Why Grapes are Being Freed While Hops Remained Shackled

Over the past month BC wine consumers and the BC wine industry have had several reasons to pop champagne corks in celebration of changes to both federal and provincial laws which have benefited both groups.

First Bill C-311, a Private Member's Bill  introduced into the House of Commons by Okanagan-Coquihalla MP Dan Albas, prompted an amendment to the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act (IILA) of 1928 which now allows, under federal law, that wine, and wine only, may transported or shipped across provincial borders by consumers.

Spirits and beer are still illegal to ship or transport across provincial boundaries as they have been since the introduction of the IILA.

Next the Provincial Liberals got in on the act by allowing consumers to buy direct from Canadian wineries and as an added bonus, they did not have to pay the BC Liquor Distribution Branch's (LDB) 123% mark-up! Even though the feds had allowed for cross-border shipments of wine, it is the provincial governments that ultimately have control of what alcohol gets imported into their jurisdictions so this move was critical to give Bill C-311 some meaning.

Again, these allowances were made for wine only, leaving laws unchanged in regards to spirits and beer.

If that weren't enough,  Rich Coleman, the minister responsible for all thing liquor in BC, next announced that BC wine lovers could now take their favourite bottle of wine to participating restaurants, pay a corkage fee and enjoy it with their meal. The allowance for Bring Your Own Wine (BYOW) was immediate and restaurants have been taking advantage of the freedom to allow BYOW since the announcement was made mid-July.

All of these great freedoms and allowances for wine lovers have craft beer drinkers crying into their sleeves. The moves definitely give the appearance that the BC wine consumers and  wine industry get favoured treatment from the BC Liberals, the LDB and the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB), and in many cases this is true, but in these cases I would argue that these wine-centric changes have been well-earned by the consumers of wine in this province who have organized, lobbied and gained the support from the industry to back their fight to change laws.

Groups like #freemygrapes, who Albas thanks on his website for their essential support, and Modernize Wine have been working hard to bring wine consumers together on issues and form loud, strong voices that the government and the wine industry have not been able to ignore. They have a small core of very dedicated people who are adept at creating a buzz, educating other consumers about the importance of supporting their movements and catching the attention of politicians. They are good at defining, ahead of time, exactly what it is that they want, creating an action plan and then going out and getting the results they want..

And contrary to popular belief, these movements are not heavily funded by deep-pocketed vineyard owners, at least not in the beginning.

#Freemygrapes and Modernize Wine are consumer-driven, grassroots movements. They use social media  to the maximum to create a buzz and focus attention on themselves. They often organize on-line chats, to discuss the issues at hand and keep people focused. They have email write-in and Twitter campaigns which target politicians and bureaucrats who are in positions to influence the changes they seek and put pressure on the various private sector groups to support them. More importantly than organizing these awareness-raising events is that they get participation in large numbers which is essential. They are determined and have been organizing for years now, which is one of the major reasons they are now seeing successes.

These movements being consumer-driven makes sense because many, if not all manufacturers, vendors and importers of alcohol in BC are afraid to stick their heads up and speak out about problems and demand changes due to the atmosphere of fear and the widely-held belief that voicing complaints and concerns will result in reprisals from the LCLB and LDB. I don't know how many times I have heard from licensees they feel both government agencies are "vindictive" when challenged either privately or publicly. You only have to look at the RIO Theatre saga, where RIO ownership publicly challenged the Liberal Government and LCLB in the media and paid the price with the process dragging on much longer that it needed to, almost costing RIO ownership their business, before Mr Coleman finally did what he should have done straight off, which is make changes to a decades-old liquor policy that had no place being enforced in the 21st Century.

It is a widely-held belief by many that the process involving the RIO's licensing issues was purposely delayed to make the RIO ownership pay for their direct public challenges. These are, of course, just rumours....

So it is up to us, the consumers, to lead the charge as we have less to lose in regards to what the LCLB and/or LDB can do to us. They cannot suspend our liquor license or hit us with some arbitrary fine for "contravening" liquor laws. They cannot lose our liquor order of products that fill our shelves. They cannot lose our paperwork, delaying payment for products sold weeks before.

They can ignore us, but in the end, if consumers make enough noise, with enough people, politicians, who ultimately call the shots for the LCLB and LDB, will listen because consumers are voters and in the end, politicians are all about getting votes so they can stay in power.

The craft beer consumer is not without options and does have CAMRA BC, and their branches in Vancouver, Victoria and the Fraser Valley, to rally around but CAMRA BC does have numbers, with close to 1,100 individual members and over 80 corporate supporters, but those numbers mean nothing if the majority of members are silent and/or unwilling to get involved. I made recent calls to individual members to write emails to LCLB General Karen Ayers and minister Rich Coleman in support of CAMRA Vancouver's Bring Your Own Craft Beer Campaign and out of the 250 or so who had signed our petition and our 700+ members, about 20 people responded (and my thanks to all who did respond).

A group like CAMRA and movements/campaigns are only as effective as those supporting it and until craft beer consumers learn to get as organized, vocal and supportive as wine consumers are, they are going to be like poor kids standing outside the candy shop with their noses pressed up against the window, jealously watching the rich kids inside the store sampling and buying their sweets.

