The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has issued a Notice of Proposal (NOP) for a 60-day liquor sales licence suspension of Kelsey’s Restaurant in Huntsville.
The AGCO Registrar says it has reason to believe that several violations of the Liquor Licence and Control Act, 2019 (LLCA) and its Regulations occurred at the establishment.
On November 4, 2022, it is alleged that a customer was served and consumed 18 shots of liquor over approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes. During that period, the customer showed increasing signs of intoxication, yet staff continued serving alcohol to the customer until closing time.
The customer left the establishment after last call and drove away in a vehicle. Within minutes, the customer was involved in a major single-vehicle accident and tragically died due to their injuries.
The AGCO says it holds liquor licensees to high standards for the safe and responsible sale of alcohol. Liquor licence holders must ensure their customers are not served to intoxication or permit intoxication on their premises. It is the responsibility of all licensees to ensure their staff are properly trained to recognize the signs of intoxication.
An establishment served with a Notice of Proposal has the right to appeal the Registrar’s action to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), an adjudicative tribunal independent of the AGCO and part of Tribunals Ontario.
The AGCO says it is committed to ensuring that the alcohol sector operates with honesty, integrity and in the public interest.
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Mr Tapley…..Your comment is absolutely ridiculous. Eighteen shots (assuming at least 1 oz) over a 4 hour period would leave an average 240 pound man with a BAC of .21. Any drink server and establishment would absolutely know that. If the story is accurate as reported, the restaurant and server should face criminal negligence charges causing death (I would be surprised if they are not laid and a civil suit didn’t transpire). Harsh punishment for sure, but both failed in their responsibility to the community
To Brian Tapley: You make some excellent points.
Should the server drive the intoxicated person home then stay with them (or within eyesight) to make sure he/she/they don’t get into a vehicle and drive? The inebriated person may take a taxi to another establishment and order a drink. The person may continue drinking once he/she gets home. It goes on and on.
Nancy, I too, will NEVER get SmartServe and take on that responsibility.
Never going to get SmartServe and take on the responsibility. Even having parties at home can lead to charges and lawsuits.
However, I have been thinking that this young man may have had 4 long island iced teas over the 3+ hour period. That would account for the # of units of alcohol.
And, who knows, maybe he went to his car, found a bottle of alcohol and served himself.
It’s a terrible situation.
Very sad loss of life.
Allegedly 18 shots of liquor over a few hours: it seems like egregious over-serving and costly beyond the bar- tab.
Once again the government strikes.
Ignoring for a moment the sad outcome of this example, think about the absurdity of this situation.
If you ask any medical person if they can tell if a person is intoxicated just by looking at them, at least intoxicated to the legal limit, they will tell you it cannot be done. You need to administer tests. The OPP have a whole battery of such tests and to their credit know how to use them which is one good thing.
But go back tot he restaurant, any restaurant or bar actually. What do you have? You have a young server in usually a loud, dimly lit room, trying to look after multiple clients, ok…. normal.
This server usually has limited time and experience on which to base a decision about impairment.
They are placed in a situation of conflict.
They want to satisfy their boss, which means selling product, and this includes drinks.
They want a tip and this requires satisfying their customer.
But the government wants this same, minimum wage server with not a whole lot of life experience in many cases, to make a determination of sobriety in this dimly lighted, busy and noisy environment and do it in such a way that their boss is still going to keep them on staff, the customer is not going to be embarrassed and keep everybody in the place smiling and happy. This same server in reality has no way of knowing if an individual customer is actually the driver to be. They may have a friend drive them or some other arrangement. I’ve never seen a server walk the customer to their car and make sure the driver is ok.
So, in Canada, you have a situation where a business makes a lot of it’s money selling drinks. The customers have to get to the business by car as there is no other access to many of these places and then you ask the least qualified person in the situation to make the most difficult decision in the worst possible environment and you add the pressure of the business to increase sales and the bottom line and the server to try to make all customers happy so they get a nice tip as they are not paid enough to start with.
At the end of the day, you wonder why there are still drunk drivers out there. Or at least “technically drunk”. even if it does not show very obviously.
Do you see anything wrong with this situation? Apparently the government does not.
Good, hopefully they get sued.