The owner of a Kelowna restaurant is taking B.C.’s liquor regulator to court, claiming it was unfair to deny her establishment a licence to serve alcohol based on her ex-husband’s criminal history.
“The petitioner opened for business in Nov. 2021 as Hooligans Ales and Eats,” reads the suit filed in Vancouver on Oct. 18 on behalf of the Bernard Avenue restaurant owner Paula Nowakowski.
“It has not been able to serve beer and other alcoholic beverages. Business has been severely limited as a result. Customers will routinely walk out of the restaurant after learning they cannot order ales and persistently ask why alcohol is not being served. The refusal of this license has imperilled the long-term viability of the petitioner’s business.”
Nowakowski’s licence application dragged on for a long time before she learned that the liquor board had concerns about her ex-husband’s ties to a known criminal organization. She claims in the civil suit the decision lacked “procedural fairness” and should be overturned, particularly as they are no longer together.
According to the suit, she applied for a food primary liquor licence in March 2021 and aside from a couple of queries, she heard nothing from the regulator. That June, she wrote a letter asking for an update.
“It’s been over two months since I sent you the initial package you requested. I’ve answered all your questions, provided documentation for further requests and included additional information where I thought what was requested wasn’t sufficient documentation to verify your questions,” she wrote.
“I have since left several messages requesting information as to when I can expect to receive my licenses with no response. Can you please advise as to what is causing the delay in my receiving my license.”
On June 24, 2021, Nowakowski was told by the regulator there was one lingering question about her status with Mark Nowakowski: Were they or were they not still together?
The regulator also expressed concerns that the lease agreement for the restaurant was signed two weeks before the separation occurred.
She explained they had not yet entered a separation agreement however, they did file taxes separately, according to the suit.
More months went by and Nowakowski eventually found out that the regulator’s investigators had concerns about her ex, Mark Nowakowski, and his criminal ties. They also focused on the two people she’d hired to renovate the restaurant, Christopher Ptolemy, and Ryan Hillman. All had criminal convictions, the most recent being logged from 2016 to 2018.
Mark Nowakowski was identified by investigators as the former president of the Fallen Saints Motorcycle club.
In a letter to Nowakowski, they referred to it as an “organized crime group” and a “puppet club” of the Saskatoon Chapter of the Hells Angels.
The liquor board thought it had evidence the couple was still together, the claim states. According to the board, Mark Nowakowski was speaking with an RCMP officer on July 28, 2021, and referred to Paula Nowakowski as his wife. He also told the Mountie that she was opening a “Wings style” restaurant called Hooligans and mentioned that he would “remain in Saskatchewan, however he would be regularly travelling back and forth from Saskatchewan to B.C.”
There was some concern raised over the date given for that interaction because Mark Nowakowski was out of the country at that time. Later, the regulator said it was a typographical error and the conversation had actually occurred in January.
Ultimately, the deputy general manager of licensing, who was named in the suit, invited Nowakowski to respond to concerns noting that if she did not provide her response by Nov. 26, 2021, he would make a “determination on the information available to him.”
Stanely Tessmer, a lawyer and the landlord for Nowakowski’s leased premises, then responded on her behalf on Nov. 10, 2021, according to the suit.
Tessmer reiterated that Nowakowski’s tax return was filed as separated, that Mark Nowakowski lives in Saskatchewan, and that he had not seen Mark Nowakowski at all since February, although he’d seen Ms. Nowakowski frequently.
The suit outlines that Tessmer also told the liquor board that Mark Nowakowski is reformed and has not been involved in any criminal activity for the past four or five years. He was convicted in 2018 of participating in a criminal organization in relation to the motorcycle club.
Also, the club no longer exists, something Tessmer emphasized by sharing a newspaper clipping saying just that.
In regard to the two renovators, Tessmer supplied a reference letter form a former employer that said Ptolemy is now reformed.
Hillman, however, was not a contact of Tessmer’s. He was hired for renovation work but it wasn’t done properly and he wouldn’t be hired again, according to the suit.
In the end, that didn’t prove to be enough.
The deputy general manager of licensing issued his final decision refusing the application on Dec. 8, 2021. It relied on a Nov. 18, 2021, communication from the City of Kelowna, forwarding to the LCRB a business licence application review request for the petitioner’s business from an email from Mark Nowakowski.
In the decision, Nowakowski was told that the email showed Mark Nowakowski is involved or has an active role in the business, “significantly compounding and raising additional concerns that the applicant was attempting to mislead or hide information from the LCRB.”
Tessmer’s response, they said, was deemed deficient because it didn’t address whether Mark Nowakowski continued to associate with members of organized crime groups, noting a newspaper article isn’t ample.
Nowakowski said that this was unfair.
According to the claim, “the deputy general manager did not provide specific notice of concerns related to what steps Mark had taken to become rehabilitated, which should be irrelevant if Nowakowski is no longer in a relationship with him and he is not involved in the business.”
If the suit is successful and the decision is overturned, Nowakowski is also requesting a chance to have her application be reconsidered and that she see the investigative reports before the regulator.
Global News has reached out to Tessmer, Nowakowski, the liquor board and the Ministry of Public Safety for comment.