longdog wrote:Burnaby49 wrote:A bit of history to show how the British Columbia government Canadian gave the breweries and incentive to produce crap beer.... <snip>
Truly the stuff of nightmares
Change that sentence too;
A bit of history to show how the British Columbia government gave the breweries an incentive to produce crap beer.
The result of the province's restrictive alcohol policies was exactly the same as what happened in the United States because of prohibition. Overwhelming official corruption. The British Columbian police forces were totally corrupted by the opportunities available through the laws.
We had world-famous night clubs, Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, they were all here frequently in the 50s at the Cave, Palomar, the Penthouse. All the legends. But no alcohol allowed. So, like prohibition, patrons brought their own bottles. Honest law-abiding citizens, My Parents!, ignored the laws. They'd put the bottle under the table and pay liquor prices for mixers. Everybody knew including the police. So the police would raid every night club frequently. But not to enforce the law but to profit from it. Corruption was so deep that it was officially part of the system. Nobody wanted to kill the golden goose by arresting my parents out for a night's enjoyment so night clubs were told in advance about police raids. They'd announce it at the club, patrons would finish their drinks and wait for the show. Police would sweep in, check under the tables and confiscate the bottles. Nobody got charged and the booze would somehow disappear between the club and the evidence locker. The police themselves became the bootleggers. We had one on my block in Vancouver in the 50s. Every once in a while there'd be a big expose, a police chief would be fired and nothing changed.
So, in 1954 the government started allowing cocktail lounges. Drinking was allowed at the bar, the first time since saloons closed 1925. But even then corruption continued because the government tried to punish establishments they didn't approve of by not allowing licenses. The Penthouse was very much in that roster with raids, corrupt police confiscations, trials and acquittals (jury's had had enough of the official hypocrisy). Finally the government threw in the towel and gave up. But not for beer parlours. Those rules didn't change because beer was still available even if shit so there was no opportunity for the police to benefit. Even then popular opinion broke beer open in the 1970s. It took that long before you could sit in a pub in British Columbia and have a selection of beers to chose from. Now, as I can attest, Vancouver is a beer nirvana. But it took most of my lifetime to get there.
