The Editor,
I will never forget the look on my dad's face in the late 1980s as we were lined up at the entrance way to Buntzen and White Pine as we watched the RCMP pour out various alcoholic beverages from peoples coolers.
At the time he said "I thought we moved to a free country..." I was 12 and we had arrived from communist Poland a few years prior.
From that point forward I could never understand why the local alcohol regulations were/are so draconian.
Jim Nelson feels that in order to enjoy a glass of wine one should "tipple it into a red plastic cup, respectfully concealing it from beach officials as necessary."
I would like to respectfully suggest that one should not have to feel like a criminal to responsibly enjoy an alcoholic beverage at the beach. Hiding it, drinking from a paper bag or a plastic cup just seems so completely childish in today's society.
Our current legal system has determined that at the age of 19 a person is suitably mature to partake in the purchase and consumption of alcohol. In a restaurant, a pub, a theatre and at home.
Why not the beach? Why not the park?
If a person is a hooligan and wants to be an idiot, they will manage to drink themselves silly before getting to the park or the beach. The vandals that started the fights and riots did not consume their liquor while walking down Robson - they consumed it in legal drinking establishments.
Yet they still started the fights. So should we close the downtown core restaurants every time there is a major hockey game?
Access to liquor and governing where it can be consumed is not the problem. Personal accountability is.
Treat adults as adults and allow them to make their own decisions and mistakes. If the mistakes contravene laws, punish the offenders. Not society in general.
Paul Zydowicz
Port Coquitlam
