Chair
Biography
I am a lawyer by education who practices principally in relation to technology issues: Internet governance, domain names, and 9-1-1 policy matters. I was a National Commissioner of the CRTC (the Canadian broadcast and telecom regulator) from 2008-2013.
I am the Chairman of the Canada Chapter of the Internet Society, whose goal is to keep the Internet free as in speech and cheap as in salt. The Canada Chapter is one of many Internet Society Chapters around the world.
Between January 1st, 2009, and August 2017, I served as a member of the Board of Trustees of ARIN, the American Registry of Internet Numbers, being re-elected in 2011 and 2014, by the ARIN electorate for three year terms. I served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of ARIN from January 2011 to August 2013.
I am also concerned with how Canada will evolve its 9-1-1 and public alerting systems into an IP-based architecture.
In my time as Commissioner at the CRTC, the most significant accomplishment was turning down the proposal to regulate the Internet under the Broadcasting Act. The other significant decision in which I participated was the Internet traffic management procedures proceeding, which balanced the rights of network owners to defend their networks with the rights of users to access networks for their own purposes. My concerns remain the access of people and business to networks, to use, create and innovate without permission.