Would you buy a used car from this man who "allegedly" sold them with bent frames plus crippled mules?

Del Mastro battles Wikipedia vandalism from Commons computers

By Glen McGregor
Wednesday, July 16, 2014

MP Dean Del Mastro says he will ask the Speaker of the House of Commons to look into potentially defamatory changes to Wikipedia that were made from someone using a computer on the parliamentary network.

A revision of the Peterborough MP’s entry on the online encyclopedia made Tuesday through a House of Commons Internet address changed his profession from “auto dealer” to “Dealer of Used Cars with Bent Frames, Perjurer.” A previous edit from the same address called him a “Used Car Dealer, formerly sold crippled mules.”

The perjury reference came a few days after Del Mastro took the stand to testify during his trial on charges his campaign overspent in the 2008 election. Del Mastro called the edits of his entry “unfortunate and hurtful.”

“I will raise it with the Speaker’s Office for their review as I don’t believe this is an appropriate use of HOC computers or an appropriate use of time paid for by the taxpayers of Canada,” he said in an email.

Del Mastro said none of his staff had made the subsequent edits of the page that reversed the objectionable changes.

“I have never considered Wikipedia to be one of the social media platforms of the office. I can confirm that none of my staff have added, deleted or edited any content on the Wikipedia page.”

Wikipedia recorded the edits about Del Mastro’s profession as coming from the Internet Protocol (IP) address 192.197.82.203, which is in a block of addresses registered to the House of Commons, according to domain registrations.

A Wikipedia user with the screen name Altamel, who reversed one of Tuesday’s edits to Del Mastro’s page, confronted the person using the House of Commons IP address through a chat function on the site that allows editors to discuss their work, saying changes made to pages needed to be cited with reliable sources.

The person using the House of Commons IP address responded by asking Altamel, “Do you know the difference between a reputable Auto Dealer (like Open Road Mazda) and a shady used car salesman like Dean Del Mastro Motors?”

Altamel repeated the need to cite changes made to pages with reliable sources and said Wikipedia pages must remain neutral in tone. Minutes later, a House of Commons user responded: “We are the government. We are the only source.”

Since 2004, computers using this House of Commons IP address have made more than 1,000 edits to Wikipedia pages. Twice, the IP address has had editor privileges temporarily revoked because someone made sweeping, unsourced changes to articles. In June 2007, Wikipedia blocked the IP address for “persistent vandalism” to pages, mostly for repeatedly removing the “Controversy over Air India connection” section from the page of then-Liberal MP Navdeep Singh Bains.

The IP used for the Del Mastro edits does not correspond to any one person on the Hill. It could have been temporarily assigned to any one of the thousands of people who have access to computers on the House of Commons network, a group that includes MPs and their staff, House administrators, parliamentary librarians and even journalists who work in the parliamentary press gallery’s shared office space in the Centre Block.

To track the Wikipedia post to a specific computer on Parliament Hill, Speaker Andrew Scheer would have to ask House of Commons IT officials to check internal server logs to see which computer used that address at the time changes were made.

Scheer launched a similar investigation in 2012, when then-Public Safety Minister Vic Toews claimed his privilege as a member of Parliament had been violated by the “Vikileaks” Twitter postings about his divorce, also made from a House of Commons IP address. The Citizen had traced the Wikileaks account to a Commons IP address.

Before the investigation was completed, Adam Carroll, a researcher working for the Liberals, came forward to admit he had posted excerpts of Toews’s divorce pleadings via Vikileaks. Carroll resigned his job on the Hill but was later rehired by the party.

Wikipedia postings made from Parliament Hill were highlighted by a Twitter account created last week that scrutinizes edits made to pages by computers using government IP addresses.

Many of the edits made from House of Commons addresses appear to be attempts to correct embarrassing or false information posted on MPs’ Wikipedia entries.

Del Mastro, who previously served as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary, resigned from the Conservative caucus last fall after he was charged with four counts of violating the Elections Act. He now sits an Independent.

His trial has been adjourned until September.

gmcgregor@ottawacitizen.com