A judge dismissed four tickets Northern Health officials issued to a Prince George night club for allegedly violating pandemic-related health orders because the evidence presented failed to convince him beyond a reasonable doubt that infractions had been committed.
At times, Judicial Justice Brent Adair had sharp words for the Northern Health officials who appeared before him last month to make their case against Linda Allen, the owner of what was then known as Lambda Cabaret.
"There are so many holes in this case that it's as if somebody shot it with a shotgun," he said after dismissing one of the tickets during a hearing at the Prince George courthouse on November 23.
The Citizen obtained a recording of the proceeding through an application to B.C. Provincial Court after supporters of Allen said shortly after the outcome that eight tickets issued against her business, Learn to Earn Bartending and Consulting Ltd., had been "surrendered."
Adair found Allen's business not guilty of four counts alleged through the tickets. In turn, a Northern Health inspector who had been acting as a Crown prosecutor, stayed two more, all without Saron Gebresellassi, a lawyer who represented Allen, having to present a case in defence of her client. Two more tickets were dismissed for want of prosecution the next day after no one from Northern Health appeared before Adair.
In an interview at the time, Gebresellassi said she was prepared to argue that the tickets violate the B.C. Human Rights Code and that the code trumps the Public Health Act but also said that Northern Health "made a lot of mistakes, partially because they're not lawyers, they're health officers," although she also contended Northern Health's case was weak to begin with.
All the tickets were issued in February and at about the same time the so-called "freedom convoy" converged on Ottawa and rallies in support of the movement were held in Prince George. Postings on Lambda's Facebook page emerged showing maskless revellers apparently partying inside the nightspot.
Through the tickets, Northern Health variously alleged that Lambda had opened for business in violation of an order prohibiting liquor only establishments from doing so and, once that order was lifted, refusing to check patrons for proof of vaccination against COVID-19 and requiring them to wear masks when not consuming alcohol once inside.
The recording indicates that Adair took Northern Health to task for showing up at the hearing with just one witness, an environmental health officer, despite two RCMP officers and a Northern Health medical health officer also being variously involved in issuing the tickets and collecting video of people lined up outside the night club.
He also had misgivings about the validity of postings on Facebook that allegedly showed patrons frequenting the night club, now known as Club 1177.
"I don't have any assurance anywhere close to beyond a reasonable doubt that this website belongs to or is created by the defendant, that it was not hacked and so forth," Adair said.
Adair also questioned whether video showing lineups outside the spot on Third Avenue downtown were enough to prove it was actually letting people in let alone checking for proof of vaccination. Neither the Northern Health officials nor the RCMP officers entered the night club, he noted.
"Because there are a dozen or more people on the sidewalk outside the nightclub does not in any way come close to proof beyond reasonable doubt that the night club is open and operating," Adair said.
The standard for proof beyond reasonable doubt is a high one, "and the evidence here doesn't get anywhere close to that," Adair added at one point.
A judicial justice typically presides over hearings for alleged violations for which a ticket has been issued. Allen was facing as much as $3,000 in fines, according to Gebresellassi.
Gebresellassi has represented Allen on similar matters in the past, including an unsuccessful appeal in September of a decision the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch's general manager had issued in August to suspend the night spot's liquor licence for defying provincial health orders. The night spot was subsequently closed for seven days in October.
Two tickets, issued on Sept. 25, 2021 under the COVID-19 Related Measures Act for allegedly contravening food and liquor services order remain outstanding. A hearing on them is scheduled for a date in January at the courthouse.
