Quebec Appeal Court upholds decision finding Quebec site blocking law unconstitutional

Quebec’s Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal from the province’s attorney general over its desire to have telecoms block access to illegal gambling sites. In July 2018, a Quebec Superior Court judge found an article of the Consumer Protection Act that says Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have to block web users in Quebec from accessing unauthorized online gambling sites within 30 days of receiving notice from the Société des Loteries du Québec to be out of the province’s jurisdiction. The judge concluded that article of the act is unconstitutional -- a finding which justices of Quebec’s Court of Appeal have decided to uphold in favour of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, which represents a variety of ISPs. In their May 5 written decision, justices Guy Gagnon, Michel Beaupré, and Benoît Moore said the previous judge was correct in determining its unconstitutionality as the federal government has jurisdiction over telecommunications law. They said the judge’s conclusion that the goal of the article was ultimately to allow the province to increase its revenues by blocking illegal gambling sites does not change anything or is even superfluous. According to the Court of Appeal decision, the province argued that the lower court judge failed to consider the scope and requirements of cooperative federalism, and that the related article is in fact linked to certain areas of provincial jurisdiction such as gambling, consumer protection, and crime prevention. It said there has been no precedent establishing the federal government’s exclusive jurisdiction of internet communications and that it does not interfere with federal justice. For its part, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association claimed the judge was not wrong to find that article in the act unconstitutional. It also said allowing the order for ISPs to block access to these sites to Quebec web users would be a conflict as they would have to request authorization from the CRTC. The issue of CRTC authority over site-blocking under section 36 of the Telecommunications Act has also come up in the appeal of Canada's first-ever site-blocking order from a Federal Court in the GoldTV case. In that case, TekSavvy Solutions Inc. and rights-holders have disagreed over whether CRTC authority is needed for blocking in that case. Additionally, the appeal court justices found that requiring such blocking of only residents in Quebec would have significant consequences on the management and operations of ISP’s networks and equipment, based on evidence from Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., and Telus Corp. - Reporting by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Quebec Appeal Court upholds decision finding Quebec site blocking law unconstitutional

News | May 14, 2021

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Quebec Appeal Court upholds decision finding Quebec site blocking law unconstitutional

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