Pointe Claire bar can’t serve menu of hip hop or rap any more if it wants to keep its licence.
Condition on Le Pionnier’s licence raises red flag with human-rights watchdog
A landmark Pointe Claire Village bar that was forced to stop selling alcohol in January is expected to get back its liquor licence this week but on the condition that no hip-hop or rap bands play the bar in the future.
Le Pionnier on Lakeshore Blvd. has been dry since the end of January, when the bar’s owners booked a local hip-hop band and the bar’s liquor permit was revoked by the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux.
At the time, the bar’s owners, Diane Marois and Ron Bracken, were in the process of transferring over the liquor licence that had belonged to Clyde’s. Clyde’s closed last fall when Marois and Bracken decided they wanted to resurrect the old Pioneer, the bar they had formerly run in the heritage building they own.
On Monday, Marois said that she and her husband, Ron Bracken, were relieved that it appeared they would be back in business before long.
“We’ve agreed not to play hip hop or rap music and to hire a new manager. Some- one more experienced, who knows what to look for,” Marois said.
“We expect to get our permit back today.”
Marois said she suspected gang-related activity was the reason for the condition imposed by the Régie but she couldn’t be certain. She said she had only talked on the telephone and communicated through emails with a lawyer in the Régie’s legal department and, had yet to receive a written agreement from the Régie.
Human-rights experts, however, were quick to sound the alarm. Although not the first of its kind, the apparent ban on hip-hop music imposed by the Régie sends a dangerous message, said Fo Niemi.
“In principle, an outright ban on rap or hip hop seems to be criminalization of modern black pop culture,” said Niemi, executive director of the Centre de recherche-action sur les relations raciales.
“The issue should be crowd control, security and better screening of guests and clients.
“Unless they can prove a nexus, a direct cause and link,” Niemi said, he would have problems with a condition “that borders on culture-based racial profiling.”
In January, Montreal police expressed concern about Le Pionnier and the ability of the bar’s owners to operate safely after they booked a hip-hop band that police believed would attract gang-related activity.
Sgt. Dominic Monchamp, a West Island vice-squad officer confirmed that the unit has investigated Le Pionnier – standard proced- ure before a liquor licence is issued – but would say no more.
In the summer of 2009, Montreal police arrested more than a dozen suspects in connection with the attempted murders of rival street gang members operating in the West Island. Later this year, six men and one women will be tried in connection with those gangrelated activities, mostly centred in Pierrefonds’s Cloverdale district.