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Cue's Icke to identify Stockhouse poster "scuba2223"

2011-01-20 15:01 ET - Street Wire

by Mike Caswell

John Icke, the chairman of Cue Resources Ltd., may soon learn the identity of a Stockhouse poster who wrote that Mr. Icke committed extortion in Paraguay. According to filings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, the person responsible used an IP address at Canaccord Genuity Corp., and Canaccord has agreed to provide that person's name.

Icke sues Stockhouse

Mr. Icke has been trying to identify the poster since Oct. 6, 2010, when he filed a notice of claim against Stockhouse Publishing Inc., asking for the IP address of a user called scuba2223. In the suit, he said that scuba2223 wrote the following post on Aug. 27, 2010: "Paraguayan Authorities are looking for John Icke regarding Cue Resources. The news said he is involved in stealing documents and extorsion [sic]!" The message had a header which read, "Paraguay going after John Icke."

Mr. Icke said he learned about the post three days after it appeared. He immediately asked Stockhouse to remove it, which the website did. He complained that the post was untrue and that it damaged his reputation by implying that he was involved in criminal conduct.

Eventually Stockhouse provided him two IP addresses for the user, which originated from Shaw Cablesystems GP and Canaccord. Although Stockhouse had initially stated that it would not release the addresses without a court order, there is no order in the court file. Mr. Icke discontinued the Stockhouse suit on Nov. 9, 2010.

Icke sues Canaccord and Shaw

Mr. Icke then filed a suit against Canaccord and Shaw, seeking the user's name. The suit, filed on Nov. 8, 2010, said that the person Mr. Icke sought to identify used the Shaw IP address 96.49.146.39 and the Canaccord IP address 209.53.139.61. He asked that the court order Shaw and Canaccord to identify the account holder who was using those addresses on the dates and times that scuba2223 signed in to Stockhouse.

He repeated his assertion that the post was false and defamatory, and that it damaged his reputation. "The person posting ... does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to the use of Canaccord property or Shaw internet services for the purpose of publishing defamatory statements," the suit stated.

The suits were filed on Mr. Icke's behalf by Bruce Elwood of Vancouver law firm Arvay Finlay.

Canaccord's response

On Jan. 17, 2011, Canaccord filed a brief response to the suit. It said that it knew nothing about the posts, but agreed that it would not oppose a court order directing it to identify the employee who used the IP address. It is not clear when or if the name of the poster will become public. Presumably Mr. Icke plans to file a lawsuit that would identify that person as a defendant.

Cue Resources, which is exploring for uranium at its Yuty project in Paraguay, closed at 17 cents on Wednesday.