City again slams doors on Edmonton shisha lounge, citing 'safety concerns'

"Freakinoldguy" said
Me neither. There's alot more to this than what we're being told. But a question. Why would a Shisha lounge be required to "photograph" customers coming in the door and is this a bylaw for all outlets that sell tobacco in Edmonton?

Initially, Tesfay said his relationship with police was excellent, and he speaks highly of the first patrol officer he worked with.

His priority, said Tesfay, was to keep customers, neighbours and police safe.

Tesfay paid to install an ID scanner, and beefed up security staff as he was advised to do. He said he also called police "many times" about suspicious activity related to two nearby bars in the McCauley neighbourhood that have since been shut down.

Once he even tracked a suspect in his truck for several blocks until police could arrest him, Tesfay recalled.

But Tesfay said relations deteriorated when he started questioning frequent visits to his lounge which saw police conduct identification checks on regular customers, mostly in their 30s, 40s and 50s. He also raised privacy concerns about random police inspections of the ID scanner, sometimes after hours.

Police rejected a proposal for mediation and a community town hall meeting to address concerns, said Tesfay. After sending several letters to Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht and filing a formal complaint, now under investigation by the professional standards branch, Tesfay said the raids ramped up.

Tesfay claimed he’s being racially profiled by the city and Edmonton Police Service. He and his clientele are black.

“They have been trying almost three years actually,” said Tesfay, who bought the bar 10 years ago.

“They’re trying different things; that this is a criminal hub, that there are a lot of shootings outside.”

Nyala Lounge has received nearly 30 tickets — 17 of which still need to be dealt with in court. He has been fined $24,000 since June for licence condition violations.

“Out of the 22 violent incidents that occurred, in or outside the venue, 13 involved weapons, mainly firearms,” Justin Lallemand, a support manager for PSCT, said. “After meetings, consultations and recommendations, Nyala Lounge remained non-complaint and unwilling to cooperate.”

Tesfay, who served in the military for 20 years, is ready to move on.

“I’m not fighting for a licence anymore. They can shut it down.”

Tesfay owns the building and has put it up for sale.

Over the past two years, inspectors with the city's compliance team have issued a total of 43 tickets worth $66,650 to Nyala Lounge and Tesfay, who often defends himself in court. Thirty-one of those tickets have been withdrawn, dismissed or cancelled.

Owner of Edmonton lounge and shisha bar wins right to reopen his business

The owner of a central Edmonton lounge won the right to reopen his business Tuesday, and says the successful appeal is a victory for the local African-Canadian business community.

A city tribunal composed of three city councillors overturned the cancellation of Nyala Lounge’s business licence. The lounge and shisha bar at 10875 98 St. had its licence cancelled in December. Owner Mulugeta Tesfay appealed and was allowed to keep his doors open until early February when he had to close down in advance of Tuesday’s hearing.

Ward 3 Coun. Jon Dziadyk made a motion that passed to overturn the program manager’s decision to take away the licence, but to keep conditions on its operations in place.

“The committee would have found that there were condition breaches but that a short suspension would have been warranted, but since the business has been effectively shut down since the hearing was postponed last week, that suspension was sufficient,” said Dziadyk.

. . .

“It seemed like a ridiculous devotion of police resources to one small business that wasn’t a danger,” Tesfay’s lawyer Tom Engel said following the appeal Tuesday.

Even with the licence issue settled, Tesfay remains embroiled in several other processes — he’s fighting a number of bylaw tickets in court, will go to trial on a charge of obstruction of justice in April, and is waiting on the outcome of a complaint he’s filed against Edmonton police.