In May, the Canadian province of Québec passed its budget bill, Bill 74, that is normally very boring to the typical person, but this bill contained a twist that outraged lots of people. Bill 74 authorized the province to require internet service providers (ISPs) to dam any online gambling site that was not licensed by the provincial government. This differs from other laws we're used to in various countries and states that simply say that unlicensed sites are illegal; that is actually a sort of internet censorship, deputizing the ISPs to play the role of sheriff.

Québec Finance Minister Carlos Leitao said that the goal here's to offer protection to citizens, that it's for “the health and safety” of Québec residents, but in reality, the purpose of a website blacklist is to offer protection to the government-run monopoly on internet gaming. Loto-Québec, the government’s lottery commission, operates Espacejeux, the one licensed online gambling site in Québec. Loto-Québec got the web gaming site ban language inserted into Bill 74; the budget even says that the ban would boost internet gambling revenue for the federal government by $13.5 million in 2016-2017 and $27 million per year thereafter.

Fortunately, it seems like the Canadian federal government isn’t going to face for this tomfoolery. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recently issued a press release saying that the net gaming ban violates Canadian law. That law from the Telecommunications Act:

Except where the 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.

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