Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/987926
20 WINES&VINES June 2018 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS O ttawa, Ont.—A running battle over plans to expand a pipeline to carry bitumen from the oilfields of northern Alberta to ocean-going tankers in British Co- lumbia has once again caught wineries in the crossfire. When the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision April 19 in the matter of Gérard Comeau, the New Brunswick man ar- rested by federal police in 2012 as he returned from a run across provincial lines to pick up cheap beer and spirits in Quebec, many saw it as a blow against the free movement of alcohol within Canada. But the wording of the decision, not to men- tion its timing, suggests that the real target of the judgment wasn't the liquor industry at all, but a growing feud over the $6 billion pipeline project. "The court was very consciously thinking about the pipeline dispute," said Shea Coulson, counsel for the ad hoc Coalition of Small BC Wineries, a group of five B.C. wineries granted "intervenor status," or the legal privilege to participate in court proceedings. "Paragraphs 110 and 111 use language that make it clear Canadian Wine Trade Caught in Pipe Feud A legal fight between British Columbia and Alberta over an oil pipeline resulted in a supreme court ruling that has blocked the figurative pipeline of direct-to-consumer wine shipments.