FILE PHOTO.

Image Credit: pexels.com

A BC pub has been fined $7,000 after a customer took a beer from the bar to its bowling alley.

According to a Jan. 16 BC Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch decision, the Victoria bar argued the rule was difficult to manage because customers couldn't understand the rationale behind it.

However, BC Liquor and Cannabis Branch delegate Dianne Flood said the bar hadn't presented any evidence that it had taken steps to stop customers wandering into the bowling alley with their drinks and slapped it with the fine.

The decision says the Canadian Brewhouse and Grill had previously been fined $4,000 and had numerous warnings after its customers were found to have taken their drinks to the bowling alley.

The decision says the Canadian Brewhouse has a food primary licence and customers aren't allowed to take their drinks to the pub's attached bowling alley.

However, in September 2024, a BC liquor inspector saw a customer carry a beer from the bar area to the bowling alley and drink it.

This happened three times in eight minutes, the decision says.

The pub argued it was difficult to enforce the no drinks in the bowling alley rule because the general public couldn't understand why the rule would be in place.

"Patrons understand the limits on matters such as drinking and driving, overconsumption or aggressive behaviour... however, patrons cannot understand how prohibiting drinking a beer while bowling protects people," the bar argues.

The pub says the lack of rationale behind the rule makes enforcement difficult. It has had to fire five managers over the issue.

However, the Liquor Branch wasn't convinced.

READ MORE: BC bar fined $3,000 for clearing drinks from table 12 minutes late

"I find that the Licensee has failed to provide sufficient evidence to meet the onus to establish on a balance of probabilities that, at the time of the contravention, it had exercised all reasonable care to avoid allowing liquor to be taken from the service area," the Branch delegate says.

"With respect to the seriousness of the contravention, I appreciate... (it) is perhaps not as serious a threat to the public safety and the well-being of the community as serving minors or intoxicated persons or some other contraventions," the delegate says, noting that the fine was the lowest allowed.

"I find that the penalty in this matter needs to impress upon the Licensee the need to take appropriate steps to come into and maintain compliance with the terms of its licence," the Liquor Branch says.

The pub argued a $7,000 fine would force it to close at the loss of 80 jobs, but the Liquor Branch didn't buy it saying it hadn't put forward any evidence for this.

The Canadian Brewhouse and Grill has until Feb. 16 to pay the $7,000 fine.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2025