Preserves: The Manitoba Food HIstory PODCAST

KYRA THIELE: Up until recently, Manitoba was well known for its repressive and archaic liquor control legislation. ¹ It wasn’t until the early 80’s that the laws began to change – slowly – and allowed for more personal responsibility, such as allowing individuals rather than companies to bring alcohol across borders and removing the restriction against Indigenous persons from drinking on and off reserve.² But when and how did our province’s history of restrictive liquor laws originate? Most would assume they started when Manitoba joined Canada in 1870, but they in fact began long before that. Join me, Kyra Thiele, for the next little while as we go on a journey back in time that tells the story of how one corporation, the “Honourable” Hudson’s Bay Company, assumed control and puppeteered the laws of the land, many that existed long after their influence had dwindled, in what would one day become Manitoba. Our journey begins with the Incorporation of the HBC via the Charter of 1670. King Charles II granted the HBC and its Governor, Prince Rupert, exclusive jurisdiction to all of the land surrounding the waterways that drained into the Hudson’s Bay, a territory whose boundaries could be described as rather vague.³ Most importantly, the Charter also gave the HBC the power to enact laws and ordinances as well as impose penalties and punishments for the good government and further success of the fur trade within these boundaries, so long as they were reasonable and not contradictory to the laws of England.⁴ Essentially, what they perceived as good for business was law. Since the early years of the HBC’s incorporation, the traders were instructed to avoid the use of alcohol as a medium for trade, as it was thought to be a detriment for negotiations with the Indigenous hunters.⁵ Simply letting go of liquor as an easy means of trade proved to be much more difficult. HBC writer Matthew Cocking sent a letter back to the company during an expedition in 1774, stating that he had been forced despite the rule to trade liquor for beaver.⁶ Officers of the HBC were not foolish, and quickly realized that without alcohol, the fur trade had become a sellers’ market. They described the Indigenous traders as being rigid and firm on their demands unless their taste for liquor was fulfilled, which would cause them to be less stubborn.⁷ Essentially, get them drunk to bring down their guard. Alcohol now shifted the balance of power back to a buyer’s market, and since the company did not enforce their own self-ordained rules, no trader was ever held to account for his actions by the HBC.⁸ Eventually, the HBC committee shipped a still to York Factory on the Hudson’s Bay, which set to work producing over proof liquor to be sent to the inland posts.⁹

