N.B. RCMP still watching for cross-border liquor entering province

The RCMP is still running spot-checks for alcohol imported into New Brunswick from other provinces, according to a Moncton man who says it happened to his parents earlier this month.

That's despite an April court ruling that said restrictions on cross-border booze violates free-trade provisions in Canada's 1867 Constitution Act.

Mike Truelove said his parents were driving from Ontario to Moncton on Oct. 14, when they were stopped at a police checkpoint shortly after crossing into New Brunswick from Quebec.

Truelove said his father "was following the news over here too, and he was a little surprised. … They didn't ask him if he'd been drinking or anything like that. They asked him if he was bringing in alcohol across from another province."

Truelove's father told the police he had picked up a case of 30 cans in Quebec.

After the police confirmed that by looking in the back of the pick-up, they waved the couple through.

"When he got to my place, he was like, `I don't understand. I thought it was perfectly legal now,'" Truelove said.

He said his father told him the check was not part of a routine police check for driver's licenses, insurance and registration.

"What the officer told him is that they were checking to see if anyone was bringing alcohol across the border," he said.

RCMP won't confirm liquor checks

The RCMP would not confirm the spot checks were happening.

"We wouldn't really be able to comment on RCMP tactics," said spokesperson Const. Hans Ouellette.

Under the Liquor Control Act, New Brunswick's limit on imports from other provinces is 12 pints of beer and one bottle of liquor.

But those restrictions were assumed to no longer be in effect in April, when Judge Ronald LeBlanc of Provincial Court acquitted Gérard Comeau of Tracadie.

LeBlanc wrote that the limits violated Section 121 of the Constitution Act, which says products from "any of the provinces shall … be admitted free into each of the other provinces."

Province appealing

The province is appealing the ruling, arguing that Leblanc's decision ignores Supreme Court of Canada rulings over the years that interpreted the section differently.

In May, the province's public prosecution service released a statement saying LeBlanc's decision was "limited in theory to Gérard Comeau."

The statement said the provincial court doesn't have the jurisdiction to strike down laws.

But it added the public prosecution would "carefully exercise its discretion" if police recommended any charges while the Comeau ruling is being appealed.

'Outrageous' says constitutional group

The organization that is funding Comeau's defence, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, says it's outrageous if the RCMP is conducting checks after LeBlanc's ruling.

"He wrote an 88-page, magisterial decision explaining exactly why this sort of enforcement violates the Constitution," said executive director Howard Anglin.

Anglin also said it doesn't make sense that a law found unconstitutional for one defendant would still be enforceable for others.

"I'd encourage the New Brunswick attorney general's office to read that decision, internalize it, and take it seriously."

Truelove noted that his father's experience came less than a week after NB Liquor ended its discount promotion on several brands of mass-market beer, a sale that led to a drop in the number of New Brunswickers going to Quebec to buy beer.

"That was the other thing that I found a little bit strange about it," he said.

He said given the recent controversy over NB Liquor "going off half-cocked" by threatening to sue the province's information commissioner, "it just seemed very, very bizarre to me that the RCMP is enforcing or checking on stuff that isn't even illegal."

The public prosecution office and NB Liquor have both said repeatedly that the Crown liquor corporation has no role in police and prosecution decisions.

Last week, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal turned down a procedural application from prosecutors to hear an appeal of the Comeau case directly from the provincial court.

Normally, provincial court decisions are appealed to the Court of Queen's Bench first, but lawyers for both the Crown and Comeau agreed the appeal court could save time by taking the case immediately.

Anglin says that means it's likely the Crown will take the case to Court of Queen's Bench for the appeal.

The prosecutions branch hasn't decided yet whether to do that, according to spokesperson Sheila Lagacé.

"No decision has been made on this as they are determining the best actions to take going forward," she said.