Pas de problème ... Quebec just passed a website blocking law Canada's second largest province, Quebec, has passed a law that obliges ISPs to block gambling websites. Bill 74 has passed almost without notice (the casino industry being the notable exception) and will see the government agency in charge of lotteries in the province, Loto-Québec, draw up a list of online gambling sites that …
Given a choice between an ISP that blocks websites they're legally obliged to - as passed by an, I presume, elected legislature - and an ISP that blocks, not only those websites, but a bunch of others as well, which would you choose?
Which do you think Quebecois punters will choose?
So which of those ISPs would you rather be invested in?
It seems to me that every Government that makes an attempt to regulate the Internet is doomed to ridicule, (with the possible exception of the Chinese Communist Party, but they're happy to shoot real bullets).
Where I live there have been no calls to ban this or that, or if there have been they've gone nowhere.
I'd like to think that's because we have a better breed of politician here, but I'm probably being a bit optimistic.
I wish it was the Mob, they at least have a heart.
Espacejeu is part of the provincially owned and operated lottery, so good luck in the fight.
Lotto Quebec controls all lotteries in the province, right down to the elementary school fund raising ones.
Also, the federal government has a history of backing down if Quebec pushes hard enough.
I have no idea if the First Nations casinos have an online gambling presence, not being a gambler myself.
According to http://500nations.com/Quebec_Casinos.asp
There are no First Nation casinos in Quebec, but there are two poker rooms located in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission: Four Aces Poker and Snakes Poker Club. The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory is a reserve of the Mohawk people located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada across from Montreal.
"It seems to me that every Government that makes an attempt to regulate the Internet is doomed to ridicule, (with the possible exception of the Chinese Communist Party, but they're happy to shoot real bullets)."
That's exactly right. Every government that attempts to use some kind of technical fix to regulate the internet ends up looking ridiculous. Any government that uses real bullets to regulate the internet ends up getting what they want. There *are* no technical fixes. Your alternatives are to make it illegal and enforce that law, or give up. The Chinese have gone one way, for now, more or less successfully. Everyone else is just hand-wringing (and grand-standing). In the long term, it may turn out that the Chinese can't keep it up, in which case *everyone* will have ended up looking ridiculous except for those who just shrugged and got on with Real Life.
Although the United States has strict laws which forbid Americans from gambling on foreign web sites, they have also used trade agreements to stop other countries from restricting their nationals from gambling on American web sites. So Quebec may get challenges from the United States because of the many trade agreements we have with that country.
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Will Canada follow China and Australia? Is this the start of the Great Wall of Canada?
No.
It is more Canadian-style government mandated trade protection to protect local vested interests and local mega millionaires from competition based outside the province.
To protect local trade unions and industry, we usually can't buy wine or beer made in another province.
Canada is in some respects a looser confederation than the EU.
Those laws changed a long time ago and as a result jobs were taken from many provinces to concentrate brewing in Eastern Canada. For example today Molson has only 5 major breweries, all but one in the East. BTW for people outside of Canada more people live in the West than East of Ontario.
If you want to support local jobs you have to buy from the many micro and small breweries. The fact that they also have better beer has resulted in an increase of such breweries and a call to start protecting those jobs. Of course the beer industry, like most Canadian industries is largely foreign owned and controlled so if more trade restrictions between provinces can make them more money they will support such changes.
If changes happen it won't be to protect jobs in most provinces, it will be to increase profits, as all such changes seem to be these days.
Quebec has a long history of thuggery and political control of all aspects of society so I wouldn't be too surprised if the people support such restrictions. They currently support extreme language and cultural laws that openly violate the Canadian Constitution and Bill of Rights. I'm sure internet concerns or any freedom to access information is pretty far down their list of concerns. More money to support such programs always seem to trump any concerns about the programs themselves.
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