Website-blocking law faces legal hurdle
The Quebec government’s controversial new law that allows its provincial gambling agency to order the blocking of some Internet sites is facing a court challenge.
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association — its membership includes Vidéotron, Rogers Communications Inc., Bell and Telus Corp. — filed a motion with the Quebec Superior Court against Bill 74, asking the court to declare unconstitutional the section of the law that gives LotoQuébec the power to compose a list of websites it wants Internet service providers to block.
The federal Telecommunications Act states that unless the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approves otherwise, “a Canadian carrier shall not control the content or influence the meaning or purpose of telecommunications carried by it for the public.” It is for this reason that CWTA says the section of the law be stricken down.
“As we had previously expressed to the Quebec government, the provisions in the Act would put ISPs and wireless service providers in conflict with Section 36 of the federal Telecommunications Act which governs ALL telecommunications in Canada,” CWTA vice-president Marc Choma, said in a statement. “As well, we have always maintained, and as has been confirmed by the courts in previous instances, telecommunications is the sole jurisdiction of the federal government and must remain so.”
Stéphanie Vallée, Quebec’s Attorney General, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
While Bill 74 gives Loto-Québec the power to order Internet Service Providers to block its online competitors, it doesn’t specify how they would do this. The CWTA believes the law would require expensive new infrastructure, as most Canadian ISPs don’t have provincial blocking capabilities, and that costs spent on adhering to the law could be passed on to consumers nationally.
Other concerns been raised by CWTA, legal experts and activists include that it threatens net neutrality and freedom of expression. Net neutrality is the principle generally understood to hold that Internet companies and governments should be neutral in their approach to online content, and should not favour or block access to websites.
The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, a First Nation located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River across from Montreal, has set out its own concerns with the law. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission licenses and regulates 25 operators and more than 90 websites from around the world. It said that if Loto-Québec were to order the blocking of sites it hosts, it could be in violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People by causing harm to the community’s economic development.
Quebec’s courts aren’t the only place where Bill 74 is facing a challenge. This month, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre — a consumer advocacy charity — filed an application with the CRTC, arguing the law would lead to rising costs for consumers who would be called upon to subsidize the new infrastructure ISPs will need to build to block web content on a provincial basis.
Loto- Québec estimated in 2014 that its gambling portal Espacejeux accounted for 20 per cent of the province’s online gambling market, which it estimated to be worth $250 million. Carlos Leitão, Quebec’s Minister of Finance, estimated that Espacejeux’s annual revenue would receive boosts of $13.5 million in the first year and $27 million subsequent years following Bill 74’s adoption.