A fatal night out in Halifax: Bar patron’s death puts bouncer rules under spotlight

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It was late December last year and Lee and Scott Sawyer were all set for the holidays at their lakefront home in Fall River, a community about a half-hour drive north of Halifax. A Christmas tree, glowing with white lights, was surrounded by gifts, some still in brown cardboard delivery boxes. Champagne chilled in the fridge.

The couple’s two 31-year-old sons had just flown in from Toronto. Ryan, jolly-faced with green eyes, worked at Nissan’s head office. Kyle had blonde shoulder-length hair and built decks and fences for a living.

It was a relief for the family to finally be all together for Christmas after years of travel bans owing to the pandemic.

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The parents bought their sons tickets to see Team Canada play Dec. 23 at the World Junior championship, which was being hosted in downtown Halifax.

The twins were ecstatic. It was all they could talk about on the drive into town that afternoon as rain bucketed down along Highway 102. The brothers grabbed dinner with their parents at Durty Nelly’s Irish Pub before the game. At the arena, Ryan and Kyle drank beer and cheered from their seats, watching the NHL’s top prospect, Connor Bedard, score two power play goals over Finland in Canada’s win.

Afterward, the brothers went out to celebrate. Downtown Halifax that night, the twins ran into old pals and hit the bar circuit – Durty Nelly’s, then Boomers, where Ryan busted out his moves, tiptoeing in his Air Jordans across the dance floor. Eventually they ended up at a brick tavern on the corner of a steep hill, where the waitresses dress like medieval barmaids and the drinks flow extra late.

At 1:15 a.m. police got a call about a disturbance involving several people. When they arrived, they found Ryan unresponsive on the sidewalk outside the Halifax Alehouse.

Within eight months, one of the people at the bar designated to keep order would be charged with homicide.

That night, Dec. 23, 2022, the security guards employed to keep order in these bars – bouncers – had no training and licensing system in place, unlike in many other provinces. A provincial act that might have protected Ryan was drawn up in 2010, but was never proclaimed into law.

The afternoon the Sawyer family headed downtown Halifax, no one in the family knew this. Or that one bar seemed to have a problem lately with heavy-handed bouncers. By the end of the night these facts would change all of their lives forever.

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Ryan, slightly bigger than his fraternal twin, was three minutes older. He danced while drying the dishes, cracked people up with his Christian Bale Batman impersonations, and carried Ella, the family’s Harrier hound, around the home like a baby.

On Christmas Eve, 2022, a doctor took Ryan’s parents aside to deliver shattering news: their son had no sign of brain activity. He would not live to see Christmas.

On New Year’s Day, the Halifax Regional Police announced that the coroners’ service had determined Ryan’s death a homicide. Eight months later, police laid charges against Alehouse bouncer Alexander Levy for manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death “by applying neck compression,” according to police charge sheets filed in court.

In an e-mailed statement, Mr. Levy’s defence lawyer James Giacomantonio declined to comment on the case. Mr. Levy, a chiselled man with a shaved head, is set to enter a plea on Sept. 27. None of the crimes he is accused of have been tested in court.

Bouncers wield the same power as property owners. They can render a patron a trespasser simply by telling him to leave. And in that moment, the bouncer is also empowered to use a degree of force. It will now be up to a provincial court judge or judge and jury to determine whether Mr. Levy, the bouncer accused of killing Ryan, used reasonable force.

At the time of Ryan’s death, Mr. Levy was already before the courts. In October, Mr. Levy and a second bouncer, Matthew Day, had been charged with assault. Both have pleaded not guilty, and the trial is scheduled for next year.

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Had the updated act been proclaimed into law, Mr. Levy, with his past charge, would have had to report to a registrar any allegation of the use of excessive force, any serious injury or death alleged as a result of his actions, along with the fact that he was facing a criminal allegation. The registrar would’ve been able to revoke his license to work as a bouncer, in order to protect the public.

