ClimateForChange.ca s going to sue the federal government over its Kyoto Plans. An example of grassroots action? Or a political move by one of the opposition parties?

But how could that be if ClimateForChange.ca is an independent non-profit group?

ClimateForChange.ca is planning to sue the government of Stephen Harper:

Canada's biggest environmental groups are contemplating legal action against the Harper government because they believe it has violated a new law designed to ensure it complies with Canada's international climate change obligations.

"We don't have accesses to cops with batons and pepper spray to enforce the way the government does but we do have access to the courts as long as it's still a democracy," said veteran environmentalist John Bennett, a spokesperson for ClimateforChange.ca.

Jack Layton of the NDP didn't think this approach would work. The Bloc Quebecois is considering turning this into a confidence vote (by targeting the throne speech) instead of joining in with a court challenge.

What of the Liberal Party? Stephane Dion is strangely silent:

In a statement, Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said the report was an admission from the government that its plan was a failure. But the Liberals refused interview requests, explaining that leader Stephane Dion would speak about the issue at a news conference on Thursday.

Now here's the weird thing about ClimateForChange.ca. The address is 64.26.141.35. Checking, I discovered this:

IP Information for 64.26.141.35
IP Location: Canada Canada Ottawa Peter Pundy Consulting Inc
Resolve Host: lp1.campaigngear.net
IP Address: 64.26.141.35 [Whois] [Reverse-Ip] [Ping] [DNS Lookup] [Traceroute]
SSL Cert: stephanedion.ca SSL Certificate has expired.

The SSL certificate for ClimateForChange.ca is stephanedion.ca?

Of course, stephanedion.ca is now permanently redirected to liberal.ca, the official site of the Liberal Party of Canada.

What other sites are on the same server as ClimateForChange.ca? Here is the complete list:

1. Climateforchange.org
2. Congresliberal.com
3. Deleguesliberaux.com
4. Johngodfrey.org
5. Liberalconvention.com
6. Liberaldelegates.com

OK, is it just me, or is it weird that every single site on this server is an official Liberal Party website? John Godfrey was an early contender for the Liberal Party leadership who quickly tossed in the towel and supported Bob Rae.

Every single site an authorized Liberal Party site...and ClimateForChange (.ca and .org both). But ClimateForChange is not a political operation. It's a non-profit environmental group.

And then there is the SSL certificate being stephanedion.ca.

ClimateForChange.ca is supposed to be this non-profit organization. But it sure looks like it is being serviced by the same IT team that works for the Liberal Party**. Is ClimateForChange.ca just another media outlet for the Liberals? Run by the Liberals?

John Bennett of ClimateForChange, a new Canadian environmental group, said the plan doesn't go far enough to deal with global warming.

Making up your own environmental group is convenient for getting the same message out multiple times. Everyone thinks ClimateForChange is a new Canadian environmental group. But it might just be tired old Liberal Party news releases repackaged.

Here's the thing though. If the Liberal Party created ClimateForChange as a way of creating "support" for its specific policies for climate change and to snipe at the Conservatives in the media, that would be bad enough. But if the Liberal Party created ClimateForChange and is now using its creation to pursue a lawsuit against the government while appearing to be only spectators, well, that seems much worse, somehow. Taking on the Conservatives from behind lawyers and under a disguise instead of on the floor of the House of Commons? That can't be right.

** Note that the Liberal Party has its own Director of information Technology (Steven Barry), its own System Administrator (Brian Pichette), and its own Webmaster (Mike Girardin). Do these guys manage the servers on which all these sites are hosted? It's not clear that they do.

Addendum: It should be understood that sharing a server is in of itself not necessarily significant. If I use a hosting company, that company might put me on a server with a communist blog -- that doesn't mean there is a connection. Allocation to servers is often just a question of load balancing. However, servers are often also reserved for certain related websites. One server might be exclusively used for websites managed by the same company in order to simplify billing, for example, or so that these sites can share the same security services especially installed on that server for that client. Specific servers might also be owned or leased by particular organizations, like a branch of the military or a political party or a private company, and so would never host any sites except the ones related to the owner of that server. The red flag here is that this server seems to be reserved for Liberal Party websites. That's either because the server is being managed directly by the IT department of the Liberal Party, or because the hosting service retained by the Liberal Party has decided, or is contractually obligated, to host all the Liberal Party sites on specific servers, exclusive of other sites unrelated to the Liberal Party. Or at least that would seem to be true but for the presence of ClimateForChange. Unless, as this clustering of sites suggests, ClimateForChange is just one more Liberal Party website.

Coincidence or not, the security certificate is not so easily explained.

Addendum: What about those other sites? CongressLiberal.com, Deleguesliberaux.com, and Liberaldelegates.com all list the following administration contact:

Project Coordinator, Dion markbc1@gmail.com
35 O'Connor St, Suite 302
Otttawa, ON K1P5M4
CA
+1.6132352274

Dion? The address and suite number link back to the advertising firm Groupe Everest, which is well known as one of the firms deeply involved in the Sponsorship Scandal, in which Liberal-friendly advertising firms were given millions in bogus contracts, some of that money being kicked back to the Liberal Party.

