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| Montreal in freer times Glace nightclub in 1982 |
Police and government bureaucrats hounded the establishments and the liquor board suspended liquor licenses of dozens of bars for allowing customers and staff to interact in normal ways.
Government emergency decrees forced myriad rules on bars, mandating plexiglas, social distancing, masks, curfews, customer registries - complete with the phone number of each customer - and then vaccine passports, which constitutes a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights.
And those were the good times: for the rest of the time government decrees forced bars to stay shut with little or no evidence that limitations helped the health situation.
Government also used bars to tempt Quebecers into getting injected with the covid vaccine, promising that they'd gain exclusive access to such establishments if they got injected with the mrna shot. Many of those who went along felt betrayed when the bars were kept closed for most of the time nonetheless.
The following is a list and brief description of commercial establishments punished by the liquor authorities due to due to alleged violations of the covid decrees.
Click the bar name to read the official government RACJ judgment, in French, to see the details. In many cases the licenses were fined for what apepar to be incredibly petty reasons.
The bars in red represent places in the Montreal-area, while those in blue are from elsewhere in Quebec. It would appear that Montreal-area police were more vigilant in their punishment than those other regions, notably Quebec City, which saw only a couple of establishments punished. Well over half of the 51 license suspensions were meted out to the Montreal-area, which represents about half of the population of Quebec.
One can speculate that the CAQ provincial government has little sympathy for the plight of Montreal businesses, seeing that the party has enjoyed almost not electoral support from the region.
That could be interpreted in many ways, either Montreal police were more coldhearted in their approach or they received more complaints from citizens with little regard for the embattled drinking establishments.
Liquor board officials would have punished far more bars if they weren't closed so often. CAQ leader Legault shut all bars from 15 March 202 to 25 June 2020 and then during the curfew of 9 January to 28 May 2021 and from 20 December to 28 February 2022. The bars reopened with countless convoluted rules and regulations, limited capacity, no dancing, no karaoke, social distancing, early closure, and so forth.
2020
Cafe Bellerose 96 Bellerose Blvd E, Laval Authorities punished this place harshly for minor infractions. The judgement reveals nitpickiness about social distancing infractions, with owner Stefano Broccolini cross-examined vigorously, who explained that he was confused after receiving conflicting information from various levels of authority abouty the rules - license suspended 20 days 2020-05-14
Mondo Bistro Lounge 284 St. George, St Jerome Police noted that some people weren't social distancing in early July. 20 days. 2020-07-13
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| Bar geared up with covid partitions |
L'Échappée Belle Bar and Grill Sports Bar 710 Visitation St., St Charles Borromée maanager Stephane Blais seen drunk without a mask on 18 Octobre 2020 - 5 days 2021-04-12
Eden Cabaret 155 Évêché St W. Rimouski,failure to social distance 35 days 2020-12-01
2021
O'Ptit Resto-Bar 652 Commerciale St. N, Témiscouata-sur-le-Lac, 4 days 2021-05-28
Grill'n'Go 9482 Saint-Michel In November police saw a guy without a mask and again in January. 14 days 2021-06-07
Omega Billiard Bar 7001 St Hubert St. Montreal 10 days 2021-06-30
Cabaret Carol 7241 Hamel Quebec City 35 days suspension on 10 September 2021 - in August strippers were sen next to customers weithout masks. 2021-12-02
Coko Bistro Lounge 6296 Papineau Ave covid and false ownership -biker criminal owners, other issues as well license revokoed 2021-12-13
Essence Bar 2001 University 5 days 2022-01-17
Bellevue Bar 21 days location unclear 2022-01-24
The Farsides Bar 690 Notre-Dame St W, Montreal cops counted 18 people without masks on an August day suspended five days 2022-01-24
I suspect that the real reason for the Covid curfews was to deter potential crime in and around the city. Needless to say, to their peril, the authorities would not openly announce this.
ReplyDeleteAs we should all know by now, opportunists are always ready to take advantage of perceived weaknesses in public order so that they can act out their sinister and anarchistic beliefs and disrupt society.
Witness the increase in vandalism and anti-police activity during the student demonstrations 10 years ago, the impulsive window smashing and looting following certain crucial hockey games, the potential to commit crimes more easily perpetrated under cover of darkness during power blackouts and severe weather emergencies. Remember how decades ago young thugs with nothing better to do joined in to inflame further the streetcar riots when student fares were increased.
Sadly, it doesn't take much for a few bad apples in a parade or demonstration to create trouble, many of whom are likely under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs and simply hoping to grab expensive items from vulnerable property--a routine occurrence south of the border and elsewhere in the world. Any excuse can trigger it off.
The notion of "defunding the police" is, of course, a foolhardy mantra that must not be taken seriously.