A fact from W. R. Myers High School shooting appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 August 2005. The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Canadian media cannot legally reprint their own stories mentioning the name of convicted school shooter Todd Cameron Smith?
While the biographies of living persons policy does not apply directly to the subject of this article, it may contain material that relates to living persons, such as friends and family of persons no longer living, or living persons involved in the subject matter. Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons must be removed immediately. If such material is re-inserted repeatedly, or if there are other concerns related to this policy, please see this noticeboard.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Canada, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Canada on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CanadaWikipedia:WikiProject CanadaTemplate:WikiProject CanadaCanada-related articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Crime and Criminal Biography articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Crime and Criminal BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject Crime and Criminal BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Crime and Criminal BiographyCrime-related articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Death, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Death on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DeathWikipedia:WikiProject DeathTemplate:WikiProject DeathDeath articles
This article is related to WikiProject Schools, a collaborative effort to write quality articles about schools around the world. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page.SchoolsWikipedia:WikiProject SchoolsTemplate:WikiProject Schoolsschool articles
I think it is a legal quagmire, more than anything. Smith's name was briefly released when he escaped as a public safety issue. However, once he was recaptured, the press was no longer legally allowed to release his name becuase of the YOA. Of course, that is a patently ridiculous aspect of this case, given you really can't put the genie back in the bottle once you release it, but that doesn't stop the government from trying, does it? I personally don't think that having his name on the article is a problem, but others do, so so be it. It does kinda suck that an encyclopedia has to hide common knowledge becuase of some legal stupidity, but that's life. Resolute19:35, 20 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The issue of the legality of Wikepedia publishing the name of a Canadian youth offender has been discussed on at least one other page: Lethbridge murders and on that page all attempts to remove the name of the young murderer were reverted. The Talk page took the line that since Wikipedia isn't hosted in Canada it's not subject to Canadian laws. I believe it might be illegal for anyone in Canada to edit a page that does identify a Young Offender, but I'm not a lawyer. It certainly is odd to see 2 pages come to opposite conclusions about what is allowed. Meters (talk) 00:07, 26 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
For that matter, since this article (Myers High School) contains at at least one link to a site that does directly identify the killer, who are we kidding? His name may not be in the Wikipedia article, but we're sure making it public. Meters (talk) 00:16, 26 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I would suggest re-adding it then, per the other article you mentioned, and it's DRV case. As I said, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. I would, but just in case you are right in it being illegal for a Canadian to add it, it's best that I do not. ;o) Resolute00:20, 26 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Sometimes you just have to laugh. Now this page (Myers High School) has changed back to listing the Canadian juvenile offender's name but after a very lengthy discussion Lethbridge murders has now removed the Canadian juvenile offender's name from that page. Meters (talk) 20:24, 21 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Wiki Education assignment: True Crime and Misinformation
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 17 January 2023 and 2 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): ARO1209 (article contribs).
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 17 January 2023 and 2 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): ARO1209 (article contribs).