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It's common for Ontario universities to hold the liquor licences for on-campus pubs run by students, a spokesman for the provincial liquor licensing body says.
The arrangement works at universities such as Wilfrid Laurier University. The university holds the liquor licence and the student union manages Wilf's and the Turret Nightclub, Ab Campion, spokesman for the Alcohol and Gaming Commission, said yesterday in an interview.
"We have no problems there," Campion said.
However, down the road at the University of Waterloo,the same arrangement is under scrutiny by the commission. It is also being challenged by the UW Federation of Students, which says it's against the law.
Campion said he doesn't know what the difference is between UW's and WLU's arrangements with their students. But the degree to which a licence-holding university oversees the bars is important, he said.
And that's what the commission is examining at UW.
On Jan. 20, the university withdrew the liquor licences for Federation Hall and the Bombshelter Pub, effectively closing both down. The licence withdrawal happened three weeks after the vicious beating of 23-year-old Ramsey Hanlon, of Kitchener, in the parking lot of Fed Hall, where he had been attending a New Year's Eve party.
Four Mississauga men and a third-year arts student from UW face charges of aggravated assault.
This week, the Federation of Students, which represents UW undergraduates, launched a lawsuit against the university seeking $11 million in damages for the university's decision to withdraw the liquor licence from the student-run Fed Hall and the Bombshelter Pub.
The federation claims that safety concerns were not the university's primary reason for turning off the taps. The core reason was because UW, as licence holder, has been in non-compliance with the Liquor Licence Act by "contracting out the sale and service of liquor," the federation says.
The federation wants to apply for its own liquor licence or become a co-licensee, an arrangement it says has been used by at least eight other post-secondary institutions.
"The university seems to be saying that undergraduate students at Waterloo are somehow less capable, less responsible, and should be treated differently" than their counterparts at other universities, said Chris Di Lullo, the federation's vice-president of administration and finance.
Meanwhile, officials at other Ontario universities are watching the case with interest.
At Brock University in St. Catharines, a fight in the parking lot outside the student-operated bar on Feb. 13 has similarly put the spotlight on bar operations there. The fight resulted in bloody noses.
But, unlike at UW, the students' union there holds the liquor licence for the 900-person bar, which is a university building, Brock University president David Atkinson said.
At Brock, a memo of understanding lays out the management issues. Atkinson said he has warned the students' union that the liquor cabinets will be locked if there are any more fights. The bar can be open, "but there will be no more alcohol," he said.
"I simply indicated to the students' union that there will be zero tolerance . . .We're a university, not a vacant lot underneath the overpass.
"Subsequently, the students' union at Brock increased security at the bar.
"For the most part, it has worked very well and students have been very responsible," Atkinson said.
WLU, meanwhile, says it had already asked the Alcohol and Gaming Commission to review the agreement with its students' union long before the New Year's Day assault that took place at UW.
"It's been a very co-operative process with students and we feel we're fully compliant with all the liquor requirements, but certainly we've left our processes open for inspection," said said Jim Butler, WLU's vice-president of finance and administration.
"We have an oversight process and policies."
WLU has an alcohol-on-campus committee that oversees the bars. [ Parent ]
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