'The law's not fair': Grocer defies province once again, opens on Canada Day

The owners of a chain of small, independent Winnipeg grocery stores said Happy Canada Day on Monday by flouting a law they say is unfair and detrimental to their family-owned business.

"Opening on these days is survival for us," said Munther Zeid, who also opened one of the five Food Fare stores back on Good Friday for disregarding Manitoba's Retail Businesses Holiday Closing Act and is now fighting a $10,000 fine.

"We're trying to make it more of a fair market," Zeid added about his decision to defy the law again and open on Canada Day.

The law forbids grocery shopping and many other retail activities on select holidays but has several exceptions that allow establishments, including beer vendors, cannabis shops, restaurants and government-run liquor stores to remain open.

"I don't know what point they're trying to prove, if they're trying to tell people that gambling and smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol should be more of a priority than buying groceries," said Zeid's brother, Ramsey.

"I don't know what our government ... I don't know what they're thinking."

The law is limiting people's ability to choose what they want to do on a holiday and it's not fair, Zeid said.

"People want choices," he said, noting that includes his employees, who can decide if they want to work on the holiday.

"If we have enough employees willing to work, we open. If we don't, that location will close. We've never forced any employee." 

The Zeid family is expecting to hear once again from the provincial government's employment standards department as a result of opening the store at Portage Avenue and Mount Royal Road on Monday.

Ramsey said a provincial inspector went into the store and asked the manager to provide names, addresses and phone numbers of all the employees that worked there.

When the manager refused, the inspector left, according to Ramsey.

Munther Zeid'sGood Friday run-in with provincial employment standards officials and police drew wide media attention and netted him a summons to appear in court later this month to answer to the infraction.

He's retained a lawyer to help him fight the case. 

"The fine isn't the issue," he said. "I'm not going to pay because it's not fair. The penalty's not fair because the law's not fair." 

No one from the province was available on the weekend to speak to the issue.

A government spokesperson told CBC after the Good Friday incident in April, however, that the province recognizes "Manitobans have diverse opinions about the rules for holiday openings for retail businesses … and we'll continue to listen to what Manitobans have to say, including small business owners and employees."