More than 130 bars and restaurants in Quebec have seen their liquor licenses suspended or terminated since the start of the pandemic because they did not comply with health rules.
Since March 2020, the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ) has issued approximately one judgment each week concerning non-compliance with sanitary measures in bars and restaurants. About 45 other cases related to this issue have yet to be heard, confirms the RACJ.
Our Bureau of Investigation compiled and analyzed some 137 decisions – affecting 133 establishments – to arrive at this number. Sixty-eight of these establishments are in Montreal and a dozen others are in the greater Quebec City region.
Lack of face covering, non-existent proof of vaccination and physical distance not respected are among the faults committed by the tenants or their customers.
He doesn't care about the rules
In this regard, one Montreal bar owner stood out from the crowd for the wrong reasons. According to a decision by the RACJ, the Montreal police had to intervene 12 times in less than two months at the Allume-moi bar in the city center, including three times in three days last February.
According to the judgment, the owner Nabil Rabie answered "yes" to an investigator from the morality section of the SPVM who asked him if he "doesn't care about the rules".
He also stressed that he “does not believe in COVID-19 or health measures”. Mr Rabie had hoped to get a liquor license after having had a temporary one, but his request was denied.
“The evidence submitted shows a host of shortcomings concerning public health and a host of offenses related to the [consumption of] shisha, despite the numerous warnings”, concludes the RACJ in its decision rendered on November 10.
To bother him?
The case of the Allume-moi restaurant-bar, also known as the Turn me on lounge restaurant, is special because the events of breaches of public health rules “occurred over amazingly short periods”, notes the manager Marc Savard in his decision.
During the hearing, Mr Rabie admitted that “a few breaches” took place in his bar, but “that he is a new operator and that he did not know all the rules”. In an interview with our Bureau of Investigation, he indicated that he did not agree with the decision. He also accused the police of having "lied" and of having intervened "for fun", to "annoy him".
Number of convictions: 137 (133 establishments)
Number of convictions on the island of Montreal: 68
Average number of days of suspension per conviction for non-compliance with health measures only: 10.2
Number of convictions per year
2022 : 82
2021 : 50
2020 : 5
Source: CANLII, dated November 30
EXAMPLE OF RULES BREACHES
Difficult distancing
In September 2021, the police surprised a dancer while she was performing oral sex on a client in a voting booth at the Moulin d'Or bar in Frampton in Beauce. During this same visit, they also found that a dancer was sitting on a customer at the bar.
Betrayed by Instagram
Trois-Rivières police officers used a video broadcast live on social networks to intervene in a bar that contravened health measures. On September 20, 2020, they noticed an influencer on Instagram consuming alcoholic beverages with other people at Le Temple bar. About 30 minutes later, the police arrived.
To play hide and seek
In June 2021, officers who showed up at the Phoenix bar discovered all of the patrons crammed into a storage room. The manager had however said, a few minutes earlier, that only employees busy closing the establishment were on the scene.
Bill Clinton was there?
A dancer's bar in Lanaudière saw its liquor license suspended for two days for having admitted a client who was not adequately vaccinated. The owner of the Body Girl in Berthierville defended himself by indicating that he had purchased a device that scans visitors' cards to ensure their identity. He had acquired it in 2020 “because he had noticed futile name entries in the register, such as Bozo the clown or Bill Clinton”, can we read in the decision of the RACJ.
