Prohibition was a defining moment in history for canada.Prohibition was the banning of bars and taverns in canada to stop the crimes of people being drunk. The law was passed in Prince Edward Island first on 1901 and was later introduced everywhere in Canada . People during the time in the war thought that prohibition was a social sacrifice and would help them win the war, other reasons were social cohesion and religious believes. Prohibition was met with an incredible amount of controversy during the interwar years due to the many problems it caused, such as the organized crimes, the loss of jobs and the unreliability of the illegal alcohol . Prohibition definitely had negative effects on Canada.
When prohibition was enacted it reduced crimes due to drunkenness but it increased the amount of organized crime. These criminals were trying to illegally distribute alcohol which created more crime in canada. When the law making alcohol illegal to sell and consume, there was a greater demand for the product spawning more crimes. Gangs started bootlegging which is the illegal sale of alcoholic beverages, and created places to buy alcohol such as speakeasies. Since alcohol was allowed to be produced in Canada criminals would be rum running and they would sell alcohol in the United States when it was illegal their as well.
In this time People that were sick could be prescribed alcohol. People would purposely act sick to legally buy and drink alcohol. Therefore more crimes started because of prohibition.
Prohibition caused a severe decline in jobs. Since alcohol was illegal to sell and consume canada had to let go everyone who had a job related to alcohol. Many of those jobs were related to the brewing and selling alcohol such as Bartenders, waiters, truckers, barrel makers and many more. Canada lost a significant amount of money because of this, the government lost millions of dollars in tax revenue. The evidence proves that prohibition caused a decline in jobs during the interwar years and had a negative impact on Canada.
The unreliability of illegal alcohol during the prohibition was very unsafe. Alcohol was sold on the same pedestal as street drugs because it was just as dangerous. Since alcohol was illegal, there were many alcoholics that were buying illegal alcohol.
People were buying these drinks without knowing what was in them. Many people were getting sick due to unsafe alcohol because there was poison or laced drugs in the drinks. People were even dying because they kept buying it and consuming it. Therefore this is why the unreliability of illegal alcohol was very unsafe.