Chain pulls alcoholic drink from shelves
Quebec-based convenience store chain Couche-Tard has decided to voluntarily pull an alcoholic beverage from its shelves.
The company, which has stores in Gatineau, announced Friday in a statement that it has asked its retailers to stop selling “FCKD UP” due to what it called “recent events.”
The announcement came hours after the body of 14-year-old Athena Gervais was pulled from a stream near her high school in Laval earlier this week. While police said she died accidentally, Montreal’s La Presse reported that the teen had been drinking stolen cans of the sweetened alcoholic beverage prior to her death.
Couche-Tard said in the statement that selling the beverage is legal and the chain pulled it from the shelves out of a desire to act responsibly.
Laval police are still awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the girl’s exact cause of death.
La Presse reported Friday that it had learned the young woman and her friends had stolen cans of the drink from a Provi-Soir, which is affiliated with Couche-Tard, near their high school and consumed them at lunchtime on Monday.
One only needs to visit hospital emergency rooms on weekends to see this is not a harmless product.
Gervais’s body was found three days later behind the school.
Aldo Geloso, co-president of Groupe Geloso, which produces FCKD UP, gave his condolences to the victim’s family and said he is open to discontinue the product “in concert with other producers.”
Meanwhile, Éduc’alcool called on Health Canada to impose new regulations on alcoholic energy drinks. Hubert Sacy, director general of the independent, not-for-profit organization, said one can of this type of beverage contains the alcoholic equivalent of four drinks. Further, the effects of the alcohol content is hidden by guarana, a substance containing a strong level of caffeine, according to Health Canada.
“One only needs to visit hospital emergency rooms on weekends to see this is not a harmless product,” Sacy said in an interview with La Presse Canadienne.