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ISP Liable for Online Hate Speech, Canadian Tribunal Finds

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ordered an Internet service provider to pay damages for hosting Web sites that contained "hate speech" directed at racial, religious and ethnic minorities.

The tribunal also ordered two men connected with the Web sites — one of whom operated the ISP — to pay damages for violating the Canadian Human Rights Act. The Internet provider did not qualify for an exception to the law because the individual who ran the ISP knew some of the hosted sites contained hate speech, the tribunal found.

The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital or family status, sexual orientation, or disability.

Section 13 of the law bans the use of telecommunications facilities to transmit "any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination."

That section includes an exception for owners of telecommunications services, including Internet service providers, whose systems are merely transmitting material created by third parties.

The tribunal's decision explained the factual background of the dispute. Complainant Richard Warman of Ottawa, a human-rights activist who tracks neo-Nazi and "skinhead" activity online, filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, naming five respondents who allegedly sent messages over the Internet in 2001 and 2002 that exposed blacks, Jews, Muslims and other minorities to "hatred or contempt."

The named respondents were two Canadian men, Alexan Kulbashian and James Scott Richardson; a Web site at Tri-CitySkins.com; a group called the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team; and Internet service provider Affordable Space.com.

After investigating the complaint, the commission referred the case to the Human Rights Tribunal and elected to fully participate in the case by presenting evidence in support of the charges.

In a lengthy and detailed ruling, the tribunal sustained the charges against all respondents except Tri-CitySkins.com, finding it was merely an Internet domain name. Under the Canadian Human Rights Act, only a "person" or "group of persons acting in concert" can be found liable for discrimination, and there was not enough evidence that Tri-CitySkins.com met that requirement, it said.

The tribunal's ruling focused on material posted at Tri-CitySkins.com and the Web site of the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team at wpcect.com. That material included offensive jokes targeted at Jews, blacks and Muslims, as well as articles, newsletters and links to other "white power" and neo-Nazi sites.

Both sites were hosted by Affordable Space.com, which was owned by Kulbashian, the tribunal found. Although not all the sites hosted at Affordable Space.com were racist, the tribunal said, it cited evidence that some 25 percent of them were and that Kulbashian welcomed such sites on his service.

The tribunal also found evidence that respondent Richardson was the editor of and writer for a newsletter titled "Vinland Voice" that was accessible via the wpcect.com site.

With respect to Affordable Space.com, the tribunal found it did not qualify for the exception in Section 13 of the Human Rights Act because its owner, Kulbashian, "fostered and encouraged the use of his computer server for the communication of the hate messages."

The tribunal found Affordable Space.com to be a "person" under the Human Rights Act and said it did not matter in this case whether the business was a sole proprietorship, a corporation or some other form.

The evidence shows Kulbashian was the major, if not the sole, operator of the business, and he was clearly aware that the complaint named the business as a respondent, the tribunal found.

It ordered the four liable respondents to cease their use of the Internet to communicate hate speech. It also ordered Kulbashian and Richardson to pay monetary damages of about $860 ($1,000 Canadian) each and Affordable Space.com and Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team to pay about $2,600 ($3,000 Canadian) each.