Digital Copyright Canada

Elections Canada Electoral district profile (Links to Map, Past Candidates, and Past Election Results)

Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre / Ottawa-Centre

Name: Paul Dewar
e-Mail: <Dewar.P@parl.gc.ca>
Party: New Democratic Party

CBC reports that there is a parliamentary caucus that focuses on the arts. The only MP of the "about 40 MPs and senators from all four parties have expressed interest in joining the new group" mentioned is Paul Dewar (Ottawa Center). Anyone have a list of other members?

I think this is good news. MPs focusing on the "Arts" and hopefully a full spectrum of ideas on how to help artists is far better than an IP and Anti-Counterfeiting Caucus which falsely presumes a solution without having a clue about the question.

Update: An email from Paul Dewar indicates that Denise Savoie (Victoria) is the new chair.

Michael Geist reports that, "coming out of last night's election, 34 candidates who supported the copyright pledge during the campaign were elected - 11 Liberals and 23 New Democrats".

An Xtra article by Dale Smith and CBC news wrote about a town hall hosted by Vote Culture at the University of Ottawa on Sep 24.

If the Conservative Party is proud of their divisive diversion of money from Arts to Sport, why are they not speaking about it more often? Has anyone seen this mentioned as part of their platform?

Russell has encouraged many times over readers of digital-copyright.ca to go talk to their political representatives and with reason. MPs think about these issues only when we take the time to raise it to their attention. Forget the e-mails, lets go and see them in person!

So who's wants to go talk to Paul Dewar of Ottawa-Centre? My contact info is below.

----
Julien Lamarche, julien.lamarche@gmail.com

Michael Geist has identified a group of 27 MPs (nine percent of all MPs) who share two key attributes - they won their riding by 10 percent or less in the last election and their riding is home to a university. The combination is important since it is these MPs - not the very safe Jim Prentice - who will face the consequences of the Prentice bill that will harm a generation well versed in digital technologies, social networks, and the Internet.

Today my wife and I went to the poll today at 12:30pm.
I work at home and she is on maternity leave. We bundled up Liam (8 months old) and set out for the four block
walk to a local school. "That's the school you'll go to Liam", I told him as we arrived.

They had the polls set up in the foyer --- I figured they'd use the Gym, and make the kids miss gym class.
My wife wondered at the principal feelings on having lots of strangers enter the school.

no line up, we voted and were gone.
Liam feel asleep.
I didn't test the question as to whether I could bring him "behind" with me. There almost wasn't any space for

Mr. McOrmond,

Thank you for your very in depth letter concerning technology law. While I cannot claim to be an expert in this domain, I will do my best to answer the questionairre.

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1. Copyright Law and Technical Protection Measures
Do you agree that we need legislation to protect Canadians from harmful technologies like the Sony-BMG rootkit DRM?

Answer:

Industries should be forced to label all products which use DRM (or related technologies) in an obvious manner so that consumers are aware what will be install their system if they purchace the product. This would enhance consumer knowledge, which is important. Furthermore, it should not be legal for a content distributer to install software on consumers' hardware without asking for their consent (through an informative dialog).

Dear Russell,

Thank you for contacting the Green Party with your concerns about technology law issues. Below are our responses to the CIPPIC questionnaire. The Green Party agrees that no MP who has accepted a financial contribution from a copyright lobby group should then serve as the Minister of Cdn Heritage, or its Parliamentary Secretary, or sit on any legislative committee conducting hearings on copyright matters. We also agree that greater protection is needed against technical measures used to circumvent computer security, circumvent privacy, circumvent competition, and other important public policy.

Dear Russell,

New Democrats have traditionally expressed support for measures that protect the rights of creators, and ensure that their work is valued and compensated, whether it appears on the radio, in print media, on the internet or elsewhere.

New Democrats have also expressed that any copyright legislation needs to balance the rights of creators, users and distributors. Creators must be fairly compensated for their work, and only a creator can waive that right. At the same time, users need fair access, in order to encourage a vital Canadian culture. We would support legislative measures that involve a careful balancing of all of these factors.