The province of BC has intervened after the Cactus Club Cafe refused to give the RCMP surveillance footage of a double shooting in its parking lot. The provincial government has altered the business liquor licence for the Cactus Club Cafe on Barnet Highway in Coquitlam, which asked for a warrant before disclosing the video footage from the February 11 shooting. The restaurant chain has 32 locations across Canada. A man and woman were found injured in a vehicle and were taken to hospital. RCMP asked witnesses and people with photographic or video evidence from dashcams or security footage from between 10:30 p.m. on February 11 and 12:30 a.m. on February 12 to contact them.Cactus Club claimed it always cooperated with police in just cases. “The process of requesting a production order before releasing surveillance footage is a standard practice put in place across all of our locations,” the restaurant told Global News in a statement. “This protects privacy and ensures we’re following the law.”“We will continue to support the efforts of the RCMP and law enforcement in our communities,” the statement said. BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association (BCRFA) president and CEO Ian Tostenson explained it’s customary for private businesses to hand over CCTV footage to police in the case of an investigation — and normally the business owners have no qualms about helping police. “The general protocol is for people to give up, not just restaurants, but people, to give up video to help and assist the police in a manner that’s fairly quick,” said Tostenson according to Global News. “It’s not, I don’t think, a situation where they don’t want to. I think it’s a question of let’s make sure before it gets released that we're being a bit cautious here and protecting privacy.”“This probably raises the question what should be best practices that restaurants should follow,” said Tostenson.BC Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth told the publication he had never seen a business withhold evidence that would aid a police investigation before. “It’s the first time it’s crossed my desk that there has been a refusal to initially comply with police request for video,” said Farnworth. “They must have video surveillance and they must provide it to the police or a liquor inspector upon request.” “We had a gangland shooting in the vicinity with cameras that took place, like right near there and they (the Cactus Club) were asked to cooperate and provide what surveillance videos that they had, and they said go and get a warrant,” said Farnworth. “That’s just not acceptable, and I don’t believe the public would accept that either.”Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart noted it was “outrageous” for a local business to refuse such a request from the RCMP. ”For a local business to insist that the RCMP get a warrant for information that they might have that could lead to an arrest is outrageous,” Stewart told Global News. “I want to know their side of it, it doesn’t make sense to me.”
