Mask rule at clubs 'incredibly hard to enforce,' but B.C. owner says it's a legal and moral duty
CBC
Trying to get patrons to wear their masks on the dance floor at The Blue Grotto in Kamloops, B.C., this weekend was "like herding cats," according to the club's owner.
David "Puppy" Johnston said his staff would move through the crowd, reminding patrons to mask up.
"You'd start with a group of girls: 'Can you please put your masks on? They go, 'Yeah,' and they pull them up, and then you go to the next group. 'Hey, can you remember your mask?' Then by the time you turned around, the first group had them off again," Johnston told CBC.
"It's like herding cats. It's incredibly hard to enforce."
This weekend marked the first time in nearly two years that dancing was allowed in B.C. nightclubs. But clubs still need to abide by certain COVID-19 restrictions, including a requirement for everyone to wear masks when they're not seated.
According to the province, it's up to staff at nightclubs to make sure their guests are wearing masks on the dance floor, and environmental health officers are responsible for making sure the clubs are enforcing the rules.
The Ministry of Health said police should be called if patrons become aggressive or violent.
Photos and video taken inside Vancouver nightclubs over the weekend show that mask use was spotty at best on many dance floors.
At The Blue Grotto, Johnston said people seemed to have no problem wearing masks while lining up for drinks at the bar or going to the bathroom, but dancing was another matter.
"We found that as the night went on, it became more and more difficult to enforce," Johnston said.
"We had signage. We had stationed two doormen on either side of the stage … but it was just constantly reminding people to put their masks on."
Enforcing the rule was especially difficult because Johnston was scrambling for staff this weekend.
He said the last-minute notice from the province allowing nightclubs to open up again meant many of his usual workers were unavailable, so he had to depend on new hires. He even filled in as bartender for the first time in 20 years.
Johnston said he's hopeful that things will be easier on the upcoming weekend, because for him, this isn't just about respecting the law.
A garbage truck with its loader up took out multiple streetcar wires at a major downtown intersection, causing road closures on one of the city's busiest surface transit routes Tuesday, Toronto police say.
Siksika is pursuing legal action against a provincial government decision to relocate the Ghost Dam downstream after it says the province failed to consult with the southern Alberta First Nation.
A day that rattled Canadian politics ended the exact same way Chrystia Freeland spent a defining chapter of her political career: Getting trash-talked by Donald Trump.
Thick billowing smoke blew from a Mount Pearl industrial park warehouse early Tuesday morning, as dozens of firefighters converged to battle the blaze.
Canada Post workers in the Sudbury area are angry and frustrated at a decision forcing them back to work, according to the president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 612.
The holiday season is proving anything but bright for some Nova Scotians whose Christmas packages have gone missing, despite delivery drivers claiming they were delivered.
It could cost tens of millions of dollars to implement a Moncton council motion aimed at addressing a pungent smell in the city's north end, councillors heard Monday.
The power outage in Montreal's Saint-Michel neighbourhood has now gone well over the 72-hour mark, but Hydro-Québec says it has been able to restore power to some customers through mobile generators it deployed to the affected area.
Despite a decade-long fight and a court judgment in their favour, a Manitoba family says they're still looking for justice, alleging more than $170,000 of their 82-year-old aunt's money was misappropriated by a woman they thought was her friend.
Electric vehicle manufacturers are using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron in Saskatoon to develop batteries with a lifespan pushing eight million kilometres, roughly 25 times the average life of batteries currently in use.
P.E.I. had the fourth-lowest child poverty rate in Canada in 2022, but the authors of the latest child and family report card for the province say that is no reason to celebrate.