…although I understand why several fellow Canadian bloggers seem to want to skate close to the line.

I am not a lawyer, nor do I have any special interest in or expertise in publication bans. However, if blogging is a type of journalism, and I believe it is, then bloggers are probably legally bound by the same restrictions that apply to CTV and Global. I would be interested in a legal opinion on this issue: if it’s against the law to say “Mr. X said such-and-such on the stand yesterday”, is it legal to say “go to this website or that magazine, where you will find details on Mr. X’s testimony which I am not free to report myself”? Maybe I already have my legal opinion, because lawyer Damian Penny has already gone the second route in his blog.

He references an American blog, which publishes outside Canada and is therefore legally immune from any ban.

Two observations:
(1) In the internet age, publication bans cannot work as they are intended. I think nearly everybody knows this by now, with the possible exception of judges and politicians in their 60s. Whether or not you think such bans are a good idea, it seems to me that they are increasingly futile in an era where worldwide dissemination of information carries no publication or distribution cost whatsoever.

(2) The reaction of voters to scandals on the other side of the political divide is never, ever, ever as powerful as I think it ought to be. Ever. I suspect that even the most outrageous stories of corruption on the part of the Liberals may not be enough to bring them down. Like Bill Clinton south of the border, Jean Chretien was extremely successful in lowering people’s expectations of politicians. Martin’s political error has been in raising expectations far beyond a point where he might actually meet them. He is nowhere near as skilled a politician as he thinks himself to be, and as Paul Wells has noted dozens of times, Martin’s promissory chickens are coming home to roost in his coop of incompetence. Er, to coin a phrase. Anyway, as an optimistic pessimist (motto: don’t worry, things can always get worse!) I doubt even the malignancy that Gomery is diagnosing will be enough to cause the death of this Liberal government. I’m not getting my hopes up… at least, until the writ is dropped. Then all caution gets thrown to the wind!