Alexanders Beach Pub (photo credit: JJ Fisher)

By Kevin Rothwell

Pleading for patrons to respect staff

Pub owner fed-up with abusive customers

Jun 18, 2021 | 1:12 PM

With some COVID-19 restrictions easing, Alexanders Beach Pub and Liquor Store owner Gary Batula was hoping that issues with problem customers would go away, but it appears the opposite is happening.

“You think with things changing it would get better. I think it is actually getting worse. Like this guy today, he’s like ‘Sh—‘s lifted man,’ I said ‘no, sh—‘s not lifted. You still have to wear your mask, nothing has changed there, bud,'” Batula told Vernon Matters.

Batula and his staff have dealt with three customers in the past day and half, who were berating staff and yelling at other customers for following the rules. Last Saturday, RCMP attended the pub and arrested and fined one person.

The owner admits his level of frustration has also increased, and he would like everything to be back to normal as well, but for now, the rules are the rules.

“The WorkSafe B.C. guy said it the best, ‘if our COVID safety plan says you have to wear a yellow hat, and you aren’t wearing a yellow hat, get out, we aren’t serving you,'” Batula added. “When he said that it was perfect, that clears the air right there.”

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Establishments can risk fines or license suspensions if they aren’t enforcing the public health orders.

“The rules are definitely still in place, they are 100 per cent in place. People can’t decide they don’t want to wear a mask and it’s against their constitutional right, that was his thing this morning: his constitutional right. I think it’s called the charter of rights in Canada, not a constitution, but you can call it whatever you want, bud, I don’t care. Just pack up, pay up and get out,” Batula said of the incident today.

The staff member that originally dealt with the customer was visibly shaken, and the emotional and mental toll on workers in general is piling up.

“He wasn’t horribly abusive to her, but to other patrons in there that were wearing masks, he was horribly abusive,” said Batula. “Hey you fat #@$#, you should probably die,” the patron reportedly said.

“Come on, it’s mentally screwing with people that don’t need to be screwed with,” Batula observed of the customer’s comment. “We have got to love each other and not abuse each other. What your rights are—and your thoughts at home—are yours [but] when you are in a private establishment, this is what it is.”