Blogosphere 1, Liberals 0
By Mark J. Fournier
web posted April 11, 2005
We have witnessed in Canada the fulfillment of one of the promises of the Internet.
Just as the Berlin Wall was finally toppled in 1989, the iron-fisted grip of the Canadian government’s control of the flow of information has been broken. Although the courts and the government of Canada still have the power to keep the old style news media under their boot, the internet has shown itself to be beyond their control, and those comfortable with the new media have stepped forward.
The Liberal Party of Canada tried everything it could think of to prevent Canadians from learning the extent of Liberal corruption and perfidy, but in the end, the Liberals were foiled by the Internet.
Times are changing and they are changing fast.
It is the borderlessness of the Internet that has made possible the release of the truth about the Liberals to the Canadian public. Yet we are still in a phase of change where the Liberals are able to harass and intimidate some Canadian blogs, such as NealeNews, into silence. At this point, it was the Americans who came to Canadians' aid, by posting information from the Gomery inquiry denied to Canadians on a number of American websites.
As a Canadian who believes Canadian citizens should be given all available information in order to make the best political decisions, I thank the Americans who were willing to do, what they are free to do, to help us.
Most governments have yet to upgrade their thinking to encompass 21st century reality, which is why they are beginning to fall prey to those who get, and disseminate, information from the Internet. Current governments are like the generals who are always trying to fight the previous war, so change and events are rapidly overtaking them.
History is in the making and we are living it in real time.
There is a very real chance the corrupt Liberal government of Canada will fall very soon over the testimony from the Gomery inquiry. But the information from that testimony was delivered to the public much earlier than it would have been, thanks to the Internet. In the old days, it is likely this information would never have seen the light of day at all.
The Internet has long been heralded as having the potential to open up systems of government to those who are governed, to hold political leaders more accountable, to break the stranglehold of governments on the flow of information.
We are witnessing the realization of this promise.
Canada is one country that may quickly benefit from these new strides towards liberty. 
Mark J. Fournier is the co-founder of Free Dominion, the home of Canadian internet-based grassroots conservative activism.
 Printer friendly version |
|