Update: As of September 25th, Bad Tattoo has reversed their position and will be complying with provincial health orders and checking vaccine passports. Co-owner Lee Agur will also be stepping back from management as per this Facebook post.
Penticton based Bad Tattoo Brewing appears to be the first brewery in the province to take a public stance against the provincial health orders.
The newly announced vaccine passport from the BC government is set to begin on September 13th, requiring all individuals to provide proof of vaccination to access a broad range of social, recreational, and discretionary events and businesses throughout the province. This includes indoor, and outdoor dining.
In an email sent by Lee Agur, Owner of Bad Tattoo Brewing, the brewery says it will not be implementing the vaccine passport, due to the fact that they are “unconstitutional.” Agur goes on to explain they have had customers that are threatening legal action if they intended on implementing the passport, “discriminate against them or violate their privacy by requiring personal medical information.”
A copy of the full email can be read below:
Hi Everyone,
If you are included on this e-mail I assumed you may have an interest in knowing our position (If not I apologize). I have been receiving a lot of calls recently regarding the vaccine passport and wanted to clarify my position and state this is all I have to say at the moment.
Bad Tattoo Brewing will not be implementing the vaccine passport.
Vaccine passports are unconstitutional. By enforcing something like the vaccine passport my business is at risk of breaking the law and we could get sued. I have customers that are threatening legal action if I discriminate against them or violate their privacy by requiring personal medical information. Some of these customers are the same people that have kept our business going during limited-service periods during the height of restrictions and we will not turn our backs on them now. They have shown us great loyalty and supported us through these extremely difficult times, and we will continue to show them that same loyalty in return, regardless of their very personal medical choices.
Requiring my 14 – 17 year old hosts to enforce customer vaccine passports upon entry to the restaurants makes me fear for their health and safety and is not within the scope of their employment agreement.
I love living in Canada and one of the greatest things about being Canadian is being able to serve all of our customers without discrimination.Lee Agur,
Bad Tattoo Brewing
Bad Tattoo has two locations, Penticton and Kelowna, where there has been a surge of the Delta variant during the fourth wave.
It remains to be seen what actions, if any, will be taken against Bad Tattoo once they are in violation of the provincial health order come September 13th.
Ale/Sessions 
“Requiring my 14 – 17 year old hosts to enforce customer vaccine passports upon entry to the restaurants makes me fear for their health and safety and is not within the scope of their employment agreement.”
I’m unfamiliar with the laws regarding this but isn’t it illegal to employ minors in such a job/brewery (for obvious reasons)?
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It is very likely they are staffed as hosts for the restaurant end, therefore not having to serve alcohol.
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Still I would think that minors in such an establishment would require some fairly strict adult supervision given the environment. Any possible altercations regarding enforcement of such policies would thus be handled by those “adults” instead of the host. But I’m only speculating.
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There is no legitimate justification to not follow a relatively simple provincial health order. They would have to ID people who are underage, simply checking for vaccination makes guests and employees safer. They ask for your email, and any number of other personal identifiers for their “beer clubs” and online ordering I don’t know why a simple confirmation of your vax status is so freaking oppresive. This brewery is squandering any future goodwill from, let’s face it, the majority of the population who did the right thing and got their vaccination. Instead they are favouring a shrinking, stupid, and let’s face it probably not even capable of having enough disposable income to keep these guys afloat. Dumb, dumb, dumb all around.
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** CHANGE OF POLICY **
There is an update. As of Sept 25th, Bad Tattoo is now checking vaccine passports. The owner apologizes for his previous announcement.
See https://www.facebook.com/BadTattooBrewing/posts/2175715515899861
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Thanks for the update!!
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