So, why did the HBC eventually expand their operations deeper into southern Manitoba? The neglect that they had paid to much of their territory had become critical and in order to regain a competitive advantage once again, the HBC needed to embrace the grant of land that the Charter provided them. The area surrounding what is now Winnipeg had become heavily populated by the HBC’s main competitors, the North West Company and the newly formed XY Company, which made the move further inland imperative. In 1811, Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, established the Red River Settlement. The tract of land spanning much of modern day southern Manitoba into northern USA was granted to Selkirk with the caveat that Selkirk would furnish the HBC with labourers for their business as required.¹⁰ While the HBC did not have governing influence during Selkirk’s period, the opinions and interests of the company were certainly considered as he was a large shareholder and some of the councillors during Selkirk’s time were also HBC Officers.¹¹ In 1816, Lord Selkirk produced a writing in which he was a strong proponent of restricting alcohol access to Indigenous peoples on the basis of it being destructive to their welfare and the success of the colony. The HBC supported this idea, but pushed for more information on how violators would be punished. The North West company adamantly opposed it, most likely due to the fact that they had been using alcohol as a currency since their incorporation, whereas HBC preferred to not use it… except in cases where they wanted to outbid the competition.¹² Ultimately, liquor laws were never formally established during Selkirk’s time at the colony until his death in 1820 and shortly thereafter the HBC merged with the North West Company, effectively eliminating their largest competition. While the HBC exercised influence and a propensity for bending their own company rules as necessary throughout its early history, they did not establish any clear liquor laws until 1836.¹³ The time period between 1836 – 1869 marks the key period of HBC’s influence over the Red River Settlement, having negotiated the purchase of the land back from Lord Selkirk’s estate.¹⁴ The reigning government, known as the Council of Assiniboia, was largely comprised of HBC officers and appointees.¹⁵ The first recorded rule related to liquor was passed on June 13, 1836, which stated,  “If being found that the public tranquility of the Settlement is greatly endangered, by the sale and traffic of beer to Indians, it is Resolved 7th. That such sales or traffic be prohibited from and after the 1st of July of the current year, and that any one who may sell to or traffic beer with Indians, after that date, be liable in a penalty of twenty shillings, for every such offence, all such fines and penalties to be made applicable to Public Works.”¹⁶ These laws would only become more complex and more limiting, especially to Indigenous people. June of 1837 saw another law passed by the Council of Assiniboia, this one much more apparent as beneficial to the HBC. An excise tax was imposed that would see a two shilling collection for each gallon of proof spirits consumed within the colony. The Council also reduced the import / export taxes for other trade goods and removed duty on spirits being exported from the Settlement.¹⁷ In the eyes of its citizens, this could have been a move to further the now prevailing agenda of temperance, however based on the past greed of the HBC, it appears to have more likely a financial move. Subsequently in June of 1839, these laws became of even greater benefit to the HBC, making them the sole manufacturer and provider of whiskey and malt spirit. Anyone found in possession of brewers tools would also be subject to forfeiture of said items and as well as a hefty fine.¹⁸ In 1839, Council imposed the requirement of licenses in order to sell or barter with spirits. These licenses, of course, were issued by the Council and subject to scrutiny in following the prevailing liquor laws. Day and time restrictions were effectively placed on the service of alcohol, again which appeared were not applicable to the HBC.¹⁹ A few short years later in 1844, Council brought forth the idea of erecting a distillery at the Red River Settlement, and discussed the idea of putting it out to tender, however that idea was short lived and squashed.²⁰ A year later, the Council changed it’s tune and stated that any distillery should be exclusively in the hands of the HBC.²¹ Imports of alcohol were also banned from the settlement, unless brought in by the HBC.²² The enacted law related to the distillery even describes the Settlement as “morally and equitably bound” to protect the honourable HBC from competition and then secondly shield the public from excessive use caused by a larger supply.[23] The wording order poses the question of who this law was actually created for. In 1847, each bottle of wine imported from the United States was subject to a shilling per gallon fee in addition to a tax of 4% of the prime cost as well as another 7% on the value in the colony.²⁴ The Council tried to make it exceptionally difficult for ongoing competition with the HBC. This year was the first noted reference to the HBC as having “exception” in regards to actually being licensed.²⁵ Also, during the period of 1845-1847, it is notable that 17 court cases were brought forward regarding liquor offences, accounting for 42% of all hearings.²⁶ This was a clear testament to HBC’s wishes that no person or entity other than themselves garner a profit from liquor sales. The HBC’s control, of quite literally everything, made it extremely difficult for council to balance the management of the colony’s liquor issues while still maintaining the economic interests of the HBC. In May of 1851, the Council released a draft of a new set of public regulations. These did not detail everything that was previously mentioned, but still alluded to the same idea; that everyone in the colony was accountable for the liquor laws, except for the HBC. In fact, in the preamble of the report on the state of the law of the district, section 4 states that, “Our local legislature has no right to control any one of the Company’s chartered powers, whether territorial, or commercial, or political, within the district, unless it shall have been expressly invested with such right by the Company itself.” The company was also described as “extra-territorial,” meaning that they were not subject to customs duties.²⁷ This report was drafted by three sitting members of council, including Adam Thom, who was well known as an extremely biased HBC employee²⁸. This was not to continue forever, however, as in June of 1858, Council repealed the law preventing others from distilling spirits.²⁹ This marked the first of changes that would slowly see the HBC lose their liquor monopoly in the colony. Colonists began to feel the effects of the free flowing liquor in the community, with several petitions being submitted in 1859 requesting that liquor legislation be enacted in order to prevent the “evils of alcohol” from destroying the colony.³⁰ As a result, council members and local clergy engaged in a committee to create new resolutions that would put more rigid controls into place to manage the importation of liquor. Interestingly, one of the proposed measures by petition was placing an import tax on all alcohol produced by foreign countries, which would make local product, such as that produced by the HBC, more appealing. The measure was put forth by a clergy member during council but was amended by sitting council member, Dr. John Bunn, to exclude the United Kingdom from the import taxation. Eventually the amended measure was passed along with several other restricting resolutions, including a larger scope for licensing that now covered beer and wine, not just spirits.³¹ It was also explicitly stated that manufacturers and retailers needed to hold separate licenses and that manufacturers could not sell their own products.³² In November and December of 1868, the last recorded of amendments to the liquor laws by the Council of Assiniboia were documented. During those meetings, all of the previous liquor laws were repealed – save the laws against the intoxicating of Indigenous people – and replaced by a new set of regulations. Licenses were now grouped into two areas: standard licences which allowed for the manufacture and sale of liquor of any quantity and wholesale licenses which now allowed for the sale of alcohol over a specific quantity.³³ Early 1869 saw the Red River Resistance push the Council of Assiniboia from control of the province. For the short period occupied by Riel’s provisional government, the pre-existing and recently amended liquor laws established by the Council of Assiniboia were adopted.³⁴ Also during 1869, the Company had agreed to rescind Rupert’s Land to Canada. Their relinquishment of the land did not come without caveats however. The Deed of Surrender stipulated that not only was the company to received £300,000, 1/20 of the land in the fertile belt, and lands around their posts, but they also were entitled to the right to continue trade without obstruction, special taxation or duties.³⁵ The last condition was one that the HBC would continue to capitalize on in relation to their liquor operations until into the 1900s. Shortly after Manitoba’s confederation in 1870, the acting order-in-council elected to enforce all the laws passed by the Council of Assiniboia in 1862, including the pre-existing liquor laws, which would return the province to the enforcement of more stringent laws.³⁶ So, which laws stuck around from the original Council era? Well, one of the most obvious was the restriction of providing alcohol to Indigenous people. Manitoba also did not allow Indigenous persons to drink in a licensed establishment until the Indian Act repealed all the repressive liquor control measures in 1985.³⁷ As much of the thoughts concerning Indigenous persons and their ability to consume alcohol came from the fur trade, it would be safe the say that the HBC likely had some influence on the prevailing thoughts of the colonists that persisted, generation after generation. Other laws from that era that were similar included licensing and hours of operation. 1956 saw the restricted hours of alcohol service reduced and service on Sundays was now allowed. The restricted times would be reduced even further over the next six decades. Licensing only became more complicated, especially following prohibition.³⁸ As similar conditions existed in Britain, it is impossible to say if the HBC influenced these laws, or if they were simply prevailing opinions of colonial law.³⁹ It cannot be denied that the HBC is strongly rooted in Manitoba’s history. Since their incorporation in 1670 they were at the forefront of establishing laws, rules, and dictating what they felt was morally correct for society specifically when it lined their pocket. While some of their rules and ideals were strongly engrained in our legislation, specifically liquor, their time of influence has passed. Manitoba has been slowly but steadily moving forward into a more progressive style of liquor control, one that puts emphasis on modernization, choice and personal responsibility; one which we can all hope continues on in the future.⁴⁰

KENT DAVIES: Welcome back. That was Kyra Thiele’s podcast “Trapping Liquor,” on how the Hudson’s Bay Company shaped our liquor laws. Now, our story doesn’t end there Janis. University of Winnipeg student Jaydi Overwater also uncovered some interesting Manitoba history involving the sale of liquor, well… the illegal sale of liquor.

JANIS THIESSEN: Yes, this is a student who at the time was researching this for a class and also working at a Liquor Store in Manitoba. And she mentioned that it was her experiences with that job that led to her interest in doing further research on the history of liquor control in Manitoba. 

KENT DAVIES: So the previous podcast established the lengths governing bodies went to control liquor sales through even discriminatory policies towards indigenous communities yet they still allowed HBC to prosper in the liquor trade. 

JANIS THIESSEN: Yeah, there’s a long history of racist, classist and sexist policies when it comes to liquor control legislation in this province.  

KENT DAVIES: Yeah, and you know we’ll talk a little about how that’s changed or maybe not changed as much as you know it should. Overwater’s research focused mainly on the temperance era when new laws and control boards made alcohol less available for the majority of inhabitants of Manitoba.⁴¹ During this time, drinking hours of establishments and licensing reductions caused many liquor outlets to close and as we know now, this attempt at prohibition in some cases led people to drink even more during this period.⁴² This was a time when persistent drinkers started taking drastic action to acquire liquor in the form of bootlegging. In response to prohibitionist lobbying, between 1906 and 1913 all provincial governments amended their legislation covering alcohol consumption. So during this period all over Canada you’d find places where people disagreed with restricted access to liquor and one of those places was of course, Manitoba.⁴³ What Overwater found in the course of her research for the class that’s really cool is a series of interviews with Manitobans mainly from the Winnipeg beach area. And a whole bunch of them talk about their experiences with bootlegging during that part of the early twentieth century.⁴⁴ Ironically, one of the interviewees, turned out to be her friend’s grandfather or who as since unfortunately passed away. But she had met this man named Richard Cain who talked about bootlegging around the Winnipeg Beach area and he was interviewed in 1991 as part of this "History of Winnipeg Beach" oral history project. 

DORA CARPENTER: There was a lot of moonshining in the prohibition days.

RICHARD CAIN: Oh, it went beyond prohibition it went right up into the war.

DORA CARPENTER: Yes.

RICHARD CAIN: Oh, yes. Yes. But in a mater of fact the town (St. Andrews) was very incensed at one point that somebody wrote up in the tribune years ago about every second house in Winnipeg beach was a bootleggers and I think they missed the other ones. [Laughs] But there certainly were an awful lot of people that – not just moonshining – the bootlegging. I don’t think anybody manufactured moonshine in town. They were made out in the farm out in the country someplace. But there were a number of bootleggers in town that sold homebrew. There were also a number that sold beer and wine and whiskey. That was going back when liquor was rationed and they had people buying stuff for them I suppose and they were reselling it. There was lots of that going on right in town and throughout the west side. Lots of that.

KENT DAVIES: As Cain mentioned there were two different ways people would sell illicit alcohol during the early 1900s. Bootlegging which was typically classified as legally purchased alcohol that was bought in large quantities and sold at an escalated price or moonshining which was just homebrew made and sold at a lesser price than retail liquor. So bootlegging occurred both in a household that many called a “social club” or in unlicensed establishment popularly known as a “blind pig.”⁴⁵ Blind pigs were well run and took many precautions to keep their secret. In Craig Heron’s Booze; a distilled history it mentions blind pigs a lot and it focuses kind of on the Windsor bootleggers. One of them who described a blind pig as follows, “you’d have to be a friend of a friend before they would sell you a drink. They didn’t allow any riff-raff, they were good clean people. Some were run a lot better than some of the hotels.”⁴⁶ So the underground economy of bootlegging at that time was so common and yet somehow unseen to many of the police. So they had a hard time getting convictions because most witnesses would refuse to testify in order to keep their drinking establishment going.⁴⁷

JANIS THIESSEN: Makes sense. 

KENT DAVIES: Understandably right? They’re going to look the other way. So to give more insight into the culture around drinking during the 1900s in Manitoba, I have another clip. In it, Irene Patterson shares her experiences of drinking as a woman and some of the bootlegging that she witnessed growing up in Manitoba.⁴⁸

IRENE PATTERSON: When I was growing up we didn’t see drinking. The way it was you didn’t see the women drink. I think it’s a lot nicer this way. [Laughs] I know I have a relative that was in the firehall. He made more on bootlegging than he did on his job. But then it was mostly who he had in. It was only policemen and firemen that allowed it.

JANIS THIESSEN: Interesting.

KENT DAVIES: So Irene’s story of police and firemen being involved in the illegal activities of alcohol was really not uncommon during this time. According to Craig Heron, often many policing officials at all levels developed a kind of, “a nod-and-wink, live-and-let-live” relationship with bootleggers and rumrunners at this time.

JANIS THIESSEN: Sure. 

KENT DAVIES: Even the Montreal chief preventative officer was found to be regularly bootlegging the booze he actually seized.⁴⁹ So this kind of lax enforcement allowed bootlegging to flourish. Sellers also became more strategic in their efforts to disguise the bottles and containers of alcohol they transported. Even taxi drivers were used to distribute and transport bootlegged alcohol, for many of them it was seen as easy money.⁵⁰

The success of bootlegging was something that temperance and prohibition activists were not willing to accept. During this time, they frequently assumed the role of the unofficial policemen because the police were doing an inadequate according to them. 

JANIS THIESSEN: Right. 

KENT DAVIES: And besides volunteering as informants, they paid out-of-town “spotters,” to visit hotels and determine whether alcohol was being served illegally. They even took offenders to court themselves sometimes.⁵¹ And Alice Ellison remembers some of these spotters.⁵²

ALICE ELLISON: They would be caught or whoever would be caught because they were informing to the RCMP. Oh yeah, lots of that. Sure. There would be acquaintances I’ll put it that way. There would be neighbours or close friends. There would be somebody that knew them and came into their house for a visit and then saw what we saw. You know, that somebody had come in and bought homebrew. Oh yes. Oh yes. And you know anybody would have said, “gee he makes good money, is he a bootlegger you know?” “Yeah. Good homebrew,” they said. It was hard to find eh?

KENT DAVIES: So that was Alice Ellison. She grew up in the Winnipeg beach area and remembers the bootlegging that went on around there.⁵³

ALICE ELLISON: Yeah, the bootleggers. Oh yes. Oh yeah and the mickeys and the hiding and the—oh sure. I remember that very well. The homebrew stills in the area. You know I do know that many, many around made their own homebrew eh. There were a few farmers west near Komarno that went into it on a big scale and sold across the line and so on and hauled in the backs of hay racks and what-have-you. But you know now it would be somebody when they come and the liquor commission at the drugstore says, “you don’t know where you get a good gallon of homebrew?” [Laughs] No I’m afraid not. My uncle was a bootlegger. Just a mile away from us. And he sold in the house and in various different kinds of bottles to disguise it. It didn’t necessarily have to be a whisky bottle it could be something else. You know. But we were there many an evening when somebody would knock at the door and he would go and get a bag and put it in the bag so we weren’t aware of what was going on and actually there was darn good money in it. Darn good money. 

KENT DAVIES: Prohibition was originally put in place as a temporary wartime measure and this was at the time of an economic depression in Canada. So the early acts of bootlegging were in some cases a survival strategy for impoverished workers, farmers, and others with limited outcomes. This was money. 

JANIS THIESSEN: Right. 

KENT DAVIES: It was difficult to make the case for continuing a national policy of prohibition versus the economic pressures that people faced every day. So most provinces repealed their bans during the nineteen-twenties when they realized they weren’t going to win this kind of tug of war between the two.⁵⁴ This led to the establishment of provincial liquor control boards and most, if not, all of them were determined to bring down bootlegging and smuggling activities.  So the Ontario Liquor control board for instance wrote: “A marked cutting down of the bootlegging evil; a lessening of youthful temptations to break prohibitory laws; the bringing about of greater respect for the law; a decrease if not an elimination of the making of “home brew” with its dangerous poisonous tendencies; and, it is hoped, a real stimulation to temperance in all things by education and home training rather than by prohibiting which does not prohibit.”⁵⁵ So even with this new era we still get this holier than thou paternalism. 

JANIS THIESSEN: Right. It’s a real moralizing tone and it’s invariably targeted at a particular racialized groups or women or working class. There’s some people who are judged as not drinking responsibly and there are others who are allowed to drink whatever they want. And it’s not a coincidental which groups are being targeted by this kind of language. 

KENT DAVIES: For sure and right from the get go liquor control boards had a monopoly on the wholesale purchase and retail sale of most alcoholic beverages. So building on much more limited experience of “dispensaries” that some provinces had operated during prohibition, each board ran a chain of stores that were the only places in which drinkers could buy booze by the bottle, domestic or imported and at uniform prices fixed by the board.⁵⁶ Still with this new rigid system in place, black market booze continued to thrive during this time. Whatever the source of the booze, the bootlegger was probably closest to home than the wildly scattered government liquor stores. So, it might take several days for an express order from the government store to arrive, while bootleggers could deliver quickly, right to the door.⁵⁷ So you know if the convenience factor is right there it becomes this kind of thing of what are people going to do. What’s more convenient and normal to them at this time. Are they going to go with the new system that heavily regulated or they going to just do what’s easiest. So, the control that liquor commission stores and licensees had only carried on the racist practices highlighted in the previous podcast. People of colour were not welcomed in many public drinking spaces and Indigenous people still faced a complete ban of alcohol to them. Hotel-keepers could arbitrarily refuse anyone based on their race and the liquor control boards generally refused to intervene to stop such racist practices.⁵⁸ It wasn’t until a major legislative investigation of Indigenous issues in 1946, that the federal government finally amended the Indian Act in 1951 to finally allow Indigenous people to even consume alcohol in public drinking establishments, though they still wouldn’t let them buy booze to take home. The Indian Act was amended again in 1956 to permit provinces to allow Indigenous peoples full drinking rights although action to bring provincial legislation into line stretched out over the next decade.⁵⁹ Bootlegging and underground liquor sales continued well after the 1930’s because of these repressive liquor laws. Eventually more and more Canadians would embrace alcohol at least as a respectable form of mainstream social life. So to accommodate this new attitude to drinking, governments eventually agreed to fund specialized programs for the minority of drinkers who struggled with alcoholism.⁶⁰ By the 1970s governments in all provinces and territories were loosening the controls on alcohol. By then compulsively heavy drinking was redefined as a legitimate disease and not merely some sort of moral failing, and governments were convinced to fund professional intervention and treatment.⁶¹ This new way of thinking shifted the culture around drinking and some of the previous negative associations attached to alcohol. 

JANIS THIESSEN: This is the time period when you see the disappearance of the women’s entrance to downtown Winnipeg hotel bars right. It’s now suddenly acceptable for men and women to enter in the same establishment. I had to do a research paper for Ed Rea at the University of Manitoba back in my graduate student days on the history of changes to the Manitoba liquor act. It was almost hilarious the way over the years, you know, “you can’t sit to enjoy a drink.” “You have to stand to enjoy a drink.” “You can’t stand you have to sit.” All sorts of – just to make it inconvenient and an uncomfortable place for you to drink. 

KENT DAVIES: Yeah, There is still a lot of stigma surrounding alcohol, and it’s still used as way to discriminate against people. Today, there are often strong opinions surrounding who, where and how people consume alcohol and although Canada and the province has loosed a lot of liquor control laws there are still many rules and restrictions regarding them. Jaydi Overwater, who again works as an employee of Manitoba’s liquor commission, actually told me that one of her responsibilities is to report large purchases of lower priced alcohol because there may be potential bootlegging operations that are still present in rural parts of the province. And she said this was quite challenging for someone who now knows the history behind these rules and regulations here and even more recently with the new security measures at Manitoba liquor marts which may be well intentioned – like peoples safety right but it still have unintended consequences. I saw an older gentleman who they refused to let in the store because he didn’t have the correct form of identification. Some older adults don’t drive and have licences. These are the kind of things they sometimes don’t consider. So it becomes a situation where you hope common sense will prevail but these are things that we’ll continue to struggle with as Manitobans. And I hope we’re more open to questioning if some of these rules and regulations concerning liquor sales do discriminate or are actually helping society. 

¹ Kives, Bartley. "Feed Your Intellect: Alcohol." Winnipeg Free Press, January 19, 2013: J2-J4.

² Manitoba Legislative Library, Archives of Manitoba, Manitoba, History of liquor regulation in Manitoba, ca. 2012, Manitoba Gaming Control Comm c.1.

³ Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba, Charters, Supplemental Charters and Bye-Laws, H.M. King Charles II to HBC: Charter of Incorporation, ca. 1670-1970, A.37/1 – A.37/56.

⁴ Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba, Charters, Supplemental Charters and Bye-Laws, H.M. King Charles II to HBC: Charter of Incorporation, ca. 1670-1970, A.37/1 – A.37/56.

⁵ Hudson's Bay Company History Foundation. HBC Spirits. 2016. http://www.hbcheritage.ca/history/ventures/hbc-spirits (accessed March 15, 2019); Rich, E. E. The History of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1870: Volume II: 1763-1870. London: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited and The University Press, 1959.

⁶ Rich, E. E. The History of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1870: Volume II: 1763-1870. London: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited and The University Press, 1959.

⁷ Rich, E. E. The History of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1870: Volume II: 1763-1870.  London: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited and The University Press, 1959. 

⁸ Simons, Nicholas J. S. "Liquor Control and the Native Peoples of Western Canada." Master's thesis, University of Ottawa, 1992. National Library of Canada. 

⁹ Rich, E. E. The History of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1870: Volume II: 1763-1870.  London: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited and The University Press, 1959. 

¹⁰ Oliver, Edmund H. The Canadian North-West: It's Early Development and Legislative Records Volume I. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1914.

¹¹ Oliver, Edmund H. The Canadian North-West: It's Early Development and Legislative Records Volume I. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1914; Rich, E. E. The History of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1870: Volume II: 1763-1870. London: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited and The University Press, 1959.

¹² The Manitoba Record Society. "A Sketch Of The British Fur Trade In North America; With Observations Relative To The North-West Company of Montreal." In The Collected Writings of Lord Selkirk: 1810-1820, by The Manitoba Record Society, 46-108. Winnipeg: Manitoaba Record Society Publications, 1987.

¹³ Galbraith, John S. The Hudson's Bay Company As An Imperial Factor 1821-1869. Los Angeles: 1957. 

¹⁴ Rich, E. E. The History of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1870: Volume II: 1763-1870.  London: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited and The University Press, 1959.

¹⁵ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from May 4, 1832; Rich, E. E. 1959. The History of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1870: Volume II: 1763-1870. London: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited and The University Press.

¹⁶ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from June 13, 1836. 

¹⁷ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from June 16, 1837.

¹⁸ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from June 13, 1839.

¹⁹ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from July 4, 1839.

²⁰ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from June 19, 1844. 

²¹ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from June 16, 1845. 

²² Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from June 19, 1845. 

²³ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from June 19, 1845.

²⁴ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from May 20, 1847.

²⁵ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from January 15, 1847. 

²⁶ Laudicina, Nelly. 2009. "The Rules of Red River: The Council of Assiniboia and its Impact on the Colony, 1820-1869." Past Imperfect. 36-75. 

²⁷ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Report of Law Amendment Committee, drafted and presented to Council, dated May 1851. 

²⁸ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Report of Law Amendment Committee, drafted and presented to Council, dated May 1851; Baker, H. Robert. "Creating Order in the Wilderness: Transplanting the English Law to Rupert's Land, 1835-51." Law and History Review, 1999: 209-246; Gibson, Dale. Law, Life, and Government at Red River, Volume 1 : Settlement and Governance, 1812-1872. Montreal: MQUP, 2015. Accessed April 23, 2019.

²⁹ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from June 23, 1858.

³⁰ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from March 10, 1859.

³¹ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes from March 5, 1861.

³¹ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1832-1861, P7536/1, P1536/2. Minutes of council from March 5, 1861; Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1861-1869, P7536/3. Minutes of council from April 8 & 11, 1862.

