Wikipedia edits from House of Commons IP address
This is not the first time Poilievre or his staff were accused of being involved in some scheme to minimize the damage to the government or advancing its agenda by clandestine means. Prior incidents suggest that Poilievre's staff will go to extraordinary lengths to control the way Mr. Poilievre and his government are perceived in the media.
During the period of July 4, 2005 to May 28, 2007, edits originating from an IP address belonging to the Canadian House of Commons were made to the Pierre Poilievre article on Wikipedia. The latest edits included removal and modification of comments related to Poilievre's behavior in Parliament in June 2006 [19] and inclusion of a reference to MP Marcel Proulx in which the writer inserted "The entire incident left Marcel Proulx with egg all over his face." into the Poilievre article.[20] Previously, Proulx had accused Poilievre of violating Canada's Office Holder code of conduct for accepting concert tickets for a Coldplay concert.[21]
After a wikipedia editor reported recurring article vandalism on June 1, 2007 the edits from the House of Commons IP address stopped.[22]
Jay Walsh, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, said in an interview there are tens of thousands of living people with biographies on Wikipedia, "so challenges about information are not uncommon." Walsh said neutrality of language and guarding against conflicts of interest are two of the central pillars of Wikipedia. He said "The edits which should be trusted would come from people who don't possess a conflict of interest, in this case, it would be worthwhile saying that if someone is making edits from a computer within the government of Canada … if it was someone within that ministry, that would theoretically constitute a conflict of interest."[23]
