Hate
website fine a first (in Canada) / A Human Rights ruling says Internet servers
are liable...
London Free Press ^ | March 11, 2006 | Randy Richmond
Posted on 03/13/2006
2:14:13 PM PST
For the first time in Canada, an
Internet service provider has been found guilty and fined for hosting websites
that spread hate messages against blacks, Jews and Muslims.
Could posting
news stories, and commentary, showing black crime and violence ,Christian
crime or Muslim Crime and violence be considered hate crime under this legislation
– Yessirree Bob!
In the landmark ruling by the
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal yesterday, southern Ontario's white supremacy
movement also took a hit, with two leaders and one group found guilty of
violating the Canadian Human Rights Act and ordered to pay $8,000 in fines and
compensation.
The
Internet service provider, Affordable Space. com, was fined $5,000.
This is not the website but the ISP on which
the website was saved
"The ruling sends a very
strong message that Internet servers, if they are aware there is hate content
and don't take timely action to remove it, can be held liable," said
Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman, who filed the complaint in February 2002.
The ruling was the third victory
in as many tries for Warman in efforts to shut down Internet hate and a boost
to his complaints against several other London-area white supremacists.
As already demonstrated in other articles on
this website the law in Canada knows no difference between white supremacists
and bible preachers
"I am absolutely thrilled,"
he said. "This is proof human rights laws work."
The ruling also shows that
online pseudonyms, used by both men in the case, are no protection against the
law, said Monette Maillet, the Canadian Human Rights Commission lawyer who
argued the case before the tribunal.
"The ruling shows Canadians
have no tolerance for hate," Maillet said.
In the ruling, ex-Londoner James
Scott Richardson was fined $1,000 for several Internet postings, including one
calling for attacks on Jewish and Muslim agencies, temples and residences.
Longtime white supremacy leader
Alexan Kulbashian of North York was fined $1,000 for his hate messages.
Kulbashian must also pay $5,000
to Warman for online attacks against the lawyer.
Reached at his parents' home
near Toronto, Kulbashian expressed anger at media coverage of the issue.
"My comment for you is shut
up," said Kulbashian, before hanging up.
Richardson, now living in
Hamilton, couldn't be reached for comment.
Richardson and Kulbashian were
members of the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team (CECT), now defunct, which also
must pay a fine of $3,000.
The CECT website and a related
web forum were hosted on Affordable Space.com.
Kulbashian may be on the hook
for the $3,000 fine against Affordable Space.com, because he owned the company.
The CECT web forum was
"littered with statements of extreme ill will to various ethnic, racial
and religious groups," ruled tribunal members Athanasios Hadjis,
Some of the material suggested
whites use any means possible to ensure the "white race prevails."
"I find that the material
in question constitutes hate messages," Hadjis said.
The Human Rights Act prohibits
the communication of messages over the Internet likely to expose people to
hatred or contempt based on religion or race.
The two men, the group and the
server must "cease and desist" sending similar material over the Net,
Hadjis ruled.
The ruling is backed by the
federal court, which can fine or imprison the two men for contempt if they
break the order, Warman said.
Warman and the commission had
also sought penalties against a website called tricityskins.com.
Hadjis dismissed the complaint
because the extent of Richardson and Kulbashian's involvement with the site or
a group with the same name was never made clear.
At a February 2005 tribunal
hearing in Oakville, Richardson threatened several times to walk out and he and
Kulbashian accused London police and Maillet of lying.
The two men vowed earlier to
fight the allegations, but decline to offer any evidence in their own defence
at the hearing.