Monthly Archives: June 2007

| Blogosphere, In the news, Media, Technology

Bloggers UNDER ATTACK! OMG!

With the Zeke’s saga heating up the blogosphere (did I mention I was Geisted?), the Globe and Mail has a piece by Mathew Ingram about the libel chill affecting prominent bloggers. It lists the Zeke’s case as an example (though it for some reason weasels its way out of naming the guy who’s suing him).

The issue isn’t all that difficult to understand. Blogging has created an army of citizen journalists. Some write only about the actions of their puppies, others think they’re more important than those “MSM hacks”. But they all write. And anything you publish is subject to libel law.

What’s changed is the way the Internet has democratized media. When college newspapers commit copyright infringement or blatantly libel people, nobody really cares because it’s just a few thousand copies and everyone forgets after a while. But with the Internet, a single blog post by some idiot on his couch can reach worldwide exposure with a few good links. In the case of Pierre-Antoine Tremblay, the guy who’s suing Chris Hand, a Google search of his name is littered with pages about his lawsuit, and that’s what everyone’s going to know him by.

Of course, that’s all his fault. Had he not brought the legal action in the first place, nobody would have noticed the original post, his Google situation would have been salvageable and he wouldn’t be getting all this negative publicity.

On the other hand, these blogs and those college newspapers have one thing in common: they don’t have any money. That’s the real reason why small-time publishers don’t get sued for libel: It’s just not worth it. Even if you win, you won’t get any money. It’s only when you go after the big guys that you can get rich.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop some people with sensitive egos and lots of time on their hands from launching frivolous, over-the-top lawsuits.

With great power comes great responsibility. We have to watch what we write, and hope that it doesn’t come to a point where we have to justify our words in front of a judge.

Kate has some thoughts on this issue as well.

| In the news, Montreal

I’ll settle for getting my doorknobs installed

A pair of articles in The Gazette today, side-by-side, about slum landlords getting targetted by more inspectors, and a slum tenant couple whose apartment became a giant garbage can.

The way the slum inspectors thing works is this: Right now, the city has 80 inspectors across all the boroughs inspecting buildings. Surprise, surprise, this is woefully insufficient to keep track of the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of buildings on the island where people live and pay rent.

The most obvious solution would be to hire more inspectors, and to the city’s credit that’s exactly what they’re doing. But instead of taking on the eight new inspectors (a 10 per cent increase) to the already existing departments, they’re creating a new “task force” that will “work with the boroughs”.

In other words, another layer of bureaucracy. Create a new department to cover up the fact that you’re too cheap to properly fund an existing one.

Government by gimmickry. Doesn’t that make you feel safer already?

| Uncategorized

Anastasia’s Law wouldn’t have helped Anastasia

Anastasia De Sousa’s parents at least seem happy about a new gun control bill passed in the National Assembly. It would restrict people from carrying guns onto public transit (people could carry guns onto public transit?) and oblige authority figures all over the place to report people with guns to the police.

In other words, it would do absolutely nothing to prevent the exact same situation from happening again. Kimveer Gill used a car to get to Dawson, and by the time anyone saw him with a gun there, he has already begun firing on students.

The Gazette’s James Mennie (among others) rightly criticizes the bill for having no teeth. In a sense, it’s hard to blame premier Jean Charest, since gun control is a federal jurisdiction. But they called it Anastasia’s Law, trotted out her family, and pretended like this will do something to stop gun violence (though they admitted it wouldn’t have stopped De Sousa’s murder).

Only time will tell if this makes a difference.

| Business

More quid-pro-diploma at Concordia

Concordia University has released its list of honorary doctorates for this year. As usual, it includes some genuinely noteworthy members of the community who should be recognized for their work: Howard Alper, research chemist; Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, archbishop; Grant Munro, filmmaker.

But, sadly, the list also contains people who are on there mainly because of their financial contributions: André Desmarais of Power Corp, who has given quite a bit to the university; and Donald McNaughton, who was a major fundraiser for over two decades.

It’s not that I think people who give their time and money to Concordia shouldn’t be honoured for it. Despite what some conspiracy-theorists may think, this is still mainly a selfless, altruistic act. But shouldn’t we be separating those who have done important things in this world from those who have so much money to spread around that they can buy an honorary degree?

I think it’s time to come up with some other method of honouring those who contribute financially to universities.

| Humour, Montreal, TV

Last Video-on-Trial comic standing: Debra

For those of you who weren’t watching TV tonight (how dare you?), NBC’s Last Comic Standing had its debut, with auditions from New York, Montreal and San Antonio, Texas. Since Montreal was their only Canadian visit, comedians from Toronto all over the country came to try-outs at Kola Note in March.

So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to see some familiar faces. Well-represented were the Video On Trial crew, though they had varying levels of success. Two were eliminated in the first round (they were used in the montage of comics who bombed — ouch). I think I recognized Laurie Elliott and Katherine Ryan, or was it Nicole Arbour? Those blond girls are hard to distinguish when they go by so fast (and even if it wasn’t Nicole (UPDATE: It wasn’t), I need some excuse to link to this photo). Sorry kids, no Sabrina Jalees for you.

The more recognizable contestants are also the ones who made it into the second round (which involved a live audition in front of a local audience): Debra DiGiovanni and Trevor Boris.

Debra stole the show, and got lots of airtime before, during and after her acts. She made it through easily. Trevor, meanwhile, wasn’t shown at all during the first round and only appeared briefly for the second. He didn’t make it.

NBC has some Montreal audition footage posted to YouTube, featuring both Trevor and Debra, among others. NBC’s website even has a special clip of Debra, showing she’s going to go far in this one.

And Television Without Pity, which should be in everyone’s bookmarks, has a moment-by-moment recap of the episode.

| Uncategorized

Mr. Prime Minister! OMG! The Quebec unions don’t like how we’re treating the Palestinians!

I’m not one of those people who thinks musicians should just shut up about world hunger. I believe everyone’s entitled to their opinions.

But there’s a difference between a single person expressing an opinion on a subject they’re not well-known for, and a group expressing an opinion on behalf of its members, on a topic that’s completely irrelevant to the group’s function.

So why are Quebec’s unions taking a hard-line stance against Israel in the Mideast debate? Surely there are people in unions here who disagree with this position, and yet have had it thrust upon them.

It’s things like this that give unions (and union management) a bad name here.

| Media

The Journal de Québec is keeping lawyers busy

Two rulings last week in the Journal de Québec’s labour dispute, one for each side:

  1. A judge rules in favour of Quebecor, saying that journalists from the Journal’s sister paper the Journal de Montréal can’t prohibit the company from using their articles in the Journal de Québec. Quebecor had been using their copy in the JDQ to fill the space left by the journalists on the picket lines.
  2. As an example of the level of silliness this has reached, a judge rules in favour of the employees who are using the Journal’s logo in their protest banners (so people know who they are and what they’re protesting). Seriously, they’re wasting the court’s time with this?