An Ottawa human rights lawyer seeking to block Canadian access to two American hate websites won an early victory Wednesday, when Google took one of the offending websites offline.

In an application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Richard Warman said material on the websites encourage "violent action" against him and list his home address.

"It's certainly something I take very seriously in my personal security," Warman told CTV Newsnet.

"It's something that, for obvious reasons, I'm concerned about, and I think that's one of the reasons why I've taken such vigorous steps to try and combat it."

The websites also call for the extermination of Jews in Canada and the overthrow of the Canadian government.

Google hosted one of the websites on its weblog service Blogger, but shut it down.

"We want Blogger to enable free expression, including the hosting of views and opinions that are unpopular," Google spokesperson Steve Langdon told CP.

"However, advocating violence against a person is not acceptable."

According to Warman's application, the offending material was posted by Bill White, described as a neo-Nazi living in Roanoke, Virginia.

The CRTC is expected to rule on the case this week. If the application is successful, it could be the first time the regulator has allowed Internet service providers to block access to foreign websites.

"This is precedent-setting work," Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications industry consultant, told CP.

He added that if such sites were based in Canada, they would be in contravention of their user agreements and taken down.

While the websites are allowed under American free speech laws, the CRTC can allow Internet providers to temporarily -- and voluntarily -- block access to their universal resource locators (URLs), or Internet addresses.

Warman is also seeking to have the CRTC eventually force all service providers to block access to the URLs.

"It seemed like a perfect opportunity to test the willingness of the CRTC to really enforce its mandate, and say, 'Look, this kind of conduct is not something Canadians are willing to tolerate,'" said Warman.

Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said the issue goes beyond free speech.

"We're dealing with what I believe is a criminal matter -- somebody counselling other people to go ahead and murder somebody," Farber told CP.

Even if the CRTC allows providers to block the URLs, the offending material could appear on other websites, according to Goldberg.

But he added it would slow access to the material, and make it easier to block other websites that post the same content.

"Once we have precedence, hopefully it will be a reasonable process to say, 'This is the same site that just changed its name,'" he told CP.

With files from The Canadian Press