Thanks for the thoughtful response. I'd actually forgotten about the notwithstanding clause entirely.
Still though, Canada's legislation seems no more restrictive than most other (Non-U.S.) democracies. That's according to my quick read of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_by_country (so take it for what it's worth). I mean, surely there are some that are marginally better but it doesn't seem like there are any obvious leaders here. Maybe I'm missing something though.
Given that, I don't see how Canada would be a bad choice for a mirror. Especially given the other distinct advantages. Physical proximity being an obvious one (it's probably much more cost effective to build some servers pre-loaded with data and drive them up versus almost any other option). Same time zone, same language, and general political/social/economic stability are probably also pretty key. And then there are other threat considerations (eg. the Baltics being so close to Russia) that come into play.
I mentioned Estonia before. So far as I know, their level of protection is the same as in US - restricting speech requires imminent danger stemming from that speech. So no political speech, no matter how hateful, can be restricted, unless it is inciting imminent violence. It also has fairly lax libel laws, which is also a benefit
Geographic proximity has both upsides and downsides - the downside is that something that affects US is also more likely to affect Canada than any other nation (except, perhaps, Mexico).
As far as threat consideration, you have a point there - but I think that having a distributed network of server mirrors is part of mitigating any such sudden threats against any particular one. In a sense, something like a Russian invasion can probably be treated similarly to, say, a possibility of a major earthquake on the West Coast disrupting infrastructure.
But yes. I do see how Canada is probably the easiest to set up for someone in US. If they just want something done right now, as immediate mitigation, and consider better options later, it makes sense.
Still though, Canada's legislation seems no more restrictive than most other (Non-U.S.) democracies. That's according to my quick read of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_by_country (so take it for what it's worth). I mean, surely there are some that are marginally better but it doesn't seem like there are any obvious leaders here. Maybe I'm missing something though.
Given that, I don't see how Canada would be a bad choice for a mirror. Especially given the other distinct advantages. Physical proximity being an obvious one (it's probably much more cost effective to build some servers pre-loaded with data and drive them up versus almost any other option). Same time zone, same language, and general political/social/economic stability are probably also pretty key. And then there are other threat considerations (eg. the Baltics being so close to Russia) that come into play.