The incident that provoked the overhaul of Nova Scotia’s legislation for security guards happened in 1999. In the aftermath, provincial politicians vowed they would never allow it to be repeated. Ironically, the Sawyer family’s tragedy eerily echoes that instigating event.

On Christmas Eve that year, a Nova Scotian named Stephen Giffin, 38, died after he was thrown out of a tavern called Captain Eli’s. Two bouncers were charged with manslaughter for his death but were eventually acquitted. According to news coverage of the trial, one of the bouncers was a 300-pound man who put Mr. Giffin on his stomach and rested on him – circumstances that allegedly had contributed to the man’s death by interfering with his carotid neck artery. Mr. Giffin died on Christmas Day after he was taken off life support.

His relatives pressed politicians to make changes, zeroing in on how bar bouncers were exempt from Nova Scotia’s 1970s and 1980s era Private Investigators and Private Guards Act, which empowers the province’s attorney-general to issue and withdraw licenses for private investigators and guards working in the province.

Including bouncers in this legislation is hardly a new idea. Over the years, Conservative, Liberal, and NDP politicians in the Nova Scotia legislature have explicitly supported such changes – even though they have never managed to make them.

In 2007, the Nova Scotia Liberals introduced a private members bill whose initial clauses sought to add bouncers to the legislation. Conservative Justice Minister Cecil Clarke spoke in favour: “Security guards and other individuals offering protection services to Nova Scotians should be licensed and properly trained in their duties,” Mr. Clarke said in 2008. Still, the bill was never passed.

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In 2009, the NDP won the election for the first time and introduced legislation to create a Nova Scotia registrar that could license and delicense security guards, including bouncers. The registrar could revoke a licence for many reasons, including for the protection of the public, or if the licensee failed to comply with an established code of conduct.

Under this law, bouncers and security guards would also have had to report any criminal charge against them, including any incident involving serious injury or death of another person alleged to have resulted from their actions.

The year after the NDP came to power, Mr. Giffin’s parents, Cyril and Anita Giffin, appeared proudly in the legislature on the day that the Security and Investigative Services Act was tabled in the house. “This bill will bring Nova Scotians into line with other Canadian provinces such as British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec which have introduced similar legislation,” said NDP justice minister Ross Landry.

Days later, Mr. Landry told his fellow politicians that the bill could save people from harm if it passed. “In recent years we have heard about incidents in our bars where patrons have been injured and where private security guards themselves have been injured. The inclusion of mandatory training in this bill will ensure individuals have the knowledge and skills to perform their duties, to better protect themselves and the citizens of Nova Scotia.”

The Opposition of the day had no quarrel with that. “It’s amazing that we’ve allowed ourselves in this province to go this long,” said Liberal Justice Critic Michel Samson at the time.

By May of 2010, the bill passed third reading and royal assent. Yet it never cleared a requirement outlined in its final clause: the law would only come into force when cabinet proclaimed it.

In an interview Friday, Mr. Landry said his party delayed the statute to address regulatory issues and explore the development of training standards. “We were asked to take some time in order to work on that,” he said.

Mr. Landry said that the bar and service industry had raised concerns with him and his ministry – and that required further study.

Mr. Landry said he couldn’t recall why exactly he and the NDP cabinet never proclaimed the law into force before his government was defeated in 2013.

Gary Burrill, the current party whip and a spokesperson for the NDP, says the failure remains inexplicable to the party even today. Neglecting to bring this law into force is “worse than a broken promise,” he said.

“The effect of not having come into force is very serious. People would rightly feel a diminished value of the democratic process,” said Mr. Burrill, who was also on the legislation committee for the bill in 2010. “I certainly do.”

The Nova Scotia NDP and Mr. Burrill called for the current Progressive Conservative provincial government to bring the law or another legislated system of oversight for the training and licensing of all bouncers into force.

