POSSESSION of a liquor iicence in B.C. appears to seriously impair judgment for a whole lot of business operators. For proof of that reality look no further than the cur- rent punch-up over B.C. liquor laws. Old-timers have seen this Booze in B.C, movie betore. Come to think of it, not just old-timers; anyone with a couple of decades behind them will already have seen ig, The plot line is not new. it goes something like this: Group A cultivates mur- murings of discontent about the province’s liquor laws — not liberal enough; regres- sive; prohibitionist; backward; small town; Calvinistic. Insert exclamation marks after cach of the above. Group A is usually made up of service industry busi- nesses that don’t have fiquor licences or have marginally lucrative ones. Before that discontent can boil over into armed revolu- tion from beer-guzzlers, whisky hounds and the rest of the thirsty masses, enter Group B. The haves. The establish- ment liquor dispensaries who have no problem with liquor access, mainly because they have a lock on the fermented Noodgates. Back in the bad old days when the Prohibition Act of C. — the séeque: yarns B.C. was in force and the strains of Tremble King Alcohol filled the land, private clubs were the sole members of Group B. When the act was repealed on June 14, 1921, the provincial government joined Group B as a Big Brother dispenser of alcohol. Hotels were later added to the liquor licence haves. And for a long time the resolve of that triumvirate kept the rest of the province safe fram che depravity of open liquor access. In more recent years, nightclubs, beer hails and neighbourhood pubs have been added to Group B. And in each lead-up to loosening B.C."s teetoralling belt, Group B has howled about the dangers of listening to Group A and its calls for more liberal liquor laws. In the 1999 remake of Booze in B.C., the lead for Group A is being played by the B.C, Restaurant and Foodservices Association. Fighting the good fight for Group B is the Hospitality Industry Coalition, a cagey tagteam of wizened veterans (hotels and Ol, Lube & Filter 21 pt. Safety check, 15 micutes - FAST! Inctudes up to 5 litres of 10w30 Quakerstate i 1362 Marine Drive 980-9115 Los 8:00am-6:00pm, Sun. 9:00am-5:00pm Expires Feb. 3/99 ACCOUNTING SERVICES Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly Corporate & Personal Taxes Financial Statements Bookkeeping, Budgets & Payroll Free initial Consultation DON LANE 921-3322 cabarets) and the one-time darling of the Group A ranks, neighbourhood pubs. Remember them? Back in the heady days leading up to Expo 86, pubs were the underdogs; the watering holes of the people. ‘Thev represented neigh- bourly British treedom from the dour halls of brew oper- ated by hotels — places the 1971) Morrow Commission liquer inquiry described as “about as unpleasant and uncongenial surroundings as man could devise.” That they were. The neighbourhood pubs revolution was a win for the people. Tt was also 4 win for civi- lized consumption of ale and other retreshment. Well, as the old movie plot runs, that neighbour- hood pub revolutionary is now part of the establish- ment, It is as dead set against change as any member of Group B before it. You don’t need to lonk tao faz to see that. For example, an Aug. 2, 1999, Ripping Yarns related the tale of Nick Vavaris and his Seven Years Pub War. The drama was fought on a much smaller stage than the main movie we're talking a about here. Bur it featured the bull- headed Greek in a battle to Sceure a pub licence for his Esplanade restaurant. Lobbing heavy artillery trom the other side of the trenches were nearby members of the neighbourhood pub fraterni- ty Not everything about pubs is neighbourly, it turns out. When it comes to liquor licences, the haves have no time for the have-nots, espe- cially if they are planning to occupy turf anywhere remotely close by. In the current movie the plot has a modern twist: members of Group A and Group B already have tiquor licences. The battle then is not so clearcut. Restaurants want to fine- tune the terms of their licences. They want, for example, to be able to install televi- sions of whatever size and number they deem suits their needs. Right now the govern- ment liquor bosses control the size and number of televi- sions in restaurants. See Liquor page 11 S.Laursen & Son Draperies and Blinds Ltd. ss yp Serving the . 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