Gimli town council faces opposition to dog ban on boardwalk

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This article was published 10/06/2015 (3745 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dog lovers will demand Gimli town council reverse a ban on dogs walking the town’s boardwalk, a favourite tourist attraction for the resort on Lake Winnipeg an hour north of Winnipeg. 

Jason Beck, a stand-up comedian and public relations consultant who summers nearby, said he launched a campaign to marshal opposition to the ban, as soon as he heard about it.

The town council meets at 6:45 p.m. at its Gimli offices; Beck expects to speak at 7:45 p.m.

Beck said he has 700 signatures on a petition that opposes the ban that he will present to the council as well as information about his Facebook page: I support dogs on the Gimli boardwalk. So far some 1,200 supporters have clicked ‘Like,’ on the page that features a sweet photo of Beck’s little dog Tazzy on the boardwalk.

Beck figures his years of work performing and emceeing at Winnipeg’s Rumour’s Comedy Club will stand him in good stead when he rises to make his public presentation. 

“I’m excited about tonight. I feel we have our dogs in a row,” he said Wednesday.

He said he hopes he can talk the council into reversing their decision.

A month ago, the mayor said publicly the town council should ban dogs on the boardwalk. Subsequently the council extended an existing by law from 2012 to include the boardwalk, Beck said.

The ban was initially passed to keep dogs off the beach and extended to include the boardwalk in the definition of “beach.”

“The way this came down has a real lack of transparency,” Beck said.

The mayor’s voicemail was full Wednesday.