Constance Bay lounge fights for its livelihood
Is a bar at fault when a customer drives drunk?
Late at night, a man is drunk in a bar. He drives away in his car and a short time later runs someone over — a young mother walking home on the side of the road. She dies. Is the bar, in any way, at fault? With regularity, Ontario’s liquorlicence authority is saying, yes, there is shared responsibility.
A hearing is scheduled for later this month to examine the conduct of the staff and operators of The Point Dining Lounge in Constance Bay in light of a fatality after St. Patrick’s Day partying in 2012 — with a two-month liquor licence suspension at stake.
At about 2 a.m. on March 18, Jeremy Rees, 23, was near the end of a 12-hour drinking binge when he got behind the wheel of his vehicle and drove along Bayview Drive, losing control and striking Erin Vance, 26, as she walked home with her boyfriend.
Stumbling and glassy-eyed, Rees then fled the scene, only to turn himself in a day later. In December, after a guilty plea, Rees was sentenced to five years in prison on two charges, including impaired driving causing death.
Vance, a single mother, left behind twin boys, then only five years old. In one of those twists that so often happen in a small community, it was revealed that both Vance and Rees had been at The Point for some part of the previous evening.
Court heard that Rees had started drinking hours before at a private residence and spent part of the day with Vance’s boyfriend, Justin Hammond.
It was unclear from the court case exactly how much time Rees had spent at The Point, when he left, and how much alcohol he might have consumed off the premises. (There was ample beer in his vehicle, including an open can in the console.)
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is proposing to suspend The Point’s liquor licence for 60 days for allegedly overserving Rees that evening.
The bar disputes this. Operator Mary Charlebois says they’re fighting the suspension, sparking the hearing before a tribunal that may take as long as six days in February and March.
Charlebois said this week that Rees was served two drinks early in the evening of March 17, left for several hours and, when he returned, was refused service. It was some hours after the refusal that the accident occurred, she said.
“He didn’t look impaired the first time. He wasn’t served the second time.”
There was no way she was going to agree to the suspension, she said, because the commission was asking her to admit to things that simply weren’t true.
She also takes issue with the concept that the bar is responsible for the conduct of patrons an hour or two after they’ve left.
“Basically, if you’ve served someone a drink, you’re pretty much responsible for them. It’s a little bit ridiculous.
“When are people responsible for their own actions?”
The alcohol commission not only does regular inspections of Ontario’s 16,500 licensed establishments, but follows up any time a serious incident occurs in a bar setting or involves a patron — especially criminal activity.
Inspectors do their own interviews with staff and witnesses, and also use police resources to determine whether penalties, ranging from fines to revocation, need to be levied against the license holder.
The 60-day suspension being sought is certainly on the high end of the scale, but matters may be exacerbated by three earlier suspensions at The Point: 14 days in 2003, 10 in 2005 and 18 in 2006.
The sale of alcohol is carefully regulated in Ontario. Bars cannot serve intoxicated customers, nor can they “permit drunkenness” on their premises. The courts have also found that bars can be held liable if they don’t take reasonable steps to minimize the dangers presented by intoxication, on or off the premises.
Staff at The Point were interviewed about the case, Charlebois said. “We feel badly for everyone involved.”
Vance’s death struck many as particularly tragic.
From a well-known family in the rural west end, she was raising the boys on her own, with the help of her parents.
A devoted mother, she adored horses and worked in a large stable, and had an unfulfilled plan to go into policing.
Even Ottawa’s police chief attended her funeral.
The St. Patrick’s Day outing at The Point was a rare night out for her and, ironically, the decision to walk home instead of driving actually put her in harm’s way.
The 60-day suspension being sought is certainly on the high end of the scale, but matters may be exacerbated by three earlier suspensions at The Point: 14 days in 2003, 10 in 2005 and 18 in 2006.
The commission believes it has made great strides with its licence holders with an aggressive education campaign and says suspensions in 2012 were down sharply from a couple of years earlier.