DND Investigating use of computers to change Wikipedia Entry of Rehtaeh Parsons

[PMedMoe]

My first thought was why post something like that on such an easily manipulated website?  Why not a blog or FB page?

 

[Jarnhamar]

Don't worry.  There are ways to track the person(s) down.  It has been done in the past.  It is likely even easier today.

Except they never caught the infamous Cpl Bloggins. 

 

[PMedMoe]

Except they never caught the infamous Cpl Bloggins.

Was he posting from work??

 

[PuckChaser]

Except they never caught the infamous Cpl Bloggins.

They'd need warrants to get private internet communications, unless he was stupid enough to get on Facebook through DWAN/GPNET at work. Far easier to pull server logs for DWAN and track down who it was.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Was he posting from work??

How would *I* know? 


But no, he or she was apparently spoofing his or her IP.

 

[Tibbson]

A warrant is still required for server logs if it's going to be used in a criminal prosecution.  An argument could be made for a production order at least but if the investigator is going to take the time they may as well go for the warrant. 

 

[garb811]

Also editing the entry to say "consensual sex" rather than rape is backed up by the trial. Note none of the boy's were charged or convicted of rape. As a father, I get it. He is angry and wants vengeance but based on that article a crime has not been committed.

Just because nobody was charged, or nobody was convicted, does not/not mean a sexual assault did not occur (note that in Canada, that is the legal term, not "rape".  If you are going to pin your argument on legalities, at least get it right).  I know of several individuals who I had no doubt were guilty as alleged but they walked without even being charged simply because the likelihood of conviction was remote.

Further, in this day and age for anyone to conclude that someone drunk to the point of vomiting is capable of giving full and informed consent is mind boggling in the extreme.

 

[SpaceInvader]

Regardless of whether the member breached the DOAD, would you want to have an individual in our organization that has the mindset required to continually make adjustments to this Wikipedia entry in the manner he/she has? This is about a teenage girl who took her own life due to being bullied. Bullied due to naked pictures of her that were taken of her and then passed around. The individual has been attempting to lay the blame on this poor girl for what happened to her.



I know of several individuals who I had no doubt were guilty as alleged but they walked without even being charged simply because the likelihood of conviction was remote.

Further, in this day and age for anyone to conclude that someone drunk to the point of vomiting is capable of giving full and informed consent is mind boggling in the extreme.

This is not fact but speculation based on popular opinion. Aren't you an MPO? The initial RCMP investigation concluded that no sexual assaults or rape occurred and was only changed when the prime minister stepped in due to pressure from certain political groups. From the articles I read, we don't know what happened, Rateh did not kill herself until a year later over an un-related issue in an entirely different city. Most of the bullying that occurred was not from young men but teenage girls who were classmates of hers. Those are facts stated in various articles in newspapers and on yahoo. In the end she may have killed herself over a completely unrelated issue. We will never know the exact cause because nothing was left behind. You should not suggest that others are bad people or don't love their country simply for stating facts against popular opinion.

 

[cupper]

This is not fact but speculation based on popular opinion. Aren't you an MPO? The initial RCMP investigation concluded that no sexual assaults or rape occurred and was only changed when the prime minister stepped in due to pressure from certain political groups. From the articles I read  We don't know what happened, Rateh did not kill herself until a year later over an un-related issue in an entirely different city. Most of the bullying that occurred was not from young men but teenage girls who were classmates of hers. Those are facts stated in various articles in newspapers and on yahoo. In the end she may have killed herself over a completely unrelated issue. We will never know the exact cause because nothing was left behind. You can't suggest that other posters on this forum are bad people or don't love their country simply for stating facts against popular opinion.

Not sure where your facts came from, but they don't square with what was published in various news sources.

The RCMP in consultation with the Crown initially concluded that there was insufficient evidence to proceed on a sexual assault charge. After her suicide they reopened the case based on new evidence which lead to the charges of making and distribution of child pornography.

