Grumpy Cat
12-20-2010, 03:35 AM
MONTREAL — Chanting "information should be free" and "down with censorship," demonstrators marched through Montreal’s downtown on Saturday in support of online whistleblower WikiLeaks.
About 100 people weaved their way to the U.S. consulate to protest the shutdown of the website and attempts to cut off its funding.
Organizer Nadim Kobeissi, a computer science student at Concordia University, said authorities are trying to stifle the free flow of information online.
"If the Internet is allowed to stay as it is, it will cause great political change. . . . where everyone has access to information equally," Kobeissi said.
"This will cause political accountability and knowledge sharing that is unprecedented."
Kobeissi, a self-proclaimed Internet freedom advocate, has created a mirror site for WikiLeaks that duplicates material no longer available on the original website.
Nearly 2,000 such sites have been created since WikiLeaks was shut down.
Bruno Joyal, a mathematics student at Concordia, said he’s concerned a dangerous precedent will be set if WikiLeaks is successfully contained.
"We’re approaching a situation where the United States would like to make sure that leaked secret documents cannot be published," Joyal said.
"We believe it’s very important that the press be able to publish such documents."
The demonstrators also called for the release of Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier charged with stealing sensitive and classified documents and giving them to WikiLeaks.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1218067.html
About 100 people weaved their way to the U.S. consulate to protest the shutdown of the website and attempts to cut off its funding.
Organizer Nadim Kobeissi, a computer science student at Concordia University, said authorities are trying to stifle the free flow of information online.
"If the Internet is allowed to stay as it is, it will cause great political change. . . . where everyone has access to information equally," Kobeissi said.
"This will cause political accountability and knowledge sharing that is unprecedented."
Kobeissi, a self-proclaimed Internet freedom advocate, has created a mirror site for WikiLeaks that duplicates material no longer available on the original website.
Nearly 2,000 such sites have been created since WikiLeaks was shut down.
Bruno Joyal, a mathematics student at Concordia, said he’s concerned a dangerous precedent will be set if WikiLeaks is successfully contained.
"We’re approaching a situation where the United States would like to make sure that leaked secret documents cannot be published," Joyal said.
"We believe it’s very important that the press be able to publish such documents."
The demonstrators also called for the release of Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier charged with stealing sensitive and classified documents and giving them to WikiLeaks.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1218067.html