The Canadian authorities are demanding consular access to a Iranian-Canadian blogger who has been arrested in Iran for saying nasty things about the Shiite authorities.

The Canadians have been trying to get access to Hossein Derakhshan in Iran without much joy.  His blog has not been updated since October 30. The Iranian judiciary confirmed that Derakhshan is under arrest over remarks he allegedly made about key figures of the Shiite faith.

He is being held while the case is investigated with is a polite way of saying we are holding him without trial. Derakhshan lives in Canada but was arrested when he visited Iran in November. A conservative Iranian website said in November that Derakhshan had been arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel which is a polite way of saying we are holding him without trial because we don't like him much.

Derakhshan is known as the "father" of Iranian blogging, he sparked a blogging revolution in the Islamic republic by posting precise instructions in 2001 on how to set up Farsi blogs.

He has visited Israel using his Canadian passport in 2006 and chronicled his experience on his Persian and English blogs, saying he sought to show Israelis and Iranians a different image of each country.