Canada bans anonymous political speech, from The Netly News

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

*********

http://pathfinder.com/netly/editorial/0,1012,940,00.html

The Netly News Network
May 13, 1997

No, Canada
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)

     Krishna Bera wasn't surprised when the order from
the Canadian government arrived last Friday. It was
couched in the stilted language of universal
bureaucratese, but its message was cold and clear:
Purge a political endorsement from your web site or go
to jail.

     Bera's offending web page had said simply, "Vote
Green." It didn't exhort its readers to commit a
crime. It wasn't libelous or defamatory. It didn't
even feature any porn. Yet the pro-Green Party
statement was enough to draw the ire of the
commissioner of elections, for Canada has a rule,
buried in the 187-page Elections Act, that prohibits
anonymous political recommendations. And Bera's web
page was unsigned.

[...]


-------------------------
Declan McCullagh
Time Inc.
The Netly News Network
Washington Correspondent
http://netlynews.com/