Canadian moonshine laws

Discussion and plans for legalizing our hobby.

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ZeroTrousers
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Re: Canadian moonshine laws

Post by ZeroTrousers »

Just talked about this with someone who's fairly high up with the local police; I actually found out later the other fellow I was talking with was a crown prosecutor too, lol. So here's the gist of what I was told: The letter of the law and the spirit of the law are slightly at odds.

Basically the cop and the prosecutor agreed that the purpose of the law under the excise act is to prevent people from trying to undercut the gov't by selling and that hobby size stills aren't something that the Crown would generally bother with unless there were other factors involved. They went on to say that if the AGCO ever ran out of more important stuff to do that they might start by cracking down on the people selling stills commercially, but that the end-users are the last priority (provided they're not selling).

I actually found out that they (the local cops) received several calls over the course of the pandemic for people operating backyard stills in the city - and they had exactly one officer dispatched; but not because of the still, because the person was blaring loud music late into the evening and had an outdoor fire pit going during a burn ban.

So yes: It is technically illegal and a particularly bored cop who's already been called out for other reasons might choose to lay charges. But it's a very low priority unless you're being an idiot and the cops *do not* want to deal with it if they can at all help it.
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Dancing4dan
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Re: Canadian moonshine laws

Post by Dancing4dan »

ZeroTrousers wrote: Sat Apr 30, 2022 6:47 am Just talked about this with someone who's fairly high up with the local police; I actually found out later the other fellow I was talking with was a crown prosecutor too, lol. So here's the gist of what I was told: The letter of the law and the spirit of the law are slightly at odds.

Basically the cop and the prosecutor agreed that the purpose of the law under the excise act is to prevent people from trying to undercut the gov't by selling and that hobby size stills aren't something that the Crown would generally bother with unless there were other factors involved. They went on to say that if the AGCO ever ran out of more important stuff to do that they might start by cracking down on the people selling stills commercially, but that the end-users are the last priority (provided they're not selling).

I actually found out that they (the local cops) received several calls over the course of the pandemic for people operating backyard stills in the city - and they had exactly one officer dispatched; but not because of the still, because the person was blaring loud music late into the evening and had an outdoor fire pit going during a burn ban.

Which city?
So yes: It is technically illegal and a particularly bored cop who's already been called out for other reasons might choose to lay charges. But it's a very low priority unless you're being an idiot and the cops *do not* want to deal with it if they can at all help it.
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ZeroTrousers
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Re: Canadian moonshine laws

Post by ZeroTrousers »

Well, I'm not going to doxx myself, but it's a small-to-medium size city in central Ontario. I'd not be the least bit surprised if most of those 'still' calls were really for things like turkey fryers, syrup making or regular home brewing; lots of nosy NIMBY big city retirees here.

Doesn't really matter anyway though, I'm just some guy on the internet with basically the same story as the rest of Ontario. Some of the cops I know don't even think the homebrew size stuff is illegal - I chose to not disabuse them of that notion. No one knows I do this stuff and my setup is run in my garage so no chance the neighbors are gonna find out either.
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