I have written in previous columns about the campaign of Dante Ryel, who, at great personal risk and sacrifice, has been fasting since March 3 to bring attention to Bill C311, the Climate Accountability Act. The bill is making its way through Parliament right now and would put Canada in the forefront of addressing climate change, rather than in the laggard position as a “Colossal Fossil” that it currently holds. The vote that would pass this bill in the House of Commons is scheduled for April 21st.
Several days ago, Dante’s Facebook site, Starving For Change, was hacked into by a politically-motivated person or persons. They took over his Facebook account and got into several of his personal email accounts through “phishing”. Dante admits that he isn’t thinking as clearly as he should, due to having not eaten for 2 weeks, and made the mistake of logging onto a page that had been sent to him via a friend’s email that, unbeknownst to Dante, had been taken over by the hacker. That started the problem, and now the hacker has taken to posting threatening messages on the “Starving For Change” wall, and taking over new identities to post other negative messages. It appears to be a campaign of harassment and threat designed to discourage Dante and his supporters from spreading the message about Bill C311.
Here’s a new “Message From Exile” that Dante has just made:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beTTPWB-_Pc]
We discourage bullies on the schoolyard, and we shouldn’t let this one have his way on cyber-space, either. Go to the new “fan” page for the Climate Accountability Act here, and become a fan of clean air, clean water, and stand against dirty tricks. You can send a message of support for Dante at: StarvingForChange@gmail.com. Most importantly, make sure you take time to send a message to your Member of Parliament that passing this bill is important to you, and your children’s future. Click here to send a letter to all the leaders in Ottawa from the Council of Canadians website about Bill C311.
To learn more about “phishing”, and how to protect yourself, click here.This experience is a good reminder of the importance of protecting our personal information in this internet age.