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Vikileaks author has become what he railed against

Posted: 04/26/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Vikileaks creator Adam Carroll (right) felt justified. (SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

I remember being in the Free Press newsroom that day in February when the story about the anonymous Twitter attack on Vic Toews was moving along wire news services. I wasn't able to look at it, much less read it.

What was actually moving, like sewage through a technological pipeline, were details from the divorce file of the public safety minister, which -- while publicly available to anyone who cared to make a trip to the Law Courts building -- were being publicly shared in ways never previously imagined by the justice system Toews is so bent on changing in his right-wing way.

I also remember something else from that day. I remember feeling sorry for Vic Toews.

Oddly sorry, considering his politics, and his previous penchant for getting personal with journalists he didn't like. Me included.

Vikileaks, as it became known -- a story that seemed long over -- surfaced again this week under a Free Press headline that read: "Toews' privacy invaded to teach a lesson".

Free Press Ottawa reporter Mia Rabson's report featured testimony in front of a House of Commons committee by Adam Carroll, the fired federal Liberal staffer who took complete personal responsibility for the public attack.

"I am Vikileaks30," Carroll said.

"I, and I alone, am the author of that Vikileaks posting site."

Carroll explained and justified his actions by citing Toews' position -- one that sounded extreme even for the Conservatives' stern face of law and order -- that Canadians could either stand with the Conservative government and support Bill C-30, or stand with child predators and oppose it.

"I was deeply offended by the minister's aggressive and deeply polarizing language."

Apparently, Carroll also was deeply offended at the content of the legislation because it grants government the power to compel Internet service providers to release client information -- IP addresses included -- without seeking a warrant.

The Liberal worker then went on to justify his Twitter attack by saying he felt if Toews wanted to sanction the government prying into Canadians' private lives, he should feel what it's like to have his personal privacy invaded.

That being the equivalent of he who lives by the sword, should at least know what the slash of the blade feels like.

Pressed on who helped him obtain the Manitoba-based divorce file, Carroll said it was already in the Liberals' possession when he joined the Ottawa ranks, which suggests another even more disturbing subterranean level to the issue that may need excavating.

Just how many other personal dirty-laundry files have political parties piled up, or tried to dredge up, on their political enemies?

Carroll may well be true to his testimony, that he was the only one behind Vikileaks. But he's far from the only one responsible for what has happened since cyberspace became the almost perfect cover for whistleblowers and other less scrupulous people bent on targeting enemies by attempting to smear or harass, or in the case of the News Corp. scandal raging in Britain, by also intimidating and profiting from invading people's privacy.

And, in the instance of News Corp., in allegedly illegal ways.

The IP address has become as much a world-changing tool of people living under tyranny as it has become a tool of torment for cyber-bullies, in particular the masked ones who cowardly hide behind the cloak of anonymity.

I am not suggesting Adam Carroll was a coward, but I do contend that he behaved like a bully.

Which leads us to the unfortunate irony of Vikileaks.

While Adam Carroll was trying to teach Vic Toews a lesson, inadvertently he was teaching another one.

That Vic Toews' advocacy for the unwarranted invasion of the Canadian public's privacy, doesn't justify legally invading the minister's privacy.

And that when you act like the enemy, you become the enemy.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 26, 2012 B1

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