Journalism Blog

The Power of Blogging...

...could bring down the government of Canada.

today's blogs
Royal Canadian Mess Parade
By Bidisha Banerjee
Posted Tuesday, April 5, 2005, at 3:21 PM PT

An American blogger's role in exposing allegations of massive government fraud in Canada is the talk of the blogosphere, as is San Fransisco's proposal to regulate political bloggers. Conservative bloggers also heap scorn upon the newly-awarded Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism.

Royal Canadian mess parade: Last year, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin set up a commission to investigate allegations that his Liberal Party gave $100 million to Quebecois advertising agencies that funneled the money back to the party. (Read details here.) Last week, Justice John Gomery, the commission's head, temporarily banned the Canadian media from reporting on the testimony of ad executive Jean Brault; Gomery said that he was trying to protect Brault's right to a fair trial. Rumors abounded that Brault's evidence could topple the Liberal government and that the Liberals would try to call a snap election. Since April 2, conservative American blog Captain's Quarters has been leaking the details of Brault's testimony, claiming that Brault "revealed a massive pattern of corruption going to the highest levels of the Liberal party and government." Canadian officials announced that they may charge Canadian bloggers who link to CQ with contempt of court.

"It's fairly obvious that Canadian publication bans simply don't apply outside of Canada. So is there any point to having a publication ban when we can easily get our news from outside the country?" asks Rants of Issachar, the blog of a Canadian teacher. "Frankly, Canada is just a giant deep pit of greed. Moving to Europe is looking more and more like the only way to escape the stupidity of the Americas," sniffs techie Stephen Pierzchala on The Newest Industry. Pointing out that Gomery imposed the ban to protect the witnesses, Vancouver student Japnaam Singh huffs, "It's irritating when Americans try to portray Canada as some kind of third-world nation in which Justice Gomery implemented the publication ban because Paul Martin told him too."

"In the election that's coming the issue of the American blogger and his ragged band of Yankee-loving followers may very well take centre-stage," writes Canadian Liberal-hater Angry in the Great White North, who also notes that a journalist who attended the hearing has verified the accuracy of CQ's Captain Ed's information. Wretchard at conservative The Belmont Club believes that such blog-fueled scandals will force politicians to become honest: "There is a certain irony in the fact that the Gomery inquiry is dealing with a corrupt public relations ad campaign (Adscam) costing hundreds of millions of dollars that is now being done to death by a blog costing several hundred dollars."

Read more about the Canadian blogstorm on Technorati; conservative My Aisling has a roundup of blog posts here.

Bidisha Banerjee is a Slate editorial assistant.

Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2116295/

posted by Dave @ 2:46 PM