I’m a bit of a scatterbrain (read: completely disorganized) this week, and have much to say about an assortment of things. As the saying goes, brevity is the soul of wit. So, to save you from the usual pontification this week, here are some bite-sized thoughts.
Good Idea: Making things easier for small distilleries and wineries
I’ve gone on at length before about how happy I was to see the grow of the craft beer industry. It’s equally good to see craft wineries and distilleries getting some help from the government.
The government is upping production thresholds, with a graduated markup system based on annual production. That means they’re setting rates that are more in line with the amounts of booze wineries and distilleries are able to produce — which are growing, but nowhere near as much as large booze corporations like Diageo or Anheuser-Busch.
The production limit for craft wineries and distilleries will increase from 50,000 to 200,000 litres. They are also allowed to create “refreshment beverages” like coolers, ciders and pre-mixed drinks, to add to the variety of what they offer.
The government’s explanation for such rate changes is that it will encourage people who area already in the business to stay in it, and encourage anyone thinking of starting up a craft winery or distillery, to want to take that step. This is all very progressive, and it will diversify what options there are in this province.
Before this decision, craft wineries and distilleries could only produce so much before they were held to the same standards as larger companies. There ought to be a middle ground for rates for craft distilleries and wineries that is somewhere between “extremely small” and “extremely large,” and I hope these scaled rates help these businesses flourish.
Bad Idea: Cruel fans
In an episode of fan spirit gone out of control, several Blue Bomber fans at the Banjo Bowl gave everyone cheering on the winning team a bad name, by lashing out at a boy dressed in green, mistaking him for a fan of the already embattled Roughriders.
Apparently, in the heat of the moment, several small groups of smack-talking fans thought verbally insulting and pouring beer on the head of a nine-year-old kid was an appropriate thing to do.
I understand the inter-fan rivalry that goes in between two provinces that are passionate as hell about their football and can sometimes make them a little unreasonable when the fandom reaches a critical-mass moment, but you have to draw the line somewhere. What happened to that child was abuse. The whole idea of people turning heated rivalries and (ideally) harmless playful chiding of one another into harassment and physical assault is just a lesser version of what we saw in Vancouver in the 2011 Stanley Cup riot. I’m sure there are schools of psychology that can tell you a whole lot more about this than I, but you don’t need to study anything to know how puerile and pathetic it is to let it get to the point where children are getting abused.
The worst part was that the boy was actually wearing Blue Bomber merchandise with that green sweater, so the fans were attacking one of their own.
Bombers fans, save the trash talk and hijinks for other adults and keep the beer to yourselves…and stop kicking Riders fans when they’re down.
Good Idea: Cops and canines
It’s good to see the Estevan Police Service moving forward with plans to bring back its K9 unit. Dogs, generally speaking, are all-around awesome, but the true degree of how great they are becomes clear when they’re employed to help police forces.
Back when I didn’t know any better, I assumed K9 forces were just used to help police nab fleeing criminals, but that’s only one dimension of how helpful they are. Because of their sense of smell—about 10,000 times stronger as a human’s—they’re good at finding a lot from missing people to hidden drugs.
Having a K9 unit is beneficial to building healthy relationships with the community. I have read a surfeit of accounts of situations in which witnesses to, and victims, of heinous crimes were far too traumatized to speak of what they experienced. That was the case until the soothing, friendly presence of a polite pooch eased the pain and helped them get through recounting what they saw or experienced.
Good on you, EPS.
