Student group opens pop-up corner store to protest nutrition taxes
A student activist organization is protesting what it calls an “increasing level” of lifestyle regulations being imposed—or contemplated—by the various levels of government.
Students for Liberty (SFL) opened Canada’s first “nanny state corner store” on Thursday to illustrate what the grocery retail environment will look like if the government continues to overtax, over-regulate or ban items deemed bad for people’s health.
The pop-up store was situated inside an actual convenience store in north Toronto. Its exterior featured alarmist warnings mocking those found on the likes of cigarette packages, such as “water causes drowning,” “door handles can spread germs” and “gambling causes loss of money.”
The organization also handed out plain-wrapped pop, chips and chocolate bars featuring tongue-in-cheek health warnings reading: “
Packaging on the plain-wrapped products directs people to a dedicated website, NannyState.ca, which launched approximately three months ago and promotes the organization’s ongoing #FreeToChoose campaign.
SFL claims that the government is increasingly trying to regulate what consumers can “buy, sell, consume, eat, smoke, vape, drink
“I think it’s implied by us being adults that we assume the responsibility of understanding those risks,” says David Clement, North American programs director with SFL in Toronto. “I don’t want the government infantilizing adult decisions.”
Clement says the organization’s ongoing efforts are aimed at making Canadians aware of the regulations being contemplated— and enforced—by all levels of government.
“A lot of people are politically apathetic, so these things get passed and they don’t realize until they go into a store and the particular product is plain-packaged or they can’t get something they used to, or the price
Come check out our #NannyState Corner Store at 3418 Bathurst in Toronto! #TOPoli #FreeToChoose @sfliberty pic.twitter.com/xWm2r4b8XW
— SFL Canada (@SFLcanada) August 11, 2016
The nanny state store’s opening came a day after The Canadian Press revealed that the federal government had been contemplating a so-called “soda pop tax” levying a tax of five cents per 100 millilitres on sugar-sweetened drinks. The pre-budget recommendation was made by the Heart and Stroke Foundation, which said that the tax would generate $1.8 billion a year for the government.
Canada became the first country in the world to require pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs in 2001; in 2012, it introduced 16 new health warnings covering 75% of the front and back of cigarette packages.
In May, health minister Jane Philpott announced a three-month online consultation prior to making it mandatory for cigarettes to be housed in plain packaging, following the lead of other countries including Australia.
Other countries have also taken aim at fatty foods in recent years, albeit with less-than-desirable results. Denmark scrapped a so-called “fat tax” on all products with a saturated fat content above 2.3% in 2012, after finding that many of its citizens were travelling to neighbouring countries to purchase those items at significantly reduced prices.
Elsewhere, New York City’s 2013 plan to impose a 16-ounce limit on drinks sold at establishments including restaurants, corner stores, sports stadiums and movie theatres was overturned by the courts.
Based in Washington, D.C., SFL was established in 2008 with a mandate to provide a “unified, student-driven forum of support for students and student organizations dedicated to liberty.” It endorses economic freedom to choose how to provide for one’s life; social freedom to choose how to life one’s life; and intellectual and academic freedom.