A Canadian legal charity that works on cases pro-bono is crowd-funding Canadians for the cause of free beer. At least, that’s what the Indiegogo campaign launched by the Canadian Constitution Foundation is called.

It’s aiming to raise $20,000 for the legal defense for a New Brunswick man who was charged with illegally importing liquor into his home province from Quebec in 2012. Gerard Comeau, a retired steelworker, was fined $292.50 after buying 17 cases of beer from a Quebec liquor store.

New Brunswick’s law prohibits importing more than one bottle of wine or 12 pints of beer from another province, according to the federal Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act, which passed in 1928.

The CCF intend to challenge the constitution, saying it goes against section 121 of the Constitution Act of 1867, which protects the free flow of goods from one province into another.

“We’re not planning to give away free beer,” Karen Selick, Litigation Director with the CCF tells Yahoo Canada News. “We’re trying to free up the inter-provincial transportation of beer.”

She explains that since beer is an inelastic demand curve – people are going to drink it no matter what the price – provinces want to keep a firm grasp on those revenues.

Things get convoluted when it comes to each province, however. In New Brunswick, you’re allowed to buy a higher quantity of alcohol from the US than you are allowed to bring beer from another province.

The only provinces that openly permit inter-provincial shipment of wine are B.C., Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Saskatchewan joined the club recently, but under confusing guidelines that include obtaining a permit. Beer shipment is forbidden bewteen most provinces, except Manitoba.

Mark Hicken is a lawyer with the Vintage Law Group, a law firm that provides legal services to the wine industry. He explains that Canada’s confusing liquor laws date back to prohibition, when each province entered into it at different times, and enforced different rules. To prohibit one province, which might have still been under prohibition, from accessing liquor from another that wasn’t, the federal government enacted a law that made it illegal to transport any alcohol across provincial boundaries. The law was passed in 1928, and was amended in 2012, which created exceptions between provinces for personal consumption. Yet, the act still refers to provincial laws, giving provinces the final say on how much alcohol can be sold inter-provincially.

“What we’re left with now is a patchwork quilt of different regulation where a few provinces that actually publically allow inter-provincial shipment, and most of them are saying you can’t do it,” he says. “It’s easier for a B.C. winery to ship to a customer in New York than it is to ship to a customer from the province next door. It’s a ridiculous situation. Provincial governments should look beyond their immediate revenue concerns.”

Robert Jackiewicz echoes that sentiment. He’s the co-founder of Brew Box, which facilitates the sale of over 30 Ontario craft beers online, within the province. He says the current laws hold up monopolies of large liquor companies that work with the provinces to maintain the status quo.

“We’re still living in a prohibition nanny state that stifles new business and entrepreneurship,” he says.

Selick says the CCF’s crowd funding efforts are relevant to anyone who operates a small brewery or winery – as well as any who enjoys a good drink.

“(It concerns) any ordinary Canadian who thinks the monopolies that the provincial governments have are wrong, who’d like to be able to say ‘I’d like to try an other beer that the beer store doesn’t sell, maybe something from British Columbia,’” she says. “People should have that freedom.”