Bikers, drugs and violence: hefty $38,000 fine for a strip club in Gatineau

Bikers, drugs, violence: a strip club in Gatineau was recently fined a hefty $38,000 for misconduct that forced police intervention on dozens of occasions.

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“The facts show that the establishment of the holder is the scene, for several years, of acts of violence involving customers in an often advanced state of intoxication as well as doormen and other people”, argues the manager Natalia Ouellette, of the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux.

At the beginning of July, it ratified an agreement between its legal department and the Pigale for a penalty of $38,000, an 18-day suspension of the bar permit and the license to operate video lottery machines. The establishment must suspend its activities during this period.

The authorities had looked into “several attacks on public tranquility” that occurred for more than five years between January 2018 and last February, in Pigale.

Violence

There were a host of outbursts about noise, as well as the presence and sale of narcotics and the overconsumption of alcoholic beverages.

“The police must intervene on more than thirty occasions for acts of violence during which, in particular, customers are violent, fight or are beaten by the doormen of the establishment or the people who are present there”, notes administrative judge Natalia Ouellette.

On some occasions, the victims in these cases have been seriously injured, she adds.

“Offensive weapons” have also been found on individuals.

Consumption

In the same vein, the Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau (SPVG) noted that customers were in such a state of intoxication that they were aggressive and refused to cooperate.

Drugs were also found in the restrooms of the establishment. Arrests have been made on three occasions for possession of narcotics.

If minors were seen on the scene, another segment of the clientele caught the attention of the police.

“People linked to outlaw motorcycle gangs, some of whom wear clothing bearing the image of one of these gangs” have been seen at least 33 times, according to the decision of the manager.

Finally, one of the leaders of Pigale is criticized for being reluctant to provide the police with recordings from surveillance cameras, “requiring that they be provided with a search warrant”.

The SPVG, whose investigators are assigned to the application of the laws and regulations of the Régie, was unable to indicate on Saturday to the Log whether new interventions have taken place at the Pigale since the decision rendered by the manager Ouellette.