Hasidic Synagogues In Quebec Reported To Sell Illegally Imported Wine

Tablet yesterday carried a long article on the sale of bootlegged kosher wine by Hasidic synagogues in Canada's province of Quebec. In Montreal, stores owned by the Société des Alcools de Quebec ("SAQ") have a monopoly on the legal sale of wine, but their selection of kosher wine is meager. Anyone wanting to import wine from outside the province must obtain a permit from SAQ. Some in the Hasidic community are ignoring these requirements.  As reported by Tablet:

The synagogues ... bring the wine in from Ontario. By doing so, they avoid Quebec taxes and utilize an Ontario law that makes wine used for religious purposes 17 percent cheaper than market price. The illegal wine shops serve a number of purposes; they make money for the synagogues and offer a selection that is far superior to that of the SAQ stores. Boro [a lawyer who has represented a synagogue charged with violating permit requirements] stresses that the bootlegging is not only about profit, but also about the needs of the community; observant Jews in Montreal, Boro said, have repeatedly asked the SAQ to get a better kosher selection. The SAQ constantly says it will but never actually does.