B.C. wineries join New Brunswick beer drinker in high court scrap over trade
VICTORIA — Complaints from British Columbia wine industry over interprovincial trade barriers will be heard in the Supreme Court of Canada as part of an appeal of a cross-border beer dispute in New Brunswick.
Vancouver lawyer Shea Coulson said Thursday five B.C. wineries will argue as interveners in the case stemming from a 2012 incident when police fined a man $292.50 after he entered New Brunswick from Quebec with 14 cases of beer and three bottles of liquor.
Gerald Comeau was originally fined under New Brunswick’s Liquor Control Act for bringing in too much alcohol, but a provincial court judge tossed the case, saying it violated free-trade provisions in the constitution.
The New Brunswick government appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada, claiming the decision threatens to end Canadian federalism as it was originally conceived.