Canada Post helps stop the flow of illegal booze

Northern communities who want to block illegal booze shipments can ask Canada Post to inspect all suspicious packages, the corporation says.

“We could co-operate to prevent illegal booze from entering communities,” said Marc L’Anglais, general manager for Canada Post’s northern services. “We have a procedure we can put into place to catch illegal packages of alcohol.”

In a dry community, this procedure would ban all shipments of booze sent through the mail. In a restricted community, it would keep out unapproved shipments sent by individuals, but wouldn’t affect licensed liquor retailers.

It’s an “extraordinary procedure,” said L’Anglais. Every parcel gets a once-over before it’s handed to its recipient.

With the security measures in place, postal workers would keep watch for any package that looks strange, “sloshes or smells funny.”

Postal workers are instructed to open the questionable package and remove any booze. Alternatively, employees can send the package “downstream” to the main regional postal centre — for example, Val d’Or, which serves Nunavik.

“It only has to be suspicious,” L’Anglais said.

The sender can pay to have the booze returned to its place of origin. Otherwise, Canada Post confiscates it. The remainder of the package would be sent on to its initial destination.

L’Anglais noted that Canada Post honours “the sanctity of the mail.” The corporation doesn’t want to open any mail unless doing so could reasonably be expected to reduce the amount of alcohol entering a community.

For that reason, Canada Post won’t implement these extra security measures if booze is pouring into the community legally through another outlet — say, a bar or beer store.

Shipments of alcohol such as those sent by the Quebec liquor commission or grocery stores would not be opened as long as they were well marked and carried the necessary paperwork.

L’Anglais was in Montreal two weeks ago to explain to the mayors of Nunavik’s communities how Canada Post could help fight the flow of illegal booze. However, due to the unexpected cancellation of a First Air flight from Kuujjuaq, the mayors’ meeting was postponed until January.

Canada Post is open to working with any communities, L’Anglais said, if their leaders can produce a letter describing the problems illegal booze is causing, as well as a municipal resolution asking for help. “It certainly is an option,” he said.

So far, Canada Post has intervened in only one situation, at the request of one Manitoba settlement plagued by social problems made worse by shipments of illegal booze from the South.

“And it has worked,” L’Anglais said.