In an e-mailed statement to The Globe and Mail, Deborah Bayer, a spokeswoman for the province’s Justice Department, said “it’s been more than 13 years old since the bill was drafted. While Governor in Council could consider proclaiming this bill, the substance of the bill would need to be reviewed and consultations would be required.”

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Violent incidents in Halifax’s “cabarets” – bars that are allowed to stay open serving alcohol until 3:30 a.m. – are not uncommon. The Alehouse alone has other charges against it. A bystander video from August shows up to four unidentified bouncers from the Alehouse grappling with a man, and pinning him face down in a patio area. Onlookers shout their concerns about the man to the bouncers before they pull the patron to his feet and hand him over, groggy and bloody-faced to a Halifax Regional Police officer.

That case has given rise to a civil suit. Addisiane Freeland is suing the Alehouse, saying security staff asked him to leave the bar around 1 a.m. “Suddenly, the plaintiff was attacked from behind and wrestled to the ground where multiple bouncers restrained him, strangled him and punched him,” the statement of claim alleges.

Lawyers representing the Alehouse have filed in court a legal document denying this, saying that either no assault happened or that, if it did, the patron had brought on the violence himself. “He provoked the incident in question,” reads the statement of defence. It adds that he “involved himself in an altercation, despite knowing it was dangerous to do so.”

The Alehouse’s lawyer, Victor Goldberg, wrote in an e-mail exchange with The Globe that he would not comment on any incidents or how the bar manages its bouncers, including Mr. Levy. “Neither I nor my client is prepared to talk with you at this stage given the ongoing legal proceedings,” Mr. Goldberg said.

The province’s Alcohol, Gaming, Fuel and Tobacco Division in June charged the New Palace Cabaret, which holds the liquor licence for the Alehouse and shares the same owners, Marcel and Michel Khoury, for two alleged violations of liquor laws and regulations. The allegations relate to incidents on three dates that align with the court cases, as well another incident on July 31, 2022 at 3 a.m. where an Alehouse bouncer was charged with aggravated assault, but the charge was dropped three months later.

The bar stands accused of permitting activity that is detrimental to orderly control and operation of its premises. It also faces an allegation that it failed to notify the licensing bureau about the police response to past incidents at the Alehouse. A formal five-day discipline hearing at the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has been ordered but dates have not yet been set. Last month, the board held a preliminary hearing and said it would canvass whether its typically public hearings should be held behind closed doors. This was done after Mr. Goldberg, the Alehouse’s lawyer, raised concerns about continuing criminal and civil proceedings against the bar and one of its employees.

Some academics say that society is too inured to problems that arise inside and outside bars.

“Violence in the nighttime economy is all too common, with similar incidents all over the world,” said George Rigakos, a Carleton University professor. “One of the key differentiators between Halifax and other cities, however, is a high concentration of university and college youth who frequent these clubs. This sometimes produces a highly combustible situation.”

Professor Rigakos speaks with authority. In the early 2000s, he embedded himself in Halifax’s bar scene as part of an academic study that gave rise to a book called Nightclub: Bouncers, Risk and the Spectacle of Consumption.

He writes that he witnessed several violent confrontations there, in the weeks he spent studying security staff. Training and approaches to conflict varied, but he found the city’s bouncers to be a tight-knit group with hyper-masculine values and martial arts backgrounds. They shared a deep concern about being seriously hurt during confrontations with bar patrons, which on any given night can include navy sailors, gang members, or unpredictable students.

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This past May, the province imposed new regulations. Bar bouncers must now complete training and get criminal record checks if they want to work in any of the province’s licensed cabarets, which are considered higher risk owing to serving for an hour and a half later than other liquor establishments.

The new rules encompass five establishments – one bar in Sydney, and four in Halifax, including the Alehouse, a fraction of the 242 establishments in downtown Halifax with liquor licenses. So far, 44 bouncers still need to complete the training, whereas 35 already have, according to Service Nova Scotia spokesman Geoff Tobin.

