When traveling to an unfamiliar nation, the wise take opportunity to
learn about the land, its culture, practices and concerns. Clearly,
one takes into consideration the culture, practices and concerns of
the home nation, and uses these as a foundation for interpretation and
reflection. Indeed, it is often the case that one comes to a better
understanding of one’s own nation upon the heels of such reflection.

As a newcomer to Canada, I find many new experiences. These often in
some sense conflicting with values learned at home, learned in the
land from where I hail.

I come from California, which is generally considered the most liberal
state in the union, and this even when compared against Massachusetts.
Yet, some laws in that land are quite a bit more restrictive than are some
of the laws of Canada. Of immediate concern are the liquor laws.

I love beer — dark, heavy stout in particular; I claim Guinness is a
porter, not a stout. Perhaps it is my Irish ancestry, or perhaps it is
the outcome of having consumed 12 ounces of beer every day from the age
of about three months until my fourth year of life. During those early
years, my kidneys did not like to function, and the prescription was
three doses of beer each day, acting as a diuretic. For whatever reason, beer is, to me,
better than water.

Now, spending as many hours on campus as I do each day, it is a little
bit difficult to always find a local liquor store that has
not closed its doors for the night. Given the price of food in
restaurants, California is much more affordable, at least in terms
of food prices. Because of this, my tendency is to want to cook for myself. It
perhaps should go without saying that where I prefer to eat, I also
prefer to drink. Not to get drunk — at my age, the consequences of such
a state are unacceptable — but to enjoy a meal and obtain satisfaction
in the stomach.

Back in June of 2010, I visited Winnipeg; a reconnoiter, if you will, of
the place where I planned to live and study for a few years. At that
time, the professor under whom I wished to study gave a good deal of
his time and, on a few occasions, he and his wife and I shared a few meals at
local restaurants. One notable meal was taken at a local Olive Garden;
it was a pleasant meal, and we shared a bottle of red wine.

This is where the first major difference in custom (actually, law) was
noted. We had consumed only half of the bottle of wine. Had we been
in California when eating that meal, the wine would have stayed within
the walls of the restaurant; no matter how much or little was consumed,
the remainder must stay. The only wine that may leave with a patron
is the wine contained in the stomach.

How strange it was, to me, that the waitress took pains to re-seal the
bottle and send it home with us. I sought to clarify the issue, and
asked if this was a normal custom, that is was a legal act. To this
enquiry, the waitress gave full assurance that such action was quite
well within the laws of Canada and Manitoba.

Of course, the more reasonable interpretation that I should make is
that the waitress was fully and correctly knowledgeable about Canadian
and Manitoban law, and it can hardly be said that Olive Garden is in
the business of putting itself out of business, such as by offending
those laws.

At the beginning of the current semester, and after a very late night
of study, I managed to find a restaurant that had not locked its doors,
though it stopped serving in the dining room two hours earlier. The
lady who runs the restaurant was quite nice to me and had
the cook take on the last and very late order. I enquired as to whether
she could sell beer to me, which I could also take home. She assured
me that she could do so and indeed she was not in the least hesitant,
even as she admonished that the beer should remain sealed until I got
home.

Now, that is two occasions in which Canadians expressed the correctness
(vis-à-vis Canadian and Manitoban law) to take alcoholic libations from
restaurant to domicile. I rather like this custom, for it greatly
eases my need to leave school and study before I complete the day’s
work.

How disappointed I therefore was when on another night, I found open
the another restaurant, whose managers informed me that they could
not sell to me beer that I could take home. They were perfectly
willing to sell beer to me should I stay and eat my food within the
restaurant dining room., they just would not sanction my taking the
beer home, open or not. I asked for the justification of this policy,
to which I was told, “It’s against Canadian law.”

The rest of this story is continued online at www.themanitoban.com

ONLINE:

Now, though it is possible that the operators of this particular restaurant simply do not know the law, such is a dangerous proposition, 3for upon not knowing the law, it can be expected that one is more
likely to violate it.

I live in that atrium encased hotel for the aged, where so many other
U of M students live and where many elderly Canadians live. Given
the truth of that excellent phrase employed by the late Richard Prior,
that “you don’t get old being no fool,” I asked a few of the residents
about this condition, that some restaurants allow one to cart beer
home, while some don’t. The interesting point comes from the answers
they, these elderly residents, gave.

I first asked about the beer issue, and to a man (or woman), they all
asserted that it was illegal for the restaurant to send unopened beer
home with me. When I brought up the behavior of the Olive Garden
waitress, these same elderly Canadians were dumbfounded and went on
to suggest that Olive Garden had broken Canadian or Manitoban law (they had not). As
I pointed out that it was ludicrous to believe that Olive Garden would
take such a chance with their ability to make money, these elderly
Canadians took a step back. Suddenly, they were not so sure of the
strictures of Canadian and Manitoban law.

It is a near certainty that were any of the readers of this column to
ask a seasoned Californian about the local liquor laws, to a person
the answer would be that no alcohol could be taken from a restaurant to
the home, regardless of whether it had ever been opened. Californians
could to a person also answer correctly that purchasing venues (like
the local Safeway store and the local bar) are prohibited from selling
any alcoholic beverages between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. During these
hours, drunks are expected to sober up.

The strong point to make is that some (perhaps a majority of) Canadians
don’t even know the laws under which they are governed. Clearly, this
makes such Canadians very bad ambassadors when it comes to the
acclimation of immigrants such as myself to the ways of a new land.

Of course, this is just one man’s observation.