Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- On the Robocon front, Terry Milewski connects the dots between identification of voters as non-Con supporters and the deceptive robocalls that followed. Steven Chase and Daniel Leblanc discuss how Elections Canada figures to determine who placed the Cons' fraudulent calls, while Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher suggest it's already making plenty of progress. The Chronicle Herald and the Star implore the Cons to ensure Elections Canada has the authority it needs to investigate properly. The Ottawa Citizen writes about the link between Robocon calls and suppressed voter turnout. Parker distinguishes between illegal deception and legitimate voter contact. And Sixth Estate takes a closer look at CIMS.

- The CCPA has released its Alternative Federal Budget, pointing out both the global need for countries not to engage in gratuitous austerity and the benefits that would be possible if we had a federal government interested in investing in an improved Canada.

- Sarah Schmidt reports on the form of copyright bill the Cons forced through committee after deciding they could afford to trample on consumers' rights:

Charlie Angus, digital affairs critic for the NDP, said he's been pressing for a new copyright bill since 2004, but this is "still a flawed" piece of legislation.

"It seems they're choosing a corporate business model over the rights of average Canadians, and that's not going to help build the creative economy here. The digital locks provisions are huge for us."

Angus added that the Tories "talk about the market deciding, but they're constructing a market that favours one set of corporate interests over the rights of average citizens."

Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, said it's "certainly disappointing that the government was unwilling to find a compromise on the digital lock rules," saying defeating amendments "that groups representing those with perceptual disabilities feared create barriers to access for the blind is simply unconscionable."

- Meanwhile, Kyle Kipp follows up on the NDP's revelation that nearly 85% of federal funding for disability projects is being funnelled into Con ridings.

- Finally, Susan Riley comments on the Cons' war against anybody who doesn't parrot tar sands talking points:

While European countries experiment with cap-and-trade and Norway socks away oil wealth in a $500-billion fund, Canada's government is still pitting the economy against the environment - refighting last decade's battle instead of preparing for the future.

Every day, the economic benefits of the petro-economy are oversold and environmental consequences trivialized.
...
There is a lunatic fringe, of course, anti-Canadian zealots unconcerned with how many jobs are shipped offshore or how much we poison the planet. They fiercely defend foreign oil companies' right to exploit our resources without limits, or conditions.

You won't find them at clandestine gatherings of green extremists, however. They sit in the Senate of Canada.