Free Speech Loses in Canada as Canadian Domain Registry Shuts Down Website

[Kristijntje]

It was all the buzz in official Ottawa yesterday -- a hilarious political whodunit in this age of websites, platforms and templates.

Overnight, someone built a website spoofing Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe and his acceptance of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from children, including the 11-year-old twins of a former vice-president of a generic drug company.

By early yesterday afternoon, the Volpe team had the website pulled down...

"My Office has had the website suspended through CIRA [Canadian Internet Registration Authority] and CDNS [Canadian Domain Name Services] and it will be down as soon as 6 p.m. I think the issue with the website has been dealt with. . . ."

full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/s...y/National

Meanwhile, CIRA denies that political pressure was the reason for the shutdown:

CIRA RESPONDS TO HYPE ABOUT YOUTHFORVOLPE.CA
How can a website be shut down?

Ottawa, June 2, 2006 – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) issued a statement today in which it clarifies erroneous information referencing its part in shutting down youthforvolpe.ca.

Recent events related through the media indicated that Liberal MP Joe Volpe's staff had requested CIRA suspend youthforvolpe.ca.

Bernard Turcotte, CIRA's President and CEO states "We have no record of any contact between CIRA and Mr. Volpe or his staff.  Furthermore, CIRA does not deal with website content. This is and continues to be a guiding principle underlying our operations."

He added that no CIRA staff undertook any actions with respect to youthforvolpe.ca but rather that the Registrar for the domain name requested, via CIRA's automated systems, that the domain name be cancelled, as is allowed under the rules. The registrar advised CIRA that it made this request because its registrant would not provide valid Canadian contact information.

Under CIRA's registrar rules, the registrar had to act once it confirmed it could not obtain valid Canadian contact information from the registrant.

This is in no way an exceptional case, CIRA and CIRA Certified Registrars cancel domain name registrations on a regular basis for these exact reasons.

full article: http://www.cira.ca/news-releases/176.html

[dnc_ont]

:lies2n: :lies2n: