Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill

The Alberta government is moving toward letting bars collect personal information from patrons in a bid to identify troublemakers and prevent gang activity.

An amendment to the provincial Gaming and Liquor Act, introduced in the legislature Tuesday, proposes that bars and nightclubs be given authority to collect, use, and share with each other information about problem patrons.

"The nightclub owners in all cities in Alberta really want that, and I believe it is a major deterrent to keep out organized crime and problems like this," said Paul Vickers, who runs several bars and lounges in Calgary under the Penny Lane Entertainment Group.

In 2008, Alberta's privacy commissioner ordered Tantra, a Calgary nightclub owned by Penny Lane, to stop scanning patrons' driver's licences, disputing the company's view that the practice curbed violent behaviour.

If Bill 42 is passed, venues could collect names, ages and photos of patrons and share them with other businesses to prevent the same troublemakers from moving between bars and clubs and creating the same problems, the solicitor general's office said. However, clubs would have to follow the the privacy commissioner's guidelines.

Kent Hehr, justice critic for the Alberta Liberals, said there are still privacy concerns in the proposed legislation.

"There's no real filter for how they're going to dispose of this information, what it's to be used for, and it can really open up a whole can of worms as to what information we're going to be allowed to be collected by private organizations," he said Wednesday.

Remove suspected gang members

Part of the same proposed bill includes giving police the ability to remove anyone suspected of being a gang member or gang associate from a licensed establishment.

"The presence of these individuals is seen as a danger to the safety of others based on recent incidents where bystanders have been injured," said a release from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission and the solicitor general's office on Tuesday.

"Entertainment spots are supposed to be places where you can go and have a good time," Alberta Public Security Minister Fred Lindsay said. "The last thing someone wants to worry about is getting caught in the middle of a violent incident."

But defence lawyer Balfour Der said police would get too much leeway. "To me, it's an affront to people's right to move freely in our country that the police can somehow hang their own label on someone, call them a gang member."

Last year, police and bar owners in Vancouver launched a program called Bar Watch that gave officers the authority to enter venues uninvited and remove known gangsters from the premises. About 20 clubs in the program also use metal detectors and ID scanners.