Who needs to drink just to watch a hockey game, anyway?
SUNDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — If you’re reading this within a couple of hours of when it was posted, you obviously aren’t a hockey fan. If you were, you’d be glued to the TV.
But even if you are a hockey fan, you aren’t having a drink while you watch the big game, at least not if you’re in a public place.
As we speak, so to speak, Canada and Sweden are duking it out for the gold medal in men’s hockey at the Sochi Olympics. The hockey final is traditionally on the last day of the Winter Games, so it’s a big deal. Cause for the suds to flow.
Except that when it’s late afternoon in Sochi, it’s way too early in B.C.
Last call for serving alcohol in B.C. is 2 a.m., though municipal councils can legislate a couple of hours leeway on either side. But this morning’s situation would have required a lot more leeway than that.
Last-call times in the rest of the country aren’t much different than B.C., though in terms of the big game they luckily live in earlier time zones. And some provinces have relaxed the laws on drinking times just for today. Bars there are allowed to serve drinks later, or start serving them earlier, depending on which way you look at it.
Here, bars are allowed to be open if they’ve applied, but are not allowed to serve alcohol outside the normal times — Attorney-General Suzanne Anton declined to make an exception.
In Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the rules have been relaxed just for today.
Which, of course, brings up the issue of whether behaviour needs to be so tightly controlled, whether we should need to drink in order to enjoy our national game, or whether public safety trumps hockey. Reminds one of the old beer-in-the-stands debate.
A few dozen bars and restaurants have taken Anton up on the compromise. In Kamloops, Boston Pizza is open to allow customers to enjoy the togetherness and national pride that only watching a Canadian hockey team play on a television in a bar can bring.
It won’t be quite the same without a glass of lager, but it’s something.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Most Governments, both Provincial and Municipal, have, over the past several years revisited the laws governing the consumption of liquor. It always seems that governments give an inch and certain individuals take a yard, spoiling the privilege for everyone. It always seems that some individuals, especially at closing time, decide that they will start fighting, cause damage and commit acts of vandalism, all while under the influence of alcohol. What seems as good fun at the time, ends up causing problems for others. Drinking on the streets, property damage, indecent exposure, urinating in doorways, vandalism. And lets not forget the RIH Emergency ward, it to has to be policed. On occasion, the time consumed looking after injured drunks becomes a burden on the overworked medical staff, And then of course, there is need for more of a police presence during those hours when the licensed premises let out. It’s not unusual for the police to make arrests and incarcerate certain individuals who are too drunk to look after themselves. So when there is a mood to relax the liquor laws to allow for longer hours and more drinking, serious consideration has to be given to all the problems caused by those drunks and losers who can’t handle it.
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I don’t necessarily disagree but surely there are exceptions. There don’t seem to have been major problems in those venues in other provinces that relaxed the rules for a day.
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