So, craft beer consumers, if you want to #freemyhops, Bring Your Own Craft Beer or are against the LDB privatization of distribution, get active, get involved and support those groups out there, like CAMRA BC/CAMRA Vancouver, who are actively trying to make a difference. Write letters to the editor, get involved in tweet and email campaigns, sign petitions, get friends and family interested in supporting the cause.

And if you are waiting for the person next to you to fight your battle, don't because I have news for you, they are probably waiting for you to fight their's.

Craft Beer Industry Missing Out on Law Reforms

Recently my sister-in-law and her husband from Mexico visited my family and as a gift they brought us a few bottles of ice wine from the Niagara Region of Ontario, where they stopped over for a few days to see the sights.
You should have seen the look on their faces when I told them they had just violated a federal law by importing alcohol from one province to another within Canada. In one fell swoop, I was aiding and abetting criminals and was in possession of contraband alcohol.

Yes, in case you did not know, thanks to the Importing of Intoxicating Liquor Act (IILA) of 1928, it is indeed illegal to transport alcohol from one province to the next as all alcohols must be purchased through the provincial liquor boards, which have absolute power to do what they please. It is a law that has long since outgrown its purposefulness, originally enacted after prohibition to give provincial governments a monopoly on importing, exporting, distribution and sales of all alcohols in order to keep things under control and in check in the post-prohibition era.
Many of us have unwittingly broken this federal law by purchasing liquor in other provinces while on vacation in other parts of this great country of ours and bringing it back home. I once brought back a whole box of Sortilege, a delectable blend of distilled maple syrup and rye whiskey from Montreal and labelled the box "fragile, bottles of alcohol" on the box, literally announcing my criminal activity to all!

Today, the LDB continues to maintain a complete monopoly on the alcohol trade here in BC and answers to no one. Even the private retail liquor stores (LRS) must buy their alcohol through the LDB, who mark up the price, creating an uneven playing field, cost-wise, with the LDB government liquor stores having the unfair advantage. The LDB also has the ability to restrict consumer choice by simply not purchasing products they don't want to distribute, whether there is a consumer demand for those products or not.

But there is a movement afoot to change some of these restrictions in regards to the IILA and free trade between provinces, but unfortunately it seems that the laws that will be changed to allow limited amounts of wine only to be transported over provincial borders without having to go through the provincial liquor boards concerned.
Dan Albas, Conservative MP for Okanagan/Coquilhalla, recently introduced a private members bill , Bill C-311, in the House of Commons that is attempting to amend the IILA to allow for limited amounts of wine, for personal use, to be brought/shipped directly by/to the consumer across provincial borders. Bill C-311, is currently undergoing its second reading before the House of Commons and if it passes, will be sent to a committee to be examined before going before a third and final reading in the house. If passed in the third reading the bill will be enacted into law and the proposed changes will be made to the archaic IILA.

Bill C-311, if successful, will allow for,

"the importation of wine from a province by an individual, if the individual brings the wine or causes it to be brought into another province, in quantities and as permitted by the laws of the latter province, for his or her personal consumption, and not for resale or other commercial use."

My question is why does the wording of Bill C-311 include wine only and not include beer? Have the BC Craft Brewers Guild (BCCBG) missed the political boat being steered by the BC wine lobby?
According to the BC Craft Brewers Guild Chairman, Tod Melnyk, the BCCBG are aware of Bill C-311, but don't consider it pertinent to the BC craft beer industry.
"We have not lobbied to have beer included in Bill C-311 as it has not been as issue in our segment," stated Melnyk in an via email.

For me, as a consumer, this is the exact kind of political lobbying and advocacy that the BC craft beer industry is in need of and the powers that be associated with the BC Craft Brewer's Guild seem to have been asleep at the switch. How can opening up inter-provincial transportation of your products, even just a little, not be an advantage to your business and the industry as a whole?  If you go by the coverage Bill C-311 is getting on wine blogs and wine-related websites, there is quite a buzz of excitement about these proposed changes the the IILA. It is just a toe in the door, in regards to opening up free movement of alcohols between provinces, but a toe in the door is better than a door slammed shut in your face and once pried open a little, there is room to push that door open further.

If Bill C-311 passes and get enacted into law, the craft beer industry have a legitimate grounds to claim the wine industry have an unfair advantage and that beer and other alcohols should be included in the amendment to the IILA. We, as consumers should insist on these changes to be made. It might not be important to the BCCBG, but to me, as a consumer and lover of craft beer, it is important to me to have as much access to great craft beers no matter where they are brewed. Why shouldn't I be able to order a case of craft beer from Ontario, or Quebec if I am willing to pay the price? It may seem far-fetched, but trust me, there would be people interested. In the past, I have paid to fly briskets of Schwartz's Montreal smoked meat out to Vancouver for special occasions so why not fly out a few cases of Dieu du Ciel beers to accompany the meal if I so desire.

I truly hope that the BCCBG's apathy towards this law changes and that they do lobby in the future to amend further these archaic liquor laws that restrict them as an industry and restrict us as consumers.

In the meantime, I am going set about the task of getting rid of the contraband ice wine in my possession. Come to think of it, I had better "dispose" of that Sortilege as well.