Sam Bulte, a Canadian Liberal Member of Parliament, has been exposed in the national media for funding her campaign with large cash contributions from the entertainment industry and subsequently delivering Drconian, American-style copyright laws while in office.
Last week, I blogged about Bulte’s unique, US-style campaign, wherein Bulte rewards her corporate contributors by making laws that extend their monopolies and undermine the public interest.
Now the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Press and the Toronto Star have all picked up the story. Bulte has cynically responded by arguing that her actions are just business-as-usual for Canadian politicians, and that nothing unusual has taken place.
Michael Geist, the Toronto Star columnist and legal scholar who broke the story, has responded with an extensive rebuttal of Bulte’s claim, showing that Bulte is far and away the worst offender in Parliament:
[A]nother review of Elections Canada data reveals that in 2004 there were a total of five contributions to riding assocations from Canada’s major banks (one of the five went to Bulte). Simply put, everyone is not doing it (for what it is worth, the 2004 riding association data reveals no contributions from Canada’s leading trucking association, the Canadian Trucking Alliance).
The Toronto Star article raises the unfortunate spectre of Bulte attacking me personally, arguing that I believe that everything should be free (anyone who has read my work knows that is not the case) and then asking “seriously, who is he funded by?” The article answers that question by pointing to the grant I received to help launch the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. I am very proud of CIPPIC’s work along with the other peer-reviewed work and grants that I have received and I believe that it is wrong to attack an academic in this way (is Granatstein next?).
Link to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation coverage,
Link to Michael Geist’s rebuttal of Bulte’s excuses,
Link to Digital-Copyright.ca’s Wiki for Parkdale organisers,
Link to campaign site for Peggy Nash, Bulte’s NDP opponent
(Thanks, Jim and Matt!)