Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

It’s been quite a while since our last newsletter, we’ve been busy navigating the ever-changing Public Health Orders. Rest assured all is good down at The Kitchen and we hope to host our Whisky Pairings dinners in the new year.

Here’s an update, and refresher on our Free The Whisky Campaign.

The largest whisky raid in Canada in over 100 years took place almost 4 years ago at Fets Whisky Kitchen on January 18, 2018. Later this week, December 9^th and 10^th 2021, we will finally go before a British Columbia Supreme Court Justice to take the government to task. Along with our lawyer Mr. Daniel Coles, we have also hired Mr. Kevin Westell, a criminal lawyer to tackle the government’s breach of Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

We invite everyone to come join us in our quest for justice at 10am this Thursday and Friday at the BC Supreme Court, 800 Hornby Street, Vancouver.

As you may recall on January 18^th, 2018, government liquor agents from Victoria arrived at our small family-run restaurant on Commercial Drive in a rented U-Haul van filled with empty boxes and a couple of hand trucks. The two out-of-town agents met a regional liquor inspector manager accompanied by two Vancouver Police Officers at the restaurant at 10am. Meanwhile on Vancouver Island liquor inspectors raided Nanaimo’s Grand Hotel, also at 10am. Later that day inspectors raided Victoria’s Little Jumbo Restaurant and The Union Club, all under the guise of “liquor inspections”. All coordinated for the same day, seeking the same product. Coincidence? We think not.

Allura Fergie, one of the owners of Fets Whisky Kitchen was called by a staff member advising her that the inspectors were there. Allura spoke to an agent on the phone and was told that she needed to attend the premises immediately. When she arrived, she was told “We’re seizing these bottles as evidence in an on-going investigation.” She asked if she had time to consult her lawyer and was told that she did not. She asked why the police were in attendance and was told they “Never know how these things go”. We’ve had many liquor inspections since we opened our doors in 1986 and never once were the police involved or in attendance.

We felt uncomfortable with how the government agents handled the situation and decided to challenge them. That’s when things got strange. We requested information regarding the “inspection” but were denied any information other than a record of all our previous liquor inspections. We were denied any information about why they raided our place and the three other establishments on the Island. We eventually filed an FOI request. Our request was repeatedly delayed, and our hearing was repeatedly postponed while we waited for the results of our FOI request. We finally received documentation from our FOI request. Hundreds of heavily redacted pages! What are they trying to hide?

Although we finally had some of the information we were looking for, we received it too late for our enforcement hearing. Due to the government’s delay in providing us the necessary documents needed for our defense, we missed our submissions deadline. We arrived for our enforcement hearing armed with this new information. The branch advocate and the adjudicator, who both work for the same government agency, denied us our right to produce evidence that we had just obtained from the government, their employers. We were told that none of this new information would be admitted as evidence, as we missed the submissions deadline. Our submissions would have been on time had the government not repeatedly delayed the release of our FOI request. We did find out that the government started their investigation on December 7th, 2017, seven weeks before what they refer to as a routine liquor inspection. The investigation had a name, Operation Barley Malt. There were emails between government actors discussing the raid and how it was going to go down. There was even approval for the raids from management. All for a routine inspection?

When Government Liquor Agents conduct inspections, licensees are compelled under the liquor Control and Licensing Act to answer all of the agent’s questions and supply them with all requested documentation. When the government conducts an investigation and arrives to further their investigation — remember they were “seizing these bottles as evidence in an ongoing investigation” — they have other rules and guidelines to follow.  As with all government agents seeking evidence while building a case, licensees are to be issued a Charter Caution and the agents are to produce a Search and Seizure warrant to conduct a search and to seize any evidence pertaining to said investigation. The agents did not produce a warrant, nor did they issue Allura a Charter Caution advising her of her rights.

These government actors conducted a seven-week investigation, including clandestine visits to the four establishments being investigated, thus requiring them to follow their rules under section 44 of the Liquor Control and Licensing Act. When charges against any citizen of Canada can lead to incarceration it is imperative that all government agents protect the rights and freedoms of the citizenry. This licensee was charged under sections of the act that carry penalties that include incarceration. Both owners had jail time held over them for over a year. It wasn’t until the enforcement hearing that they were told the government wasn’t pursuing jail time. Needless to say, it was a very stressful year.

As the agents came in using their inspection powers, we incriminated ourselves by answering their questions as instructed. The information garnered at the time of the “inspection”, through their continuing investigation and follow up communications was used as evidence against us. This is Canada, we are looked upon by the world as having a fair judicial system. But this was not fair. This is not how our system was designed to work. Rogue agents and bad government actors are dangerous to us all.

Fets Whisky Kitchen | 1230 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver, V5L 3X4 Canada