Oh, and if you consider Eastern Passage, NS to be an entirely different city than Halifax, NS, get a map and explain to me how they are entirely different cities?

 

[SpaceInvader]

Rehtaeh killed herself earlier this month, two years after she was allegedly gang raped and then harassed by classmates when a photo of the attack was shared on social media.

RCMP investigated the case and did not lay charges, but have said they’ll re-open the investigation, based on new information.

About 100 people joined the peaceful protest outside Halifax police headquarters Sunday, castigating police for the initial investigation.

“The police that work in that building are saying that having under-aged students drinking and having sex in your home is not a crime,” said organizer Dave, as the crowd chanted “Do your job!” in the direction of the police station.

“They’re saying that photographs of 15-year-old girls having sex is not child pornography…distributing these images on the internet is not a crime.”

Several speakers also brought up statistics on sexual violence, which suggest at least half of all Canadian women will be assaulted in their lifetime.

“I’m tired because I’ve heard stories like Rehtaeh’s too often, and they are becoming too commonplace in our society,” said participant Jen. “I’m tired of a justice system that leaves victims feeling neglected and blamed and where criminals are not properly investigated or held accountable.”

Kim Wall, 45, said it’s time for parents and adults in general to start teaching young boys and men responsibility for their own behaviour.

“I’m really tired of phrases like, ‘Boys will be boys,’” she said, after sharing several personal anecdotes of sexual violence from her own life.  “It is time that we start teaching our sons respect so that we’re not all teaching our daughters to protect themselves against those sons.”

Later in the afternoon, an apparent counter-protest materialized at the same location. A handful of people stood on the sidewalk carrying signs reading “Listen!” and “2 sides to every story,” apparently in support of the boys involved in the alleged assault.

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/Local/2013-04-15/article-3219935/Halifax-protest-for-Rehtaeh-Parsons-demands-justice%2C-change/1

So in fact I'm wrong, she did not kill herself until 2 YEARS later.

The RCMP in consultation with the Crown initially concluded that there was insufficient evidence to proceed on a sexual assault charge. After her suicide they reopened the case based on new evidence which lead to the charges of making and distribution of child pornography.

Well I stand corrected then. They did get them for something quite deserving there is no excuse for child pornography.  I wonder though why they waited until after a suicide, to reopen a case?  By then the case was already 2 years old.

 

[cupper]

:facepalm:

Got something that is a little more first hand reporting of the case, rather than interviews of people who attended a protest rally?

Do a search on the Chronicle Herald Website perhaps. Hell, go look at the Wikipedia entry it has all of the salient points.

And no need to respond further to my post. Don't need to derail this any further.

 

[garb811]

This is not fact but speculation based on popular opinion. Aren't you an MPO? The initial RCMP investigation concluded that no sexual assaults or rape occurred and was only changed when the prime minister stepped in due to pressure from certain political groups. From the articles I read, we don't know what happened, Rateh did not kill herself until a year later over an un-related issue in an entirely different city. Most of the bullying that occurred was not from young men but teenage girls who were classmates of hers. Those are facts stated in various articles in newspapers and on yahoo. In the end she may have killed herself over a completely unrelated issue. We will never know the exact cause because nothing was left behind. You should not suggest that others are bad people or don't love their country simply for stating facts against popular opinion.

:facepalm:

 

[SpaceInvader]

I can see social justice warriors clearly run this forum.

 

[garb811]

I can see social justice warriors clearly run this forum.

Nope, just people who appreciate that when people post something saying it is factual, that it actually is.  Since you couldn't even get my trade right, even though it is right in my profile for the world to see, that pretty much sums it up for me.

 

[SpaceInvader]

http://www.canada.com/Blatchford+Rehtaeh+Parsons+casual+teenage+cruelty+tragic+consequences/10733112/story.html

On April 4, 2013, after a quarrel with her boyfriend, an upset Rehtaeh returned home and attempted to hang herself in the bathroom. She suffered brain damage and was removed from life support three days later.

