Canadians Battling Proposed Canadian DMCA

An anonymous reader writes "CTV reports on how Canadians are fighting back against the Canadian DMCA. Led by Michael Geist, the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group is nearing 90,000 members. There are local chapters, a YouTube contest, wikis, and people writing letters and organizing rallies against the copyright bill. Geist said, 'When you get tens of thousands of Canadians speaking out like this, there's big political risk for any political party who chooses to ignore it.'"

Comments

Re:No conspiracy theory here

[GodKingAmit]

Actually in Canada the official opposition (Liberals) and our left-wing party (NDP) have come out in opposition to this bill. The inability for corporations to donate to federal political parties helps eliminate some of the more obvious forms of bribery. (All parties past a certain threshold are funded using tax dollars - there are also very low limits on individual contributions and no contributions at all from corporations/unions/etc)

Re:No conspiracy theory here

[fyoder]

Actually in Canada the official opposition (Liberals) and our left-wing party (NDP) have come out in opposition to this bill.

That doesn't mean that the Liberals will vote against it. They may sit on their hands or run away as they have for past votes. Perhaps a historian of Canadian politics could say whether there was ever a wimpier opposition. I doubt it.

Re:No Worries

[MightyMartian]

Really? We didn't even break through 70% of eligible voters showing up in the last election. In some parts of the country it was a lot less. Maybe Canadians are slightly less apathetic than their US counterparts, but only slightly.

Canada is a democracy

[Rix]

If Canadian politicians don't respond to the wishes of their constituents, they have the option of replacing them. The current ruling party, for example, is only about 20 years old.

It's not comparable to the US system where Democrats have a monopoly on the left and Republicans on the right.

Re:Canada is a democracy

[Rix]

The Reform Party was founded in 1987. Sure, they change their name every 5 years or so, but still.

Re:No Worries

[mrbcs]

You are obviously ignorant of Canadian politics. If we are pissed off enough, we do MAJOR damage. Examples:

1. William Davis, Tory premier of Ontario, who after giving full funding to Catholic schools, was tossed out of office after 40 years of consecutive Conservative rule.

2. Brian Mulroney, Ronny Reagans buddy, after introducing the Gouge and Screw Tax, had his MAJORITY government reduced to 2 seats in the next election.

These tories have been warned, enact this legislation and they will be destroyed politically. Harper won't be able to run for village mayor after we're through with him.