The Canadian Internet Registration Authority, which manages to the dot-ca domain, today launched a critically important public consultation which raises the prospect of a dramatic change to the CIRA board, public elections, and other accountability issues.  I have served for the past four years on the CIRA board and I’m proud of much of what has been accomplished.  For example, I think we have a fairer domain name dispute resolution policy than that used by ICANN, we’ve tried to introduce a privacy friendly WHOIS policy, and we’ve conduct public meetings from coast to coast to engage individual Canadians. 

As the organization has grown, so too have the governance challenges.  The time may have come for some significant changes to better ensure that a broad and fully representative group of CIRA stakeholders can effectively contribute to the governance of Canada’s domain.  The deadline for submissions is September 9, 2005.  I hope that many Canadians will take a few moments from their summer to consider these proposals and provide some feedback.