I'm very pleased with this decision. Unlike some of the other clubs in the area, Circa is most definitely not a problem. It doesn't seem to attract any of the fight-seeking crowd.
_________________________________________________________________
Gatien wins ruling on liquor licence
JAMES RUSK
March 28, 2008
Nightclub impresario Peter Gatien has won another - possibly the last - round in his long-running legal fight waged by the city and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario against his Circa nightclub.
In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the Ontario Divisional Court said this week that the AGCO had made no legal errors when it granted Circa a liquor licence last July, and refused a request from AGCO staff that the court order a new licensing hearing.
Mr. Gatien said yesterday that he is "really thrilled" with the decision, which he hopes will remove the legal cloud that has hung over the massive club in the downtown Entertainment District.
"I would hope at this point they would fold their tent," he said.
"It was a pretty clear-cut decision, brief and to the point."
Mr. Gatien, a native of Cornwall, Ont., who once operated four legendary clubs in New York and who was deported from the United States after serving prison time on charges of income-tax evasion, had an uphill legal fight to open Circa.
Staff of the AGCO initially refused to grant Circa a liquor licence, but the AGCO itself, which operates independently of its staff, overturned that decision last summer after holding a public hearing.
However, before the club opened, the AGCO's chief official, the registrar, appealed the decision on the grounds that the licence approval contained legal error and also sought, unsuccessfully, to get the court to delay the club's opening until the appeal was heard.
Mr. Gatien estimated that the fight cost him $160,000 in legal expenses, about two-thirds of which he expects to recover from the provincial agency.
The $6.3-million, 5,000-square-metre club now attracts 10,000 patrons a week, Mr. Gatien said.
While the Divisional Court ruling could be appealed to the province's Superior Court, the AGCO has not yet decided whether to do so.
"The registrar is reviewing his options," AGCO spokeswoman Lisa Murray said.