Why we’re fighting to fix Canada’s broken liquor laws

Help us fix Canada’s antiquated wine laws at winecampaign.ca

Canadian liquor laws are broken. We’ve been arguing this for the past two weeks.

One reason why they’re broken is because the debate surrounding Canadian liquor laws is broken as well.

Part of this is due to the fact that very few people actually know enough about Canadian liquor law to comment on it thoughtfully. This is completely understandable, given the fact that a lot of the legislation we’re discussing was passed during Prohibition. It is likely that only a handful of people in the country actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to liquor law in Canada.

One of these people is Toronto lawyer Ian Blue, who has argued, and is continuing to argue, that the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act (IILA) of 1920 — the legislation that underpins Canadian liquor import laws — is unconstitutional.

Some of Blue’s critics have dismissed his claims by pointing out that in 2012, the federal government changed the IILA to allow the provinces to determine their own liquor import laws. This is wrong.

The change was cosmetic, and it completely avoided the core issue, which is the unconstitutionality of the IILA.

To clear the air and explain what exactly it is that we’re trying to do with the Campaign for Canadian Wine, here’s a breakdown of what we’ve argued so far:

1. The IILA hurts Canada’s small wineries

• Many provinces still do not allow Canadians to physically bring wine or beer into their province. Doing so could get you arrested, as it did Gerard Comeau of New Brunswick.
• Forcing small wineries to sell their product to provincial liquor boards and forcing them to go through each province’s warehousing system is costly and inefficient.
• The system favours large wineries and brewers, and actively discourages smaller producers from selling to the rest of Canada.
• Smaller wineries and breweries, as we’ve noted before, are terrified of speaking out against this system, for fear of getting delisted at provincial liquor stores.
• At the end of the day, the current system effectively discourages Canadians from drinking Canadian wine (outside of their home province).

Ted Thai, LIFE Photo Collection, 2001

2. The IILA is probably unconstitutional

• The worst thing about the IILA is that it probably isn’t even legal.
• This is what Ian Blue argues in “On the Rocks,” an article in Advocates Quarterly which you can read here if you love to read legalese.
• The gist of his argument is that the IILA is illegal because it blatantly ignores section 121 of the Constitution Act, 1867, which requires “items of growth, produce, and manufacture to be admitted free from one province into another.”

3. The 2012 amendment passed the buck, and ignored the core problem

• In 2012, B.C. MP Dan Albas used Blue’s argument to pass Bill C-311, which allows individuals to carry a small amount of liquor across provincial borders.
• Some people falsely believe that this amendment dismantled the IILA and removed all federal influence. This is false.
• All the bill did was insert a specific exemption into the IILA giving provinces the ability to regulate the importation of small, arbitrarily set personal amounts.
• The bill ignores the fact that, under the constitution, the provinces do not have the power to do this in the first place. That’s why the provinces asked the federal government to pass the IILA in 1928.
• Even in provinces where changes have taken effect, the rules are still stifling. Residents in Saskatchewan, for example, must pay a fee of $5.25 per imported bottle, but not before they complete and submit a Direct to Consumer Importation Authorization form to the SLGA, which allows them to order a maximum of 9 litres of wine. Oh, and you can only order BC wine.
• The 2012 amendment was cosmetic, and avoided the core problems at the heart of the IILA: namely that it harms small wineries and brewers, and that it does so illegally (probably).

Until the IILA is challenged and reformed, it will continue to hurt small Canadian winemakers, and hinder the growth of Canada’s wine industry. That’s why the Campaign for Canadian Wine is fighting to fix Canada’s liquor laws, and that’s why we need your help.

Help us fix Canada’s antiquated wine laws at winecampaign.ca