Toronto Star: Professors fight back in information war

[marmar]

Susan Delacourt
Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA – Two University of Ottawa professors are issuing a dare to the anonymous person who’s been trying to obtain their personal information in what they suspect is an attempt at political intimidation.

Amir Attaran and Errol Mendes, vocal critics of the federal Conservative government, say they will release all the information requested – even the data that they don’t have to disclose by law – if the person making the request comes forward and identifies himself or herself.

“We don’t have anything to hide,” said Mendes, saying that he hopes this is also true of the person making the requests, which were so unusually large and beyond the scope of the law that they set off alarm bells with the university.

People within the University of Ottawa’s administration know the identity of the person who sent in two massive freedom-of-information requests about Mendes and Attaran in January, requesting everything from employment records to expenses to teacher evaluations. Mendes and Attaran, as the law requires, have not been told the name of the requester, but they have suspicions about the motives. The two professors are often castigated by Conservatives as Liberal sympathizers, mainly for their repeated willingness to speak out on the issue of Canada’s handling of Afghan detainees. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/937569--professors-fight-back-in-information-war?bn=1

[Octafish]

1. There's a common denominator these days in democracies...

...the rights of individuals are being trampled, particularly critics of the national security apparatus.

Thank you, marmar, for this important news from Ottawa.

[marmar]

2. You're welcome......and you mean 'Kabuki Democracies', right?

They're not quite what they seem.

[WinkyDink]

4. Potemkin.

[applegrove]

3. The neocons in Canada are increasingly using Jackboot tactics to get what they

want.