An unprecedented blow was slapped on free speech on Wednesday August 23rd when Ottaw based Lawyer Richard Warman, asked the CRTC to force Internet providers to block access to two U.S. Based websites.

In his application Warman accuses the google blogsites of being operated by a "Notorious" Nazi sympathizer and contained material to incite violence against him and that he now fears for his life because of these websites.

Read the full thing at http://www.soop.ca/stories/08-25-06NetCensorship.html

The decision means that government agencies cannot purchase the open-source tool for the time being, although those that have already done so will still be allowed to use it. OpenSSL is an open-source implementation of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer security protocols. It is widely used to encrypt and decrypt data on the Internet.

Read the full thing at itWorldCanada

"I sent a copy of the Letter to the Ontario Minister of Education about software policy. I asked if if school boards are under Access to Information legislation, as well as any exclusive agreements or policy that school boards of the province may have with software vendors that would exclude teachers from using alternatives. My trustee forwarded the letter to staff.

The following is the reply from Laura McAlister, Superintendent of Curriculum, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, dated July 3, 2006."

Read the full thing at http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/2531

A coalition of public interest groups and academic privacy experts has released a public letter and background paper to the Canadian government stating their concerns about digital rights management (DRM) technologies and their legal status. The coalition has also started a Web site, IntellectualPrivacy.ca, to coordinate its efforts.

Read the full thing at http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/06/16/203238

At 10:01 in the morning of Feb. 6, 2006, at the precise moment that a new Conservative Cabinet was being sworn into office at Rideau Hall, David Dyer, a senior consultant with the Capital Hill Group and a registered lobbyist for the Canadian Recording Industry Association, sent an email to Patricia Neri, the director general of Canadian Heritage's Copyright Policy Branch.

The email included a suggested outline for a March 2 event focused on copyright reform. It envisioned a meeting with the Canadian Heritage Deputy Minister Judith LaRoque, two hours of presentations from speakers sympathetic to CRIA's position, lunch with deputy ministers from Heritage, Industry, and International Trade, and a private meeting with the soon-to-be named Minister of Canadian Heritage.

One month later, virtually the identical scenario played itself out in Canadian Heritage's Gatineau offices and in the private dining room of a swank nearby restaurant.

Read the full thing at http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/june/12/geist/&c=1

It is nearly common knowledge that GIS finds its origins in government agencies in that great northern territory we know as Canada. I say "nearly” because there are still those who believe that GIS was created by proprietary software vendors ... which I’ll bet makes the marketing guys at these companies more than happy with themselves.

Read the full thing at http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2194&trv=1

The Internet is at a critical juncture and serious choices are being made by millions of people across the globe. These decisions will have an enormous impact on future direction of the World Wide Web. As with any professional discipline a need for universal conventions is necessary.

It is my contention that the World Wide Consortium (W3C) and the standards and protocols they are proposing are necessary, beneficial and indispensable to proper web site construction. The reader should be aware that there are those who think the W3C can not provide this structure. My hope is to convince you otherwise.

"In response to demand, Statistics Canada has removed the restriction for Linux. This change takes effect May 13th, 2006."

Full details are at http://www22.statcan.ca/ccr02/ccr02_003_e.htm