But for the families of Ryan Sawyer and Stephen Giffin, this is too little, far too late. The close parallels between the tragedies 23 years apart are prompting the families to call upon the current Progressive Conservative Nova Scotia government to rescue the 2010 legislation from the purgatory it has been in. They want the regulations to extend to all bouncers, and for there to be a registrar in place to hear complaints, to impose a code of conduct, to demand any criminal charges be reported – all things which politicians had previously decided were important to keep Nova Scotians safe but weren’t law yet on the night Ryan died.

“It’s heartbreaking that another family is having to go through that again,” says Kaylee Giffin-Logan, who was eight when her father died after being ejected from Captain Eli’s in 1999.

“It’s just a simple thing to protect patrons when they go out drinking, to know that they’re safe and that the people who are working at these establishments are properly trained.”

Lee Sawyer, Ryan’s mother, agrees. “That’s a real failure on the Nova Scotia government. Here we are 13 years later, still nothing in place, another victim.”

In theory, all that needs be done is to proclaim the statute in force, said Nova Scotia House of Assembly chief clerk James Charlton. “No further action is required by the legislature,” he wrote in response to questions from The Globe.

In Nova Scotia and elsewhere, including every province and territory, Britain and New Zealand, it is not unusual to find new laws enacted, but not yet brought into force, whether in whole or in part, added Mr. Charlton. It can allow time to develop regulations, educate the public and engage in further consultations, he said.

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Ontario is an example of what can happen when a province lives up to its legislative promises.

In September, 1999, a man named Patrick Shand was arrested by staff and security guards at a Toronto Loblaws store on suspicion of shoplifting. He died of what a coroner’s inquest called “accidental restraint asphyxia” while being held face-down on the ground.

Mr. Shand’s death led to the 2005 Private Security and Investigative Services Act. Passed and proclaimed by the Ontario legislature, the bill created a provincial registrar that oversees bouncers and security guards.

There are now more than 100,000 security professionals licensed to work in Ontario, under a framework which requires applicants to have a “clean criminal record” to pass tests prior to working. The law encompasses anyone “acting as a bouncer.”

Criminal charges are the most common reasons that Ontario licences are pulled – though statistics show this remains rare. Twelve individual licences were suspended and another three were revoked in 2021, according to provincial figures. This compares with 12 suspensions and 12 revocations the previous year.

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On Christmas Eve last year, the Sawyers drove home on Highway 102 numb with grief. Kyle, in the back seat, had multiple injuries. Ryan was in the morgue.

Ms. Sawyer tried to carry on, cooking a full turkey dinner on Christmas Day. The family sat around the table, emptiness on everyone’s face. Helpful loved ones had removed all the gifts from Ryan that had been under the tree, but they forgot one. Ms. Sawyer opened a cardboard box that day and found a red and black checked blanket from Ryan – a gift she has never taken out of its wrapper.

Kyle, who shared a two-bedroom home in Ajax, Ont., with Ryan, says the house feels empty without “Ryzer.” He misses Ryan’s silly selfies, his loud deep laugh, the way he yelled at the TV when playing video games and watching Marvel movies together. “It’s been hard to adjust to because you’re used to doing everything together,” he said. “I still feel like it hasn’t really hit me yet.”

The Sawyer parents will spend the rest of their lives trying not to remember the last image of Ryan lingering on life support: His face was marred with plum coloured bruises. His neck was held in a brace. Doctors suctioned blood that gushed from his tongue.

At the house in Fall River, the young man’s memory lives on. On the mantle in the living room sits an urn holding his ashes. An image of Ryan hugging Ella is etched into a glass table ornament. A neon sign of an Air Jordan sneaker, Ryan’s favourite type of shoe, hangs in the couple’s home gym.

“Every night is a nightmare,” said Ms. Sawyer, her voice breaking. “You don’t want to go to bed because it’s going to play in your head again and again. And you don’t want to wake up and face another day.

