An unassuming 42-year-old call-centre manager and Star Trek fan from Minneapolis, Minn., has provoked a political firestorm in Canada. Ed Morrissey -- Captain Ed to his friends -- published on the weekend what no Canadian is allowed to print or broadcast. On his Internet blog, he posted testimony before the Gomery commission that is subject to a publication ban.
Yesterday, after the story of his blogging exploits broke in the Canadian media, Mr. Morrissey saw the traffic on his website increase tenfold as Canadians clicked on to read the testimony from Quebec ad executive Jean Brault.
By midday, 131,000 people had visited the site. In just one hour before lunchtime, he had 26,000 hits and by the end of the day he estimated he was on track for about 300,000 hits, many from Canadians. He averages 22,000 visits a day.
"There's a lot of people coming to me through Google Canada," Mr. Morrissey said.
"Just taking a quick look here at the last 100 people who were on the site, which at this rate was in the last 10 seconds, there's a lot of Canadian servers on there."
As an American, Mr. Morrissey is not subject to the ban, and his publication of the details of the testimony has made the story accessible to all Canadians.
And he says he didn't go looking for the story. It found his right-wing blog, and he was happy to publish it. Mr. Morrissey, who describes himself as a libertarian, believes strongly in freedom of the press.
"Somebody contacted me through somebody I knew. I read a little bit more about it and then when I got the information I was able to fit it together and write the post."
He wouldn't say who his contact "may or may not be" but it is his understanding that there is someone in the Montreal room where the hearings are taking place who is giving the information to his contact, who is then passing it along to Mr. Morrissey.
Mr. Morrissey is not paying his contact for the information.
His contact could be anyone as the commission hearings are open to the public. Indeed, the Brault testimony is an open secret in political Ottawa. Ask any political staffer or MP and they seem to know some, if not all, of the details of the testimony. The television feed from the commission can be picked up in some Ottawa newsrooms, and other information is being passed through e-mails, transcripts and phone calls.
Political leaders are being kept abreast of the story, with the exception of Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe who asked his staff not to tell him anything for fear he will divulge information and run afoul of the ban.
Last week, the NDP dispatched their man, Pierre Ducasse, to the hearings when the publication ban was imposed. He reports the testimony back to the senior staff. Party leader Jack Layton, however, is briefed only on the "gist" of the information, his spokesman, Karl Bélanger, says. Again, it is to ensure that he doesn't let details slip.
Mr. Morrissey is a California native who has lived in Minnesota for nearly eight years. He started the blog 18 months ago when he found himself close to home after his wife, Marsha, suffered from a serious kidney ailment.
The Captain Ed nickname comes as a result of a gift from an old girlfriend. Twenty years ago, Mr. Morrissey was a huge Star Trek fan. So his girlfriend bought him a personalized licence plate that said "Captain Ed."
Living just a few hours from the Canadian border, Mr. Morrissey says he follows Canadian politics but has always been hesitant to write about Canada.
"I know Canadians are sensitive about Americans being arrogant about their politics. So I don't write a lot about Canadian politics."
But he is continuing to follow and post articles about the inquiry.
"It's an interesting story. It's a fascinating story," he said. "The one thing that was concerning was that the Liberal Party could call a snap election before this came out."