The email address is for Mark Batten-Carew, who works on large political database applications.

Addendum: ClimateForChange.ca doesn't seem accessible now. After a very long attempt to load, it fails but the URL reads "http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/fecdgruo". Maybe I'm mistaken. I'll check again.

The ClimateforChange.ca team is made of experts from the environmental movement, government and communications field, and is dedicated to the non-partisan pursuit of solutions to the climate crisis.

ClimateforChange.ca also partners with Canadian and international environment and non-profit groups to coordinate day-to-day messaging, media engagement and citizen mobilization on global warming.

ClimateForChange.org is 302 redirected to ClimateForChange.ca.

Update: More redirects information on those other sites sharing the same server as ClimateForChange.ca:

• Congresliberal.com: 302 redirect to the official website of the Liberal Party of Canada
• Deleguesliberaux.com: 302 redirect to the official website of the Liberal Party of Canada
• JohnGodfrey.org: 302 redirect to the JohnGodfrey.on.ca, the website maintained by the Don Valley West Federal Liberal Association
• Liberalconvention.com: 302 redirect to the official website of the Liberal Party of Canada
• Liberaldelegates.com: 302 redirect to the official website of the Liberal Party of Canada

Looks like this server's job, for now, is to service the Liberal Party of Canada. Except for non-partisan ClimateForChange.ca, of course.

JohnGodrey.org is curious. First of all, it is not a site managed by the Canadian Centre for Policy Ingenuity as ClimateForChange.ca is, but rather by a federal Liberal riding association, and designed by the one-man operation Frank O'Hara. The site even has an environmental link:

For the past year, I [John Godfrey] have been focussing on the environment, and more specifically, on climate change, which I consider to be the global challenge of our generation.

John Godfrey is the Liberal gadfly on things environmental:

John Godfrey is currently the Chair of the Caucus Committee on Environmental Sustainability, a member of the House Committee on Bill C-30, and an associate member of the House Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainability. Previous to that, he was the Official Opposition Environment Critic.

How appropriate that he should share server resources with ClimateForChange.ca.

Update: Shortened up the title of this piece. Much more straightforward.

Update: Apparently, the shared SSL just doesn't make any sense to an IT guy unless the two sites were essentially owned by the same person or group.

Update: I've taken a few minutes to refresh my understanding about encryption keys and SSL certificates, and it only makes me more concerned that ClimateForChange.ca is far more closely linked to the Liberal Party than is generally recognized.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:39 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
Post contains 1405 words, total size 11 kb.

1 Holy cow dude... Bennett Environmental Inc."

Posted by: Darcey at August 22, 2007 10:55 PM (uPJWd)

2 Just when you think the libs depravity can't get any worse. They always seem to find a shovel to dig that hole a little bit deeper.

Posted by: missing link at August 22, 2007 11:54 PM (0Hcwj)

3 Notify the media immediately. I'm actually not joking. Notify a news outlet ASAP.

Posted by: at August 23, 2007 12:53 AM (aFH8Q)

4 Wow, super sleuthing, Steve. There seems to be a recurring pattern with these "grassroots movements". Maybe it's just my dial-up but I cannot access the ClimateforChange website.

Posted by: muttsrus at August 23, 2007 06:06 AM (QiDWO)

5 Liberals are all for saving the environment. They are saving real grass online, likely for smoking. Astroturfing seems the new Liberal way. Professional reporters should be outraged, but since most are too lazy to do any real reporting, they will ignore this issue. They like the message, and love the messenger.

Posted by: Black Knight at August 23, 2007 06:20 AM (g7gYB)

6 It's not just you Steve, it's a crock. And who will charge Canada? The UN who doesn't care about the genocide re Christians in darfur? Our biggest trade partners USA and Mexico who haven't signed Kyoto? Or an alliance between a bunch of effete eurabians and the miffed Canadian chattering classes. So Stephane Dion wants to sue the CPC for not being active enough in an area where the Libs "didn't get it done.". That's mental. Great thread.

Posted by: DrWright at August 23, 2007 06:41 AM (eUoQ8)

7 I still cannot access the ClimateforChange website. Hmmm. What could wrong over there?

Posted by: muttsrus at August 23, 2007 06:49 AM (QiDWO)

8 There is usually a link between donations and support, we don't give money to things we don't agree with. The Liberals are out to sue their grannies or anyone else because they're so broke, financially and morally. It seems the Kyoto scam is their main battering ram, even though it's gotten through to the majority it's just about the dumbest concoction ever signed by any Prime Minister in recent memory. The very idea we should send money to reward polluters like China so they can keep the coal fires burning and pollute more is brainless. Chretien and pals like Moe Strong are not concerned with the climate of planet earth, they may be concerned with private interests however.

