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 Canadian news headlines today are reporting how Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe will return five donations totaling $27,000 collected from five children whose parents are current or former executives of generic drug maker Apotex Inc..
What was not being discussed is how a satirical website called YouthForVolpe.ca had its URL suspended by CIRA. Was it politcal interference? We investigated.
Digital Home visited the YouthForVolpe.ca website yesterday before it was taken down and we found the site amusing and several links such as 'About Joe' and 'Joes Views' were quite humourous since they pointed to articles on such sites as CTV.ca which skewered Mr. Volpe for accepting the campaign contributions. This site certainly lampooned Mr. Volpe but in our opinion was satirical and NOT libelous. According to the Globe and Mail, The YouthForVolpe.ca was shut down at the behest of Brenden Johnstone the campaign manager for the Volpe campaign. Mr Johnstone told the newspaper “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."
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority or CIRA is a not-for-profit company that oversees registration of .ca names in this country.
Digital Home contacted the registry and spoke to Bernard Turcotte, the CEO of CIRA, regarding why the website was suspended simply upon a request from a politician.
Mr Turcotte informed us that neither Mr. Johnstone nor anyone had contacted the CIRA office at anytime and the site was suspended by the registrar Canadian Domain Name Services Inc. because of erroneous information supplied on the domain registration. Mr. Turcotte noted that suspending domain names because of incomplete or erroneous information is a common practice. The following is the information provided to the registrar. Digital Home dialed the phone number and found the number out of service. The address is for Brockville city hall.
After our conversation CIRA issued the following statement on the CIRA website.
June 2, 2006
CIRA RESPONDS TO HYPE ABOUT YOUTHFORVOLPE.CA How can website be shut down? Ottawa, June 2, 2006 – 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. More information about CIRA policies can be found at http://www.cira.ca/en/cat_Registrar.html ConclusionOur conclusion at this time is that CIRA was simply doing its job by allowing the registrar Canadian Domain Name Services Inc. to suspend the service and no political treachery was afoot at CIRA . Discuss and Learn MoreFind out what our members are saying in the Youthforvolpe.ca discussion thread in the Digital Forums. |