Her mother took to Facebook, telling the world, “Rehtaeh is gone today because of the four boys that thought raping a 15-year-old girl was OK and to distribute a photo to ruin her spirit and reputation would be fun.”

There were never four boys involved, and as a friend of Rehtaeh’s who was at the house that night told police and as Rehtaeh’s own messages suggested, there may never have been a sexual assault. There certainly wasn’t a reasonable prospect of conviction.

Nope, just people who appreciate that when people post something saying it is factual, that it actually is.  Since you couldn't even get my trade right, even though it is right in my profile for the world to see, that pretty much sums it up for me.

Well no doubt you'll appreciate this then. You are correct, we should always get our facts straight and post our sources.

http://o.canada.com/news/national/blatchford-even-the-rehtaeh-parsons-case-has-more-than-one-side

It was a dog’s breakfast of a file — with the singular feature, almost unheard of in a sexual assault complaint, of an independent witness — that led police and prosecutors to conclude they couldn’t charge anyone in the Rehtaeh Parsons case.

With information from sources close to the investigation, Postmedia has learned that much of the accepted gospel about the case — teenager is gang-raped, humiliated by the circulation of a cruel picture of the assault, then abandoned by the justice system and driven to suicide — is incomplete.

Related: Rehtaeh Parsons charges come nearly two years later, after difficult investigations

The 17-year-old attempted to hang herself in the bathroom of her mother Leah Parsons’ home in the Halifax suburb of Cole Harbour on April 4.

Rehtaeh suffered lethal brain damage and three days later was removed from life support.

Her mother turned to Facebook on April 8, the day after her daughter’s death.

“Rehtaeh is gone today because of the four boys that thought that raping a 15-year-old girl was OK and to distribute a photo to ruin her spirit and reputation would be fun,” Parsons wrote in part.

Leah Parsons Jason Barnes
Leah Parsons, mother of Rehtaeh Parsons, and her partner Jason Barnes head from St. Mark’s Anglican Church at Rehtaeh’s funeral in Halifax on Saturday, April 13, 2013.

Related: Rehtaeh’s parents respond to Christie Blatchford

She also decried the “bullying and messaging that never let up” and declared flatly that “the justice system failed her.”

Proving the modern maxim that she who gets to social media first may set the script in stone, the post ignited a firestorm.

The Facebook page went viral; the hacker group Anonymous soon was threatening to out the alleged rapists by name, bullying Nova Scotia Justice Minister Ross Landry “to take immediate legal action” and condemning police and prosecutors as incompetent, and the Justice for Rehtaeh online petition was well on its way to acquiring the more than 450,000 signatures it now has.

Just Thursday — completing an about-face that saw him first defend, then throw investigators and Crown attorneys under the bus by ordering a review of their decisions as public pressure mounted — Landry announced the formation of a new “cyber-investigative unit” and promised legislative changes under a new provincial Cyber-Safety Act.

The announcement came one day after Rehtaeh’s mother and father Glen Canning travelled to Ottawa for a special meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The parents, and Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter, who also met with Harper, are pushing for Criminal Code changes that would outlaw so-called “revenge porn.”

But Postmedia sources point to huge problems with the case that made it virtually impossible to take to court, chiefly the shifting accounts from Rehtaeh herself and independent evidence, including retrieved online messages, that supported the suggestion the sex that took place was consensual.

Even the notorious cellphone picture, first sent by one of the alleged assailants and re-circulated thereafter, shows virtually nothing that would stand up in court.

The girlfriend of Rehtaeh’s who was at the party told police Rehtaeh was being flirtatious, even egging the boys on.

The friend said she was in and out of the bedroom where Rehtaeh had disappeared, and that at one point saw Rehtaeh on the bed with the two boys, naked and laughing.

The friend tried to get her to leave with her, but Rehtaeh wouldn’t.

The friend was furious — she had a crush on one of the two boys and had asked Rehtaeh to stay away from him.

But she was still a good girlfriend: She later returned to the house with her mother, and again tried to persuade Rehtaeh to leave, to no avail.

Only in a second statement to police about two weeks later did Rehtaeh say for the first time that she had told the two boys “No” and tried to get them off her.

JOINT POLICE TEAM

The case was handled by a joint Halifax Regional Police/RCMP sex assault team, the lead investigator a woman.

It took almost a year for the police to bring the case to a senior Crown attorney within the province’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS). Also a woman, she is an experienced sex assault prosecutor.

While in a few provinces, Crown attorneys have to approve charges, Nova Scotia isn’t one of them, though police often ask for legal advice.

(These two arms of the province’s justice system have different legal standards to meet. For police, it’s what’s called RPG, or reasonable and probable grounds, to lay a charge. For prosecutors, it’s “a realistic prospect of conviction” in court.)

Essentially, what police ask is, “Do I have a case here?”

The prosecutor “looked at it really thoroughly,” PPS spokesperson Chris Hansen told Postmedia in a telephone interview Thursday. “She concluded there was no realistic prospect of conviction.”

http://www.theprovince.com/technology/There+sides+Rehtaeh+Parsons+case/8296726/story.html


garb811
MP/MPO question answerer
Sr. Member
*****

Is MP not your trade? I guess I'm confused since I'm not, nor have I ever been military but I guess that also makes me stupid? I wrongly assumed that an MP question answerer would probably be a Military Police NCM or Military Police Officer. I apologize if this insulted you or caused confusion. I respect the RCMP's judgment as they are, in my opinion, competent and skilled police officers, in the end, they followed the law. That being said, I think the story should be posted so most people are aware of what exactly transpired and to form their own opinions independent of the mob mentality.. I'm certain the intelligence branch would agree that it is always best to take all evidence and resources into account before making a final judgment.

 

[Lightguns]

Moot argument.  There is over 200 minutes of video from before during and after at that house that night.  I am reasonably assured the police did a good job, both times.  As to the individual making the changes, for political purposes, he/she will be hunted down, tried and convicted and it will be made public.  Just a stupid thing to do from a DND computer.  I got 5 bucks that says he/she works at CFB Halifax and lives in Eastern Passage and knows the parents of one of the boys.

 

[SpaceInvader]

This is the portion of the story I'm not familiar with. The person who posted is from the DND, now thats fine, using company property to edit wikipedia is improper use of time and not professional but I don't see how its illegal to do so. Wikipedia is not completely factual and it can be edited by virtually anyone. If someone posts something on it, contradictory to what you believe or wrong information, is that now a crime? Why not just change and lock the entry. Seems like a waste of tax payer money to pursue political pandering unless there is something going on behind the scenes.  I was only aware of communist countries having \thought police\ units, I hope Canada hasn't started down that slippery slope. 

As to the individual making the changes, for political purposes, he/she will be hunted down, tried and convicted and it will be made public. 

This happens here all the time, but the locals have a more fitting term:  'The Human flesh search'. Next you can expect them to block out the half of the net they disagree with and any websites containing contradictory information.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I think the real issue here is using DND IT resources to edit a controversial and emotional Wikipedia entry.  I make no comment about what happened that night, as I am not familiar enough with the story to form an opinion.

If this had been done from a home computer, there would be no story.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I can see social justice warriors clearly run this forum.

It sounds like you have an axe to grind.

Now Canada is on the slippery slope to communism with thought police units?  You're putting that police foundations diploma to good use I see.

 

[George Wallace]

SpaceInvader

You are wandering into areas that you obviously have no knowledge of.  Perhaps it is time to step back.

I find it interesting that you tell others not to speculate; and then you, yourself, begin to speculate on the case.  I also get the impression that you have a vested interest in this case.  As for your conspiracy comments about "only communist countries having \thought police\ units"; you leave me questioning your real motives in continuing in this dialogue.