An international online advocacy group has slammed plans by the government of the Canadian province of Quebec to force internet service providers to IP-block unauthorized online gambling operators.

In March, Quebec’s 2015-16 budget plan proposed changing the Consumer Protection Act and gambling laws by introducing an “illegal website filtering measure.” The measure would require the province’s ISPs to block traffic to gambling sites that compete with the Espace-jeux site run by the Loto-Quebec lottery corporation.

The plan was immediately slammed as a protectionist – and likely illegal – move by online rights watchdog Michael Geist and groups representing the ISPs who will be tasked with blocking international gambling sites. Now the Canadian branch of the Internet Society has sent a letter to the Quebec government warning of the consequences of such a plan.

Speaking with Cartt.ca, Internet Society of Canada chairman Timothy Denton said Quebec’s plan was “expensive, it’s futile and it sets a bad precedent.” Denton, a former commissioner with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, called the plan “a direct attack on the freedom of movement of thought” and “probably violates the trade and commerce clause in the constitution.”