“It’s the dread, the absolute dread – you just wish you were there, could’ve done something, could’ve helped.”

Timeline: Tragedies at Halifax bars

NORTH END

Halifax Harbour

Captain Eli's (closed)

Scotiabank Centre

New Palace

Cabaret (closed)

now HFX Sports

Bar & Grill

DOWNTOWN

Halifax Alehouse

Halifax

NOVA SCOTIA

SOUTH END

Halifax

500 m

Dec. 24, 1999

Stephen Giffin, 38, is thrown out of a Halifax tavern called

Captain Eli’s and dies on Christmas Day. Two bouncers are

charged with manslaughter but eventually are acquitted.

Cyril Giffin, his father, spends the following decade pressing

politicians to make changes, by zeroing in on how bar

bouncers are exempt from regulation.

May 11, 2010

The Security and Investigative Services Act receives royal

assent after being passed in the Nova Scotia legislature

under the NDP government. But it is never proclaimed by

cabinet and doesn't become law.

July 31, 2022

Police are called to the Halifax Alehouse at 3 a.m. A man

reports that he has been assaulted by a staff member. Police

lay a charge against a staff member for assault causing

bodily harm, but later drop it.

Aug. 14, 2022

Police are called to a disturbance at the Halifax Alehouse at

1:25 a.m. where patrons and bar staff are fighting. Bystander

video shows up to four unidentified bouncers grappling with

a man, and pinning him face down in a patio area. The police

do not lay any charges, but a man later sues the Alehouse in

relation to the encounter. The Alehouse denies the allega-

tions and is defending itself against the lawsuit in court.

Oct. 10, 2022

Halifax Alehouse bouncer Alexander Levy and a second

bouncer are charged with assault. Both plead not guilty and

a trial is scheduled for next year.

Dec. 24, 2022

Police are called to the Halifax Alehouse at 1:15 a.m. about

a disturbance involving several people. Officers find Ryan

Sawyer, 31, unresponsive on

the sidewalk outside the bar. He is transported to hospital,

where he dies.

June 14, 2023

The New Palace Cabaret, which holds the late-night liquor

license for the Halifax Alehouse, faces disciplinary action for

allegedly violating Nova Scotia Liquor Licensing regulations.

They face a hearing in relation to four events, including the

night of Ryan Sawyer’s death.

Aug. 18, 2023

Police charge Halifax Alehouse bouncer Alexander Levy with

the death of Ryan Sawyer. He faces charges of manslaughter

and criminal negligence causing death 'by applying neck

compression,’ according to court documents.

Colin Freeze, lindsay jones and john sopinski/the globe

and mail, source: police reports; Nova Scotia Utility

and Review Board;openstreetmap

NORTH END

Halifax Harbour

Captain Eli's (closed)

Scotiabank Centre

New Palace

Cabaret (closed)

now HFX Sports

Bar & Grill

DOWNTOWN

Halifax Alehouse

Halifax

NOVA SCOTIA

SOUTH END

Halifax

500 m

Dec. 24, 1999

Stephen Giffin, 38, is thrown out of a Halifax tavern called

Captain Eli’s and dies on Christmas Day. Two bouncers are

charged with manslaughter but eventually are acquitted.

Cyril Giffin, his father, spends the following decade pressing

politicians to make changes, by zeroing in on how bar

bouncers are exempt from regulation.

May 11, 2010

The Security and Investigative Services Act receives royal

assent after being passed in the Nova Scotia legislature

under the NDP government. But it is never proclaimed by

cabinet and doesn't become law.

July 31, 2022

Police are called to the Halifax Alehouse at 3 a.m. A man

reports that he has been assaulted by a staff member. Police

lay a charge against a staff member for assault causing

bodily harm, but later drop it.