Posted by: Libby at August 23, 2007 07:03 AM (W5lKo)

9 "Notify the media immediately. I'm actually not joking. Notify a news outlet ASAP" If you do, Steve, PLEASE notify Greg Weston, who is still miffed that he, a member of that august PPG, was not allowed into a PRIVATE meeting between Pres. Bush & PM Harper, yet he manages to describe what went on in that meeting. Great imagination, that! Maybe Weston could learn a few sleuthing tricks from you about how to get REAL information, Super Sleuth Steve!

Posted by: Gabby in QC at August 23, 2007 07:20 AM (E2GmW)

10 steve, I hope you are checking ANY website that "appears" to be a grassroots site and supports liberal policy. This stinks. Badly. I also hope you got some good screen captures, because you know the reason why this site is down...

Posted by: tori at August 23, 2007 08:08 AM (0RN+c)

11 Is Groupe Everest still operating ? I am wondering if the link showing the address on O'Connor is an outdated trade index listing. I Googled the address and it seems to be claimed by the Canadian Centre for Policy Ingenuity. From their website contact listing: Canadian Centre for Policy Ingenuity 302-35 O'Connor Street Ottawa, ON, K1P5M4 Executive Director, Louise Comeau ClimateForChange, John Bennett The Business of Climate Change, Johanna Leffler Perhaps the Groupe Everest office suite has a new occupant?

Posted by: Concerned Torontonian at August 23, 2007 08:26 AM (8hDo1)

12 I Googled the address and it seems to be claimed by the Canadian Centre for Policy Ingenuity. From their website contact listing. You're right on that point. Groupe Everest reborn under a new name? Or just a weird coincidence given the Liberal history with the Sponsorship Scandal?

Posted by: Steve Janke at August 23, 2007 09:02 AM (eGtvb)

13 Why bother suing? Just bring the government down and go to an election. If the opposition parties can't muster themselves to pass a non-confidence motion on this than they clearly have no credibility left on the issue of Kyoto. I hope Layton puts forward a non-confidence motion on this (can he do that?) and forces Dion to decide one way or the other. It would also highlight what an embarassment the Dion-led Liberals have been for the pro-Kyoto crowd.

Posted by: at August 23, 2007 10:16 AM (j9WI0)

14 Steve, There is one detail missing from your excellent work. You mentioned the Canadian Centre of Policy Ingenuity hosting climatechange.ca/org And who's behind that outfit? None other than Brian Guest. http://www.policyingenuity.org/globe-08-20-2005.html That would be the same Brian Guest who worked on Stephane Dion's leadership, and is tight with Godfrey, former Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli and a bunch of other Libs. A fuller political bio is found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Guest

Posted by: JimmyRiddle at August 23, 2007 01:32 PM (9WEFx)

15 Steve, There is one detail missing from your excellent work. You mentioned the Canadian Centre of Policy Ingenuity hosting climatechange.ca/org And who's behind that outfit? None other than Brian Guest. http://www.policyingenuity.org/globe-08-20-2005.html That would be the same Brian Guest who worked on Stephane Dion's leadership, and is tight with Godfrey, former Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli and a bunch of other Libs. A fuller political bio is found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Guest Jimmy

Posted by: JimmyRiddle at August 23, 2007 01:32 PM (9WEFx)

16 I'm interested in learning how the environmental groups who, along with Dion, are going to come out swinging against Manitoba now that Doer has announced http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=2439bd1f-81f3-49c3-81da-3a17a58673d6 that he's not going to meet the Kyoto targets and has pushed everything ahead to 2020 as a target date....

Posted by: Sean Cummings at August 23, 2007 01:50 PM (0vR7a)

17 Actually I want to see Dion and Layton comment on the agreement by Danny Williams to take $billions in oil from NFLD-Labrador. Will they accuse Harper of being in the pockets of big eastern oil companies?

Posted by: paulsstuff at August 23, 2007 02:43 PM (Cpdi7)

18 Layton and Duceppe are talking tough, while Dion looked weak in his press conference today. A confidence vote is the best, hardball way for them to hold Dion's feet to the fire on just how serious he is about defending Kyoto. Dion alse revealed his lack of understanding of Parliamentary procedure. He let out that he wrote a letter to Harper, asking him to reinstate Bill C30 when Parliament returns (after a theoretical prorogation). Check out Effects of Prorogation The principal effect of ending a session by prorogation is to terminate business. Members are released from their parliamentary duties until Parliament is next summoned. All unfinished business is dropped from or “dies” on the Order Paper and all committees lose their power to transact business, providing a fresh start for the next session. No committee can sit during a prorogation. Bills which have not received Royal Assent before prorogation are “entirely terminated” and, in order to be proceeded with in the new session, must be reintroduced as if they had never existed.

Posted by: Calgary Junkie at August 23, 2007 02:45 PM (g7gYB)

19 xyngq ncdmuzh tluacrbq ezimbgq ligxuqfsj vpazxy yulj

Posted by: at September 02, 2007 10:20 PM (OlgLv)

Hide Comments | Add Comment