

Canadian government introduces ACTA compliance bill - jhack
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6796/125/

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purephase
I (naively) hoped that this wouldn't re-surface but now that it has, I'm not
surprised. Harper and Co. are steadfast in toadying up to Washington and Co.
and seem to not only disregard the numerous times similar legislation has been
shot down, but the fact that almost this exact same legislation has been shot
down everywhere but the US.

This in particular is politics at it's worst and anyone that actually uses
this line should be ashamed of themselves:

"The bill will likely be promoted as protecting public health, however, there
is a danger that the provisions could be used to stop the entry of legitimate
generic medicines."

Right out of the US playbook.

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znowi
All my Canadian friends are frustrated with Harper. I wonder how did he get
elected in the first place? :) From aside, it feels like Canada is being
infested with neoliberal policies in disguise under the very leadership of the
Prime Minster.

Don't let them spoil "the best part of North America" :)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtVrDPhHBg>

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mindstab
The same way bush got elected twice (despite all the tech people I hear from
in the US hating him): a quiet(ish) massive population of conservatives
coexisting uneasily with us. In Canada especially in our rather significant
rural areas like the prairie provinces.

~~~
kafkaesque
Wait...I don't mean to spread false information, so please, anyone, correct me
if I am totally off base, and I will even delete my comment, but...

I thought it was pretty much agreed upon that George Bush Jr. won through
voting machines that had been tampered with and because voting ended as soon
as Bush had the majority vote in Florida, when in reality it was later found
out Al Gore had more votes.

Or did I just pull that out of my ass?

Again, if it is false, I'll gladly remove this comment since I was watching it
all (i.e., the American gov't) crumble from Canada.

Edit: Or was all that just conspiracy theory?

~~~
joelrunyon
Bush had more electoral votes.

Gore won the popular vote.

There were issues in Florida which determined the electoral votes and pushed
the state to Bush.

Electoral votes are what mater: Bush won.

~~~
pyre
I think that most people are contesting whether or not Bush should have won
the Florida electoral votes, which would have changed the election, no?

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FreeKill
Wow, I can't believe they are still going forward with this. Hopefully
Canadians continue to speak up on Copyright issues, and make sure unpopular
bills remain so for a reason...

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scrabble
To be frank, with the current government being a majority it doesn't really
matter what Canadians do or say. Our prime minister will see to it that
whatever he wants to pass will pass.

What we need to do is make sure that he gets replaced next election, and that
a lot of the changes he's implemented are removed.

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FreeKill
I agree that he has to go, but I disagree that us being active will have
little affect. Due directly to complaints, we killed off the first 2 versions
of their copyright change bills and their attempt to implement warrant-less
wire-tapping.

These things have a bad habit of coming back again (like right now) but
voicing your opinion definitely helps to sway the conversation and hopefully
send them back to the drawing board...

~~~
bct
The last 2 copyright reform bills (that I'm aware of - one circa 2008 and one
circa 2012?) were both put forth by minority governments.

~~~
FreeKill
True, but they both got significantly revised before coming back in the final
form, that passed last year, due to pressure.

~~~
bct
That's the point: the pressure was only effective because they were put forth
by minority governments. Majority governments have a much freer hand.

