we are here."
Toews made a motion to send the Anonymous videos to committee. A vote on the motion will be held later today but is almost certain to pass with the Conservatives having a majority of votes in the House of Commons.
The Vikileaks issue erupted last month after Toews introduced the bill and suggested a Liberal MP was standing with pedophiles because he was criticizing the legislation. The bill would allow the government to force internet service providers to give police or the government information about their clients including names, addresses, emails, phone numbers and IP addresses, all without a warrant.
Critics slammed the bill as an invasion of privacy and said if the government needs such information a warrant should be required to get it. The government countered by saying sometimes the information is needed in order to get a warrant. While much of the information is available to the government anyway, access to the IP address – a code that identifies specific computers on the Internet – could give the government the ability to track certain movements online.
The Twitter account opened with a line "Vic wants to know about you. Let’s get to know Vic."
The Ottawa Citizen traced the user to an IP address on the Hill. While there are only four IP addresses used by computers on Parliament Hill, Scheer’s office managed to track the use to Adam Carroll, an aide in the Liberal Research Bureau.
Carroll resigned Feb. 27 after Scheer let the Liberals know Carroll was @Vikileaks30. Liberal Party Leader Bob Rae publicly apologized to Toews in the House of Commons that same day.