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By Jen Gerson, Postmedia News May 13, 2011
Terry David Mulligan took nine bottles of wine and one B.C.-brewed beer across the B.C.-Alberta border on Friday — and all without incident.
Mulligan was not arrested during the daring feat at "high noon." Nor were any members of the RCMP or local liquor boards on hand to witness the well-known broadcaster's act of civil disobedience.
"I am thrilled; I am thrilled they're not here," he said. "I don't take civil and social disobedience lightly."
Mulligan, a former Mountie, conducted the highly publicized experiment in cross-border bootlegging to protest an 80-year-old prohibition-era law that, he said, is hurting Canadian wineries. A federal decree makes it illegal to step over provincial borders while carrying alcohol.
To order out-of-province wine or beer, consumers are supposed to contact their local liquor boards.
Mulligan contends the practice, which often includes a stiff markup, is an attempt to keep consumers under the heel of the provincial boards.
"If there were a law in France that said you cannot ship wine from Burgundy to Bordeaux, there would be a revolution," he said, while standing over a wooden crate holding some of his favourite local wines on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway between Lake Louise, Alta., and Field, B.C.
Mulligan said he hopes his action will open dialogue among consumers, wineries and the liquor boards.
Currently the host of The Tasting Room, a radio program devoted to wine connoisseurship, the Vancouver-based Mulligan worked as a radio DJ before joining the CBC and, later, MuchMusic. He was also a regular on the popular children's television show Zig Zag.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
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