CIRA is a not-for-profit organization with a core mandate to ensure the safe, stable and secure operation of the .CA domain and its underlying technologies. We also connect, protect and engage the internet community in Canada and abroad by providing high quality registry, domain name system (DNS) and cybersecurity services. 

As part of its mission to build a trusted internet, CIRA is a long-time advocate for Universal Acceptance. Since 2012, CIRA has supported French characters in .CA domain names to ensure they can be registered in both of Canada’s official languages. When a .CA is registered, variations of a domain name with the accented French characters are reserved for the registrant and cannot be registered by anyone else but must be registered individually with a participating registrar to be active.  

CIRA welcomes the Preliminary Issue Report on a Policy Development Process (PDP) for Latin Script Diacritics. We support initiating a PDP to examine the situation where a base ASCII gTLD and its Latin script diacritic counterpart are not treated as variants, and to explore the necessary mechanisms that would enable a single registry and operator to manage both gTLDs concurrently.  

Clarifying how an ASCII gTLD and its Latin script diacritic version can be delegated to the same operator will not only provide guidance in the Canadian context, but also help the global technical community promote an internet where, one day, everyone can connect online in their preferred language free from technical obstacles. 

CIRA supports initiating a PDP to examine the situation where a base ASCII gTLD and its Latin script diacritic counterpart are not treated as variants, and to explore the necessary mechanisms that would enable a single registry and operator to manage both gTLDs concurrently.