Aug. 14, 2022

Police are called to a disturbance at the Halifax Alehouse at

1:25 a.m. where patrons and bar staff are fighting. Bystander

video shows up to four unidentified bouncers grappling with

a man, and pinning him face down in a patio area. The police

do not lay any charges, but a man later sues the Alehouse in

relation to the encounter. The Alehouse denies the allega-

tions and is defending itself against the lawsuit in court.

Oct. 10, 2022

Halifax Alehouse bouncer Alexander Levy and a second

bouncer are charged with assault. Both plead not guilty and

a trial is scheduled for next year.

Dec. 24, 2022

Police are called to the Halifax Alehouse at 1:15 a.m. about

a disturbance involving several people. Officers find Ryan

Sawyer, 31, unresponsive on the sidewalk outside the bar.

He is transported to hospital, where he dies.

June 14, 2023

The New Palace Cabaret, which holds the late-night liquor

license for the Halifax Alehouse, faces disciplinary action for

allegedly violating Nova Scotia Liquor Licensing regulations.

They face a hearing in relation to four events, including the

night of Ryan Sawyer’s death.

Aug. 18, 2023

Police charge Halifax Alehouse bouncer Alexander Levy with

the death of Ryan Sawyer. He faces charges of manslaughter

and criminal negligence causing death 'by applying neck

compression,’ according to court documents.

Colin Freeze, lindsay jones and john sopinski/the globe

and mail, source: police reports; Nova Scotia Utility

and Review Board;openstreetmap

NORTH END

Halifax Harbour

Captain Eli's (closed)

Scotiabank Centre

New Palace

Cabaret (closed)

now HFX Sports

Bar & Grill

DOWNTOWN

Halifax Alehouse

Halifax

NOVA SCOTIA

SOUTH END

Halifax

500 m

Dec. 24, 1999

Stephen Giffin, 38, is thrown out of a Halifax tavern called Captain Eli’s and dies on Christmas Day. Two

bouncers are charged with manslaughter but eventually are acquitted. Cyril Giffin, his father, spends

the following decade pressing politicians to make changes, by zeroing in on how bar bouncers are

exempt from regulation.

May 11, 2010

The Security and Investigative Services Act receives royal assent after being passed in the Nova Scotia

legislature under the NDP government. But it is never proclaimed by cabinet and doesn't become law.

July 31, 2022

Police are called to the Halifax Alehouse at 3 a.m. A man reports that he has been assaulted by a staff

member. Police lay a charge against a staff member for assault causing bodily harm, but later drop it.

Aug. 14, 2022

Police are called to a disturbance at the Halifax Alehouse at 1:25 a.m. where patrons and bar staff are

fighting. Bystander video shows up to four unidentified bouncers grappling with a man, and pinning

him face down in a patio area. The police do not lay any charges, but a man later sues the Alehouse in

relation to the encounter. The Alehouse denies the allegations and is defending itself against the law-

suit in court.

Oct. 10, 2022

Halifax Alehouse bouncer Alexander Levy and a second bouncer are charged with assault. Both plead

not guilty and a trial is scheduled for next year.

Dec. 24, 2022

Police are called to the Halifax Alehouse at 1:15 a.m. about a disturbance involving several people.

Officers find Ryan Sawyer, 31, unresponsive on the sidewalk outside the bar. He is transported to hos-

pital, where he dies.

June 14, 2023

The New Palace Cabaret, which holds the late-night liquor license for the Halifax Alehouse, faces disci-

plinary action for allegedly violating Nova Scotia Liquor Licensing regulations. They face a hearing in

relation to four events, including the night of Ryan Sawyer’s death.

Aug. 18, 2023

Police charge Halifax Alehouse bouncer Alexander Levy with the death of Ryan Sawyer. He faces

charges of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death 'by applying neck compression,’

according to court documents.

Colin Freeze, lindsay jones and john sopinski/the globe and mail, source: police reports;

Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board;openstreetmap

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled the surname of then-Liberal justice critic Michel Samson.