Hamilton bylaw officers investigate pub, church, and Flamborough party for COVID-19 violations

The director of Hamilton’s emergency operations centre says it’s “very disappointing” to see businesses and other establishments continue to break COVID-19 restrictions.

Bylaw officers laid seven charges under the Reopening Ontario Act against the End Zone Bar and Grill in east Hamilton on Saturday, and have also laid charges against Kingdom Worship Centre on the mountain for not enforcing the city’s face covering bylaw.

That church is the site of a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected 11 people.

“When I see multiple charges being laid, that just tells me that there was no real attempt to be in line with the Reopening Ontario Act and all the things that lots of other businesses are doing,” said Paul Johnson, director of Hamilton’s emergency operations centre, during a media briefing on Monday.

The End Zone was charged with not doing customer screening, not collecting information for contact tracing, not enforcing physical distancing or mask-wearing, playing music too loudly, and exceeding the maximum capacity within the restaurant.

Greg Koropatnicki, owner and operator of the End Zone, told Global News that the pub wasn’t prepared to deal with the crowds that night.

“We were short-staffed. We should have had someone at the door,” Koropatnicki said. “Couple mistakes there, and everyone in the world came out. It was tough.”

He added that the bar will be complying with the restrictions going forward to ensure it doesn’t happen again in the future.

The Kingdom Worship Centre did not reply to Global News’ request for comment by the deadline.

Monica Ciriello, manager of the city’s licensing division, said bylaw began investigating the church after receiving a complaint about one particular service where people were not required to wear masks.

“There were photographs that were circulated. Our officers did an investigation and confirmed the date and the time and that an offence did take place,” Ciriello said.

The outbreak at Kingdom Worship Centre was declared on March 18 and involves cases of COVID-19 that have screened positive for one of the more contagious variants.

During Monday’s update, Johnson said the city is actively investigating complaints from residents about people who break COVID-19 rules, especially as the city is back in the grey lockdown category of the provincial response framework.

He cited a tip from the public that led to both bylaw officers and Hamilton police responding to a massive party in Flamborough on Saturday night.

Ciriello said it was at a residential home in Flamborough that was operating as a rental property and was the same location where charges were laid in connection with a large party at the beginning of March.

“It was our noise bylaw team that responded in conjunction with HPS,” Ciriello said. “There was probably about 100 to 200 attendees at this party.”

She said the city has yet to lay any charges while Hamilton police are leading the investigation, but the city may still choose to lay charges on its own, pending the outcome of the investigating.

Jackie Penman, media spokesperson for Hamilton police, confirmed that police are working with bylaw officers to investigate in order to lay charges under the Reopening Ontario Act.

Johnson said there will be consequences if people refuse to abide by the restrictions.

“It’s just very disappointing when people choose not to follow the guidelines that are there for the safety of folks,” Johnson said.

He said the city will continue to respond to complaints that tip them off when there are “egregious” examples of people breaking the rules.

“It’s the people that inform us of large parties. It’s the people that inform us of establishments that are clearly not following any of the rules or it’s really outside of what would be a minor slip or something like that. And our folks are quick to respond and we will continue to.”