http://ow.ly/QXL8
4,500 other Web sites also blocked #rights #censorship
[excerpt]
Stung by a satire at the Copenhagen climate conference, Canada's
government has shut down two parody Web sites criticizing the Great White
North's glacial policy on global warming.
In the process, however, it has taken down 4,500 other Web sites that had
nothing to do with the prank played two weeks ago at the global climate
summit.
The two "offending" sites, developed by "Yes Men" pranksters, announced
that Canada would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 40 percent from
1990 levels, and 80 percent by the year 2050.
The "announcement" came as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government was
privately circulating a plan to permit a 165 percent INCREASE in emissions
from Alberta's huge, dirty oil sands project.
The two Web sites, "enviro-canada.ca" and "ec-gc.ca" are "directly
connected to a hoax which misleads people into believing that the
Government of Canada will take certain actions in relation to
environmental matters," Mike Landreville from Environment Canada wrote in
an e-mail to the German Internet Service Provider (ISP) Serveloft.
The Great White North carries weight with ISP.
Serverloft immediately turned off a wide block of provider addresses,
knocking out 4,500 websites that had nothing to do with "Yes Men" or the
parody that raises such hackles among Harper's minions.
"We are sorry to see that the Canadian government will not 'take certain
actions' that could help stave off catastrophic climate change," said Mike
Bonanno of "Yes Men," "and we are sorry to see that they don't care so
much for free speech."
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