'Feel like I've been targeted': Regina bar owner says she'll fight $14K COVID ticket

The owner of a Regina restaurant and bar says her business is being unfairly singled out, following a $14,000 ticket for breaching Saskatchewan's COVID-19 public health order.

"It made me feel like I've been targeted," Mia Danakas-Weinkauf said of her interaction with a Saskatchewan Health Authority inspector, who twice visited her business along with several Regina police officers.

Earlier this week, in an unprecedented move, Saskatchewan health officials publicly named the business she co-owns — Mr. D's Stats Cocktails and Dreams — along with two others in Saskatoon, saying each had been ticketed $14,000, including a victim surcharge, under the Public Health Act.

Officials did not detail what triggered the offences.

Danakas-Weinkauf shared her ticket with CBC News. It says her business had "multiple tables and booths [with] patrons who were inadequately separated by physical distancing" on Saturday, Jan. 23.

The business advertised and hosted a limited-seating viewing of an Ultimate Fighting Championship match that night. 

Danakas-Weinkauf said some patrons were too close to each other at the event. But she said the inspector didn't issue a warning about customer seating, and instead immediately ticketed her. 

"I think that we are being used as an example," she said of the ticket.

On naming the business, "I feel that it was intentionally done and it was planned," she said.

Premier encouraged enforcement escalation

Four days before fight night, Premier Scott Moe said the province would step up its efforts to discipline bars violating public health rules.

"There has been enforcement. There's going to be continued enforcement. And I encourage our law enforcement and public health to escalate the enforcement that they've had," Moe said at a COVID-19 news conference.

The UFC night wasn't Mr. D's first encounter with the inspector. 

The inspector and several Regina police officers made a surprise visit to the business four days before Moe's statement, on Jan. 15, Danakas-Weinkauf said.

The inspector issued a notice of violation, or warning, because he could see no evidence the business was keeping a log of customers' names and phone numbers or email addresses, as required by the current public health order governing bars and restaurants, Danakas-Weinkauf said. She said she later provided proof the business was keeping a log. 

"He told me to take out a table that was in the middle that was a half a foot too close, or whatever. I moved the table immediately," she said. 

On the night of the UFC fight, the inspector — again accompanied by several police officers — pointed out that two tables of four people were too close together, Danakas-Weinkauf said. A server had explained the need for physical distancing but customers moved closer together anyway, she said.

Danakas-Weinkauf said there's only so much her serving staff can do to police customers.

"I don't want her to get a bottle over the head or in the face."

Not paying fine comes with steep financial risks

The same inspector came to Danakas-Weinkauf's business this past Tuesday to issue the ticket, she said. 

"I explained to him that I'm not going to pay this and I'm going to fight it. He said then I will go to jail."

A spokesperson for the Saskatchewan Health Authority said it understood there is a lot of interest in the enforcement of COVID-19 rules but that "we cannot release information specific to these tickets as the enforcement process is ongoing."

The Ministry of Health also declined to comment on Danakas-Weinkauf's case, but said people can dispute their tickets in court.

"In the event that they fail to pay the voluntary payment amount and fail to appear in court, a court will determine the appropriate recourse, such as issuing a warrant, proceeding to trial in absence of the accused, or issue a default conviction," a ministry spokesperson said. 

"The maximum sentence for a business convicted under The Public Health Act, 1994 is $100,000 for a first offence, and $250,000 for subsequent offences. Additional fines are possible for offences that span multiple days. In all cases where the voluntary fine payment option is not exercised, the Court will determine the amount of the fine upon conviction."

Danakas-Weinkauf said she had never been ticketed for any violations before her recent run-ins with the inspector. 

"Not even serving a minor. Forty years," she said of her family's long-standing business. 

The presence of police officers during the Jan. 15 and Jan. 23 visits made her feel very uneasy, Danakas-Weinkauf said.

"Our patrons are drinking and if the word gets around [police are] always there, we will lose many customers."

Officers patrolling with inspectors: police

Elizabeth Popowich, a spokesperson for the Regina Police Service, said it's not unusual for officers to do walk-throughs at bars. For example, pre-COVID, vice unit members would go out with liquor inspectors to ensure bars were not serving minors, she said.

Three uniformed officers were out patrolling with health authority staff last weekend, she said.

"Their role was to assist the SHA in regulating bars and nightclubs to ensure they were abiding by the public health orders issued by the province," Popowich said. 

Officers and health authority staff visited eight bars and clubs in total on Jan. 22 and Jan. 23, she said. 

"Every location, with one exception, was doing a good job of following the public health orders," said Popowich.

"Managers at each location were reminded that they had to continue collecting contact information for patrons. In a few cases, the managers were spoken to about relatively minor infractions like a few people walking around in the space without masks."

Popowich said it's her understanding several violations were "clearly observed and reported" at Mr. D's by the health authority. 

"How can an inspection to ensure compliance with public health orders be considered a surprise?" Popowich added. "We have literally been saying for more than half a year that people are expected to follow public health orders and that we will be out there to educate, encourage compliance and conduct enforcement."

Danakas-Weinkauf said the inspector and officers arrived on Jan. 23 shortly before 10 p.m. — when bars are currently required to stop serving alcohol under provincial orders — and the inspector asked about a group of four people seated together at the bar.

She said staff explained that the group consisted of two couples, with several empty stools on both sides of the group.

"It's like sitting at a table," she said. 

Danakas-Weinkauf said the inspector also found issue with people seated at adjacent booths with their backs to each other at a distance of less than the two metres required under another public health order rule.

She said she was given different advice about booths by another inspector during an early December visit.

One of the other bars ticketed this week, Crackers in Saskatoon, has been linked to over 80 COVID-19 cases.

The owner of that bar, Blue Clegg, said he would not fight his ticket.