Ryan Sawyer and his twin brother Kyle at their parents’ home in Fall River, N.S. on Christmas Eve 2022. Later that night Ryan, 31, died after an altercation at the Halifax Alehouse. A bouncer, Alexander Levy, was charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.Contributed by the Sawyer family/Courtesy of family
Nova Scotia’s Opposition Liberals are hammering the governing Progressive Conservatives over their continued refusal to activate a bar bouncer law introduced 13 years ago, which may have helped a Halifax man who died after an altercation with a security guard last Christmas Eve.
Bedford South MLA Braedon Clark said Tuesday that it’s no particular party’s fault that the 2010 Security and Investigative Services Act was never brought into force, and called on Justice Minister Brad Johns to finally proclaim the law that was supported by all three political parties.
After Ryan Sawyer, 31, was allegedly killed at the hands of a bouncer at the Halifax Alehouse on Dec. 24, 2022, there has been renewed public attention into why bouncers remain unlicensed by the province of Nova Scotia. There have been political promises going back more than a decade to impose a licensing and training regime on security guards in nightclubs.
“This government does have the ability now to do the right thing by proclaiming the law and providing comfort to Ryan’s family and friends and ensuring that in the future, this kind of tragedy does not happen again,” Mr. Clark said.
He referenced a constitutional law expert’s opinion that writing off the bill undermines the will of the legislature. Last month, Toronto-based lawyer Sujit Choudhry told The Globe and Mail that “ministers don’t have a veto” and are “given a responsibility or a task by the legislature, to basically implement the law.”
Mr. Johns responded to the remarks in Question Period by saying 13 years was a long time ago and that a lot has changed.
“We’ve reviewed it and we’ve decided to go through amendments with the Alcohol, Gaming, Fuel and Tobacco Division,” he said, referring to new training requirements and criminal record checks for staff working at the province’s five late-night bars that his department brought in after Mr. Sawyer’s death.
A fatal night out in Halifax: Bar patron’s death puts bouncer rules under spotlight
However, the PC decision not to proclaim the law may go against a high court decision that ruled cabinet ministers cannot simply ignore unproclaimed laws and cautions that government politicians cannot use their delay powers as a veto.
“Put simply, it would not be open to a Minister to decide that an enacted statute will never be proclaimed,” Justice Lorne Sossin wrote in an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling from August. His ruling says that “the legitimate grounds for delaying proclamation must be related to the conditions necessary for implementing the legislation.”
In the years after the Security and Investigative Services Act was passed but not proclaimed, the Nova Scotia civil service pursued the implementation of a law that would bring bouncers into the fold of the province’s trained and regulated security professions.
Records show that back in 2015, the activation of the new law was billed as being imminent. Nova Scotia Department of Justice officials in charge of regulated professions wrote a memo to security companies saying that because the old licensing act was being phased out and the new act was being phased in, temporary licenses were to be issued and extended for a few months.
But it’s unclear why exactly the Security and Investigative Services Act subsequently fell into limbo.
The law was originally passed in response to an outcry over the 1999 Christmas Eve death of Stephen Giffin, a man who died as he was ejected by two bouncers from a Halifax bar. An eerie echo of that tragedy occurred last Christmas Eve, when Mr. Sawyer sustained fatal injuries outside the Halifax Alehouse.
A security staffer involved in the recent altercation is now charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death. Bouncer Alexander Levy had already been facing an assault charge that was laid two months prior to Mr. Sawyer’s death. Had the new law been brought into force, he would have been obligated to report the assault charge to a regulator, who would have had the power to suspend his license.
The regulatory void has come into focus in the form of civil suits after the death of Mr. Sawyer.
In one case, his estate and parents, Lee and Scott Sawyer, are suing the Halifax Alehouse and its employee Alexander Levy for negligence. The suit claims Mr. Levy intentionally committed assault and battery on Mr. Sawyer, by among other things, choking him until and after he lost consciousness, causing his death. Mr. Sawyer was pronounced dead in hospital.
The suit, filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on Oct. 6, also claims the Alehouse owed a duty to the plaintiffs to ensure he was reasonably safe on the premises and was negligent, as they permitted Mr. Levy to be employed when they knew or ought to have known he posed a risk to the safety of customers, and as they failed to institute adequate training for employees to prevent assault and battery of customers.
Mr. Sawyer’s twin brother, Kyle Sawyer, is also suing the club for negligence, claiming he was injured that same night and the club failed to adequately train its staff.
The allegations have not been proven in court. The Alehouse has not yet filed a statement of defence.
The Alehouse is also facing disciplinary charges at the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board in relation to the death of Mr. Sawyer and other alleged incidents.
Editor’s note: The photo caption above has been updated to clarify the circumstances of Ryan Sawyer's death.
Colin Freeze