³³ Archives of Manitoba, Council of Assiniboia fonds, Council of Assiniboia minutes, 1861-1869, P7536/3. Minutes of council from November 27, 1868 and a resolution submitted in December 1868.

³⁴ Hall, Norma Jean. 1870. Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia Debates. Transcript, Winnipeg: Government of Manitoba; Gibson, Dale. Law, Life, and Government at Red River, Volume 1 : Settlement and Governance, 1812-1872. Montreal: MQUP, 2015. Accessed April 23, 2019. 

³⁵ Galbraith, John S. 1957. The Hudson's Bay Company As An Imperial Factor 1821-1869. Los Angeles: 1957. Hudson's Bay Company History Foundation. Deed of Surrender. 2016. http://www.hbcheritage.ca/history/fur-trade/deed-of-surrender. Accessed March 29, 2019.

³⁶ Gibson, Dale. Law, Life, and Government at Red River, Volume 1 : Settlement and Governance, 1812-1872. Montreal: MQUP, 2015. Accessed April 23, 2019.

³⁷ Moss, Wendy, and Elaine Gardner-O'Toole. 1987. Aboriginal People: History of Discriminatory Laws. Background Paper, Ottawa: Parliamentary Research Branch; Manitoba Legislative Library, Archives of Manitoba, Manitoba, History of liquor regulation in Manitoba, ca. 2012, Manitoba Gaming Control Comm c.1.

³⁸ Manitoba Legislative Library, Archives of Manitoba, Manitoba, History of liquor regulation in Manitoba, ca. 2012, Manitoba Gaming Control Comm c.1; Kives, Bartley. 2013. "Feed Your Intellect: Alcohol." Winnipeg Free Press, January 19: J2-J4. 

³⁹ Piror, Neil. 130 years since Sunday drinking was banned in Wales. August 4, 2011. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-14136013. Accessed April 1, 2019. 

⁴⁰ Manitoba Legislative Library, Archives of Manitoba, Manitoba, History of liquor regulation in Manitoba, ca. 2012, Manitoba Gaming Control Comm c.1.

⁴¹ Craig Heron, Booze: A Distilled History, (Toronto, Ontario: Between The Lines, 2003), 81 

⁴² Heron, Booze, 123.

⁴³ Heron, Booze, 175.

⁴⁴ Dick Cain, interviewed April 7, 1991 in St. Andrews, MB. Audio cassette, Side A, 00:28:00-00:30:00, Boundary Creek District Development oral history project, "The History of Winnipeg Beach oral history project,” Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB.

⁴⁵ Heron, Booze, 162, 240.

⁴⁶ Heron, Booze, 252.

⁴⁷ Heron, Booze, 259.

⁴⁸ Irene Patterson, interviewed by Linda Wilson and Gerry Leib on July 15, 1981 in Winnipeg, MB. Audio cassette. Side B, 00:10:00 – 00:13:00, Department of History at the University of Winnipeg, “Winnipeg Past and Present Oral History Project,” Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB.  

⁴⁹ Heron, Booze, 259-260.

⁵⁰ Heron, Booze, 242, 244.

⁵¹ Heron, Booze, 259.

⁵² Alice Ellison interviewed June 7, 1991 in Manitoba. Audio cassette. Side B, 00:25:00-00:29:00, Boundary Creek District Development oral history project, "The History of Winnipeg Beach oral history project,” Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB.

⁵³ Alice Ellison interviewed June 7, 1991 in Manitoba. Audio cassette. Side B, 00:29:30-00:31, Boundary Creek District Development oral history project, "The History of Winnipeg Beach oral history project,” Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB.

⁵⁴ Heron, Booze, 241,265,266,269.

⁵⁵ Heron, Booze, 278.

⁵⁶ Heron, Booze, 279.

⁵⁷ Heron, Booze, 294.

⁵⁸ Heron, Booze, 292.

⁵⁹ Heron, Booze, 319-320.

⁶⁰ Heron, Booze, 299.

⁶¹ Heron, Booze, 379.