T

cAbRE OCTOBER 1 1974, PAGE

1

The laws on Prince Edward Island regarding the advertising of alcohol and/or alcoholic bever— ages is engorced with a double standard that dis— criminates against Island media.

These are the PEI laws in relation to the adver- tisement of alcohol:

The Liquor Control Act R.S.P.E.I. 1951 CAP. 159 NUMBER 47 SECTION (1) NO PERSON WITH: IN THE PROVINCE SHALL....‘ (b) exhibit or display, or permit, to be exhibited or displayed, any adver- tisement or notice of or concerning liquor by an

, electric or illuminated sign, contrivance or dev- ice or on any sign board, billboard or other like ~place in public View or by any of the means afore- said, advertise any liquor; (c) exhibit or display, or permit to be exhibited ,or displayed, any adver- tisement, or form of ad- vertisement, or any other announcement, publication or price list of or conc- erning liquor or where or from whom the same-may be had, obtained or purchased, unless permitted so to do by this act or the regu— lation, and then only in accordance with this Act or the regulations.

These P.E.I. laws in re- lation to the advertising of alcohol are very expl— icit and leave no room for doubt that alcohol adver— tisements should not app— ear on the Island in any way, shape or form. This affects all Island media. An example of this is the local radio station CFCY which is an afiliation of the CBC. Programming rec- eived by them from the CBC which has any mention of alcohol must be removed before it can be broad— casted on P.E.I. Although this law pertains to local radio stations it has no jurisdiction over off — Island radio stations th— ough their broadcasting area includes Prince Ed- ward Island. The implica— tion is that though you are on P.E.I. it is still possible to hear alcohol ads broadcasted.

Another aspect of the media affected is tele—

Ogursls Not

8Tofiuest’ion-UrTsl?‘

_vision. The CBCT, another ,station which is affilia- ted with the CBC; also 1 must reside within the jurisdiction of the law. The rival television sta- tion transmitted on the Island is ATV which orig— inates in Moncton. During nationally telecasted sp- orts events such as the weekly hockey games it is obvious how the ads for alcoholic beverages are being removed for Island broadcasting. The viewer can often see the begin- nings of a beer commer- cial which is immediately

. sliced‘from the program:

ming and other ads are slickly substituted. They are slick but not slick enough.

The international and national weekly and mon— thly magazines such as Time, Newsweek, MacLeans and Playboy to name a few do not follow in the same league as the local media. According to the PEILCC these same magazines be- cause they are national are not subjugated to th- ese provincial laws. They are under federal juris— diction therefore the al— cohol ads which make up at least 50% of their_ad—

vertisement are Seemingly

legal.

v/l

Maritime papers, however, are another story. A news- paper published elsewhere,

‘such as the 4th Estate

(Halifax), is distributed to outlets on P.E.I. and' is therefore easily avail- able to Islanders. The 35h

Estate is within their

rights to publish beer or liquor advertisements and have no fear of it being censored here. These pap— ers do not necessarily have federal legislation behind them yet there is no comment from the PEILCC. Other publications that do not fall into the pres ceeding catagories are the magazines and broch— ' ures published to asSist tourists on their visits to Prince Edward Island. This does not include official government pub— p lications that are buget— ed for by the Provincial government and are print- ed devoid of advertisement.

,There are many tourist

oriented pamphlets which

Vare published off-Island

which contain ads for

'alcoholic beverages. A

prime example of this is the TRAVEL PLANNER, Prince Edward Island, Summer '74, vol.2. Though it is pub- lished in Halifax , it is indeed published with the

intention of diStribution on P.E.L. and was given out complimentary by gov- ernment operated tourist bureaus across the Island. If perchance one picked up a copy of the TRAVEL PLANNER this summer one would have noted that the back cover of the maga- 2ine consisted of a full page Schooner ad with a picture of a bottle of Schooner and a full glass

' of presumably the same

beer. Though all the diff— erent forms of media are allowed to advertise alco— hol on P.E.I. the law in“ relation to Island media, is enforced to the point of absurdity. Examples of this would be the case when the PrinCe Edward Lounge attempted to adv- ertise the two groups

who were performing at

the club. One of which was April Wine, the other was Free Beer. The Prince Ed— ward Lounge was not all— owed to advertise these groups in anyway because the two words wine and beer were in the names'of these groups. The Univer- sity has gone through sim- ilar squabbles over the advertisement of alcohol. Last week when'CFCY ran

an ad in regards to the fact that the Alumni week—