Lake Joseph Club licence suspended

PORT CARLING—A ClubLink-operated golf club here will lose alcohol sales during some of the busiest weeks of the year because of over-serving to three young men who died in a car accident in July, 2008.

Tyler Mulcahy, 20, his girlfriend Nastasia Inez Elzinga, 19 at the time, and friends Kourosh Totonchian, 19 and Cory Mintz 20 were eating and drinking at the Water’s Edge before leaving in a car driven by Mulcahy. The car crashed and ended in the Joseph River, with only Elzinga surviving.

Last month, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario imposed a 45-day liquor licence suspension on The Lake Joseph Club, to run from June 1 to July 16 this year. A licence suspension of 14 days or more is considered severe.

ClubLink accepted the suspension in an agreed statement of fact with the AGCO, which noted in its decision that the company had shown remorse, was co-operative and had no record of infractions before the incident in 2008.

The suspension, which is a punishment for serving inebriated customers, applies to all of the club property, not just the restaurant where the young people had been drinking before their fatal accident.

The penalty is especially severe because the club is only open for a four-month summer period.

ClubLink and three staff who were working in the Water’s Edge Restaurant at the day of the tragedy—Ian Colterjohn, James Flegg and Walter Moon—face charges under the Ontario Liquor Licence Act.

A trial is scheduled for the spring. They are charged with serving apparently intoxicated patrons and permitting drunkenness on a licensed premise.

The maximum fines for the charges are $250,000 for each of the counts for the company if convicted, and $100,000 for each of the individuals who could also face up to 12 months in jail.

The Crown has dropped charges against 11 ClubLink directors and executives because there was no reasonable prospect for conviction.
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Last year, AGCO spokesperson Lisa Murray told that in Ontario, at least once a year, the AGCO imposes a lengthy suspension or revocation of a liquor licence because an establishment over-serves a customer who subsequently gets into an accident while driving, with death or injury resulting.

In 2009 the AGCO imposed 46 severe licence suspensions, ranging from 14 to 81 days, for a variety of reasons.