Wireless lobby sues Quebec over law banning access to some online gaming sites

A new Quebec Internet law that would ban access to someonline gambling sites is unconstitutional, says Canada's wirelesstelecom lobby, which filed court paperson Wednesdaychallenging thelegislation.

Rules governing the country's telecom industry fall strictly underfederal jurisdiction and Quebec's new law violates the
Telecommunications Act by forcing Internet companies to control orinfluence content, said Marc Choma, a spokesman for the CanadianWireless Telecommunications Association.

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The lobby wants Quebec Superior Court to declare the new law invalid.

Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitao has said his law,which waspassed last May,is necessary to ensure online gambling companiesmaintain responsible gaming rules.

It grants provincial gaming authority Loto-Qubec the right to draw upa list of online gambling companies operating outside provincialrules.

Internet service providers would then be forcedunder threat offinancial penalty to block Quebecers' access to these sites.

The government argues health problems associated with gambling fallunder provincial jurisdiction.

"I think that we will leave that up to the court to decide,'' Chomasaid in an interview.

Choma said Quebec's law forces his association's members, such as Belland Videotron, to choose between complying with federal or provinciallaw.

He said as far as he knows the Quebec government has not yet delivereda list of banned websites to Internet companies.

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A violation of net neutrality?

Aside from jurisdictional issues, legal and Internet experts havecriticized Quebec's law on freedom-of-speech grounds.

They say it violates the principle of "net neutrality,'' which isunderstood to mean Internet companies should be neutral carriers ofcontent and not favour some sites over others or block access tocertain sites.

The federal government included the principle in the 1993Telecommunications Act, which states "Except where the Commission(the CRTC) approves otherwise, a Canadian carrier shall not controlthe content or influence the meaning or purpose of telecommunicationscarried by it for the public.''

Critics have also pointed to the fact the 2015-16 Quebec budgetdocuments described the drive to block access to competing onlinegaming sites as a revenue-generating measure.

The documents stated that forcing all online companies to go throughthe province's gaming authority "would increase the dividend thatLoto-Quebec pays to the government by $13.5 million in 2016-17 and $27million a year thereafter.''