I've been living in Vancouver for almost 6 years and I've noticed a lot of changes around the city, especially with respect to its entertainment industry. When I first moved here they still had smoking rooms (and now you can't smoke within 20 metres of an establishment) and bars closed at 2am.
What I recently noticed last year, however, was bars scanning ID's and taking your photo. I first noticed this at ganster glam bar CANVAS where they told me that because their typical clientele can include gang members, they take your photo as a precaution...and for your safety of course (ya, whatev).
So, two people who were asked to have their ID's scanned and they protested saying it was illegal. The reason they said this is because of the July 21 order which said bars cannot scan IDs and keep their patrons information.
Despite the July 21 order, there has been a lot of controversy about whether or not bars are allowed to do this, mostly because Granville bars kept on with scanning IDs. And it looks like the answer is yes, according to the Georgia Straight.
So Apparently, "Bars and nightclubs could continue to scan IDs and photograph patrons under the condition that all data be permanently destroyed after 24 hours. If an incident occurs within that period, relevant personal information can be held for one year."
I'm sure that this has nothing to do with the influx of people who will be arriving for the Olympics (wink wink) but its still in bad taste to first say its illegal, then have the clubs ignore the order, and then finally decide that they CAN scan IDs.
Looks like they better re-brand 1984 as a work of non-fiction now.
Click here to read the article for yourself.
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