BCCLA LETTER

May 9, 2005

Mary Freeman, General Manager
Liquor Control and Licensing Branch
Ministry of the Solicitor General and Public Safety
PO Box 9292, Stn Prov Govt
Victoria, B.C.
V8W 9J8

Dear Ms. Freeman:

RE: The Sex Party Fundraising Event

I am writing to urge you to change your decisions with respect to the requests by the Sex Party to hold a political fundraising event at which alcohol would be served.

Mr. John Ince, leader of the Sex Party, has provided us with copies of correspondence between he and yourself regarding these matters. We understand that the Sex Party is an officially approved political party under the Elections Act and Elections B.C.

In the correspondence, it appears that Mr. Ince sought clarification from you that a current licensee (a typical bar) would remain in compliance with applicable legislation, regulation and policy of the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch if it hosted an event sponsored by the Sex Party. The Sex Party proposed an event at which there would be a variety of artistic endeavours, some of which would include patrons touching the underwear of models and watching a couple having sex by peering through slits in a wall. It is our understanding that the Sex Party indicated to you that the event was for the purposes of raising funds and exposure for the Sex Party.

In response to Mr. Ince's request for clarification, you and a variety of your staff indicated that such an event would violate the terms and conditions of current licensees as being contrary to the legislation, regulation and policy. In particular, your staff cited policy from the LCLB regarding "Entertainment" which prohibits live sex acts and patrons touching "entertainers" as justification for your clarification.

Mr. Ince informs us that he subsequently sought to obtain a Special Occasion License in order for the Sex Party to host the same event by renting space themselves. Mr. Ince further informs us that your office indicated to him that a Special Occasion License would not be issued for the same reasons as a current licensee would be in non-compliance with their terms and conditions, as described above.

We have now examined the Liquor Control and Licensing Act (the "Act"), the regulations and your offices policy with respect to "Entertainment".

In our view, your clarification of the terms and conditions of current licensees and your decision with respect to a Special Occasion License are erroneous both in principle and law. As such, we urge you to reconsider your actions.

We note in particular that neither the Act nor its regulations prohibits liquor being served at the event as proposed by the Sex Party. Instead, the Act appears to provide implicit discretion to you as General Manager and your delegates to impose terms and conditions on licensees. In order to guide that discretion, your office has created policy with respect to liquor establishments providing Entertainment. More specifically, this policy creates rules with respect to performances by "strippers" or "exotic dancers". It is these rules that you have applied to the Sex Party's proposed event.

It is important to pause here to note that the Sex Party's proposed event is fundamentally different in kind to a bar that provides entertainment by way of strippers and exotic dancers. First, the sponsoring organization, the Sex Party, is an approved political party that is running candidates in the current provincial election. Second, the context of the activities at the proposed event is in nature fundamentally different than establishments that provide entertainment via strippers or exotic dancing.

While we acknowledge that stripping and dancing are implicitly expressive activities, the activities at the Sex Partys proposed event involve explicitly political expression via artistic endeavours that create interaction between patrons and artists at what is akin to a political rally. As such, the event in its essence involves activities that are deserving of the highest protection as fundamental freedoms under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: freedom of expression (the displaying and creation of art), freedom of assembly (like minded persons meeting to interact with respect to a common cause) and freedom of association (like minded individuals working collectively for a common cause).

Instead of taking into consideration these Charter values, which by law you are required to consider in exercising your legal discretion, it appears that you and your staff blindly applied current policy devised for a very different kind of event/establishment.

As we have said, this is wrong both in principle and in law.

Regrettably, you have provided no demonstrable justification for your decision with respect to the Sex Party other than to apply your policy regarding strippers and exotic dancers. We note that the Sex Party proposed to ensure that all patrons entering the event are adults and that they provide informed consent by acknowledging that they will be observing/participating in the proposed activities. Though there may be legitimate concerns about the mix of alcohol and sexually related activities in terms of safety of patrons and artists, such risks may be significantly mitigated through licensing conditions with respect to security rather than an outright ban on alcohol. Furthermore, we doubt that there are historical examples of problems at similar events upon which you can assume harm and thus justify a denial of a license.

In sum, we believe that your actions are inappropriate in the circumstances and contrary to law.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Jason Gratl,
President

cc: John Ince, Leader of the Sex Party