Alberta premier threatens local blogger
p2pnet news | Politics:- edstelmach.ca doesn’t take you to the website of Alberta premier Ed Stelmach (left).
Instead, it kicks you over to a Wikipedia posting for Harry Edwin Strom, the province’s first political leader.
How come?
Well, edstelmach.ca has nothing to do with Ed Stelmach. It was registered by Dave Cournoyer, an Edmonton-based blogger and political science student at the University of Alberta, in April, last year.
not at all, incidentally, he previously served as chair of the Council of Alberta University Students, VP (external) of the University of Alberta Students’ Union from 2006 to 2007, and is also the former Communications Coordinator for the Alberta Liberals.
Today, he stands accused of “misappropriating Ed Stelmach’s personality” and was consequently ordered, in no uncertain terms, to take edstelmach.ca offline by December 21, and hand it over to Stelmach.
Yes. Well.
Of the charge, “I’m really not sure where Ed Stelmach’s personality is, but I certainly didn’t take it,” promises Cournoyer on daveberta.ca.
So what’s it all about?
“Right before Christmas, I received a letter in the mail from Tyler Shandro, a lawyer from the Calgary-based law firm Walsh Wilkins Creighton LLP, representing Alberta Premier Edward Stelmach,” blogs Cournoyer, going on he heard from Shandro, “regarding my ownership of the domain name edstelmach.ca, which I purchased for approximately $14.00 on April 4, 2007 (four months after Mr. Stelmach became Premier of Alberta).”
Cournoyer says for most of the time he’s owned edstelmach.ca, it forwarded to his blog and, “A week before I received the letter from Premier Stelmach’s lawyer, I changed the forwarding to the wikipedia biography of another Alberta Premier (who also probably would have not thought to register his domain name).”
Ahhh. So that’s why edstelmach.ca kicks you over to Harry Edwin Strom 
Cournoyer had Google NonSense ads on edstelmach.ca and according to Walsh Wilkins Creighton LLP, Alberta premier Stelmach wants a cut of the proceeds.
Meanwhile, “Though I am still surprised that the +150 staffed Public Affairs Bureau failed to complete the simple task of registering a $14.00 domain name, I am even more surprised that Premier Ed Stelmach’s first reaction in this situation was to threaten to sue an 24-year old blogger and debt ridden University of Alberta student,” says Cournoyer.
“As a born and bred Albertan, I do not take well to threats from politicians. Therefore I will be seeking advice from legal counsel on how to proceed with this threat.”
So where are things at today?
“I have yet to hear from Premier Ed Stelmach or the lawyers representing him,” Cournoyer blogs, adding:
“The threat letter from Premier Stelmach’s lawyer was the first time I was contacted and I haven’t heard anything since their imposed deadline passed.”
Definitely stay tuned.
Also see:
blogs Cournoyer – premier ed stelmach threatens to sue alberta blogger, January 8, 2008
Cournoyer blogs – overning myself accordingly. day 2, January 9, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe
to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.phpNet access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
