The Parkside Brewery in Port Moody is busy onas around the corner. TwiTTER PHOTO ap ) unny Saturday in March. Businesses along Brewery Row are improving patio spaces with summer just Sipping stouts in the sun Port Moody breweries want to improve patios, extend hours By KRISTYN ANTHONY raft breweries along a popu- lar strip in Port Moody have approached city council to extend their hours, add pa- tios and amplified music to accommo- date the growth in their businesses. Murray Street in Port Moody, or Brewery Row as it's more commonly known, is home to Yellow Dog Brewing Co., Moody Ales, Parkside and Twin Sails Brewing and has quickly become a B.C. craft beer destination. “They're popular, everyone in the community loves these [breweries],” said Mayor Mike Clay, whose council is helping expedite three of the brewer- ies’ applications by forgoing the public input requirement set by the Liquor “We wanted them to be patios in the first place,” the mayor said. Geoff Boyd, co-owner of The Park- Control — and side Brewery, foas''" | “The govemnmenthas | i," wid the prox, | Deenchangingliquor | ey ming ihe broweses | __ LAWS Weekly | ee shee ‘il to consult di- — MIKE CLAY, MAYOR OF PORT MOODY together since rectly with the community for feedback. Having patios would allow for table service, heaters, amplified mu- sic, extended hours and more seating for customers. the strip’s first brewery opened in 2014. “Tt feels like the liquor board is try- ing to nudge anyone with a picnic area to convert to a patio,” Boyd said. “This makes it more solid for us, and then they can't change the rules on us again.” In July 2016, the city granted a three- month temporary licence to three brew- eries to operate what they called a picnic area. Clay said it was a hybrid version of a picnic spot and patio to meet existing liquor laws. “The government has been changing liquor laws weekly,” said Clay, noting two days after the city amended a bylaw to allow the outdoor areas, the liquor board changed its regulations. The Voice contacted the Liquor Con- trol and Licensing Branch and the Port Moody police for comment, but did not hear back before deadline. Keep a lid on it, bears are hungry Number one rule, stay calm. Often bears are just passing through. Avoid yelling, screaming or running from the bear. Be sure to keep your distance from the bear. If you're walking a dog, when you spot a bear, make sure to keep it ona leash. If you can, bring your children and pets into the house until the bear passes. SOURCE: COQUITLAM.CA Coquitlam warns residents to keep garbage in until morning By MICHELE PAULSE oquitlam has begun its an- nual campaign to remind its residents to be “bear smart” because bears will soon wake up from hibernation and wander through neigh- bourhoods in search of food. The city's campaign, which includes social media, advertising and door-to- door canvassing, is in its 10th year. But many residents still disobey by- laws that prohibit garbage cans and green waste bins from being placed on the street the night before designated days for pickup. “Garbage is the number one attrac- tant,” said Craig Hodge, a Coquitlam city councillor. “I think we've made good progress through education and enforcement but there's no question ira Black bears wander through Co- quitlam neighbourhoods, making it necessary for residents to secure garbage bins. suamitTeD PHOTO that more needs to be done.” Coquitlam made changes to its gar- bage collection and increased enforce- ment of it solid waste bylaw. Residents are fined $500 if they feed bears, and that includes when a bear knocks over a garbage can and eats the waste. The city issued 1,643 warnings and 315 tickets in 2016. David Karn, a Ministry of Environ- ment spokesperson, said officers work with the city to manage bears in neigh- bourhoods, including setting traps. City statistics for 2016 show con- servation officers received 1,927 calls, almost double the 973 received in 2015. Officers shot 15 bears last year, a higher number than usual, said a report presented to council last February. The number of calls to conserva- tion officers increased after a bear at- tacked a young girl last August in Port Coquitlam, near the Coquitlam River. Karn said bears typically cross bound- aries of the Tri-Cities, which includes Port Moody. On Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain in Coquitlam, new develop- ment is replacing forests, leaving bears more visible. “T think our biggest challenge isn't so much that we're displacing the bears,” Hodge said. “It's that we're drawing the bears into our neighbourhoods and that's why we're working so heavily to deal with bear attractants, garbage and so on. Israeli boycott vote heads to UBC AMS declined to comment on specifics of injunction By SASHA LAKIC he Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to be a flashpoint at the University of British Columbia, and now the BC Supreme Court is involved. UBC student Logan Presch has launched an injunction against the UBC Alma Mater Society to block a referendum slated for April 3. If approved, the controversial boy- cott, divest and sanctions policies (BDS policies) against the student union’s holdings in the state of Israel would be adopted. The referendum asks if students “support the [Alma Mater Society] in boycotting products and divesting from companies that support Israeli war crimes, illegal occupation, and the op- pression of Palestinians.” Lawyers for Presch argued that the referendum goes against the society’s bylaws and divides its members because the question cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Presch argues that the lack of nuance led to anti-Semitic graffiti on anti-BDS posters during an identical referendum at UBC in 2015, causing some Jewish students to feel threatened for their safety. Ali Ben, spokesman for Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UBC, said the group put forward the question to raise awareness of the plight of Israel’s Palestinian population. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel killed 2,100 Palestin- ians, 1,500 of whom were civilians. BDS asks that direct investments in Israel’s occupied territories be divested, but the Alma Mater Society has no such investments, according to meeting minutes of the society. “At this point, the outcome of the referendum is mostly symbolic. It’s not binding,” Ben said. “That’s one of the reasons why we don’t have a list of the companies the AMS has to boycott.” Rabbi Philip Bregman, executive di- rector of Hillel BC, said the referendum may be symbolic, but the BDS move- ment creates a toxic atmosphere. “Tt’s not an economic movement,” Bregman said. “It is to simply promote an anti-Israel point of view.” In Snowy winter causes big holes, an article that appeared in the March 16, 2017 issue of this newspaper, The Voice wrote that $10.6 million in extra costs related to snow response had been spent in January and February 2017. In fact, the $10.6 million is the city's total snow budget for 2017, half of which had been used by Feb. 8.