GOODBYE, IRISH PUB; HELLO, JUNKIES?

Condo Didn't Want Bar, May Get Drop-In Centre

The upscale Ashdown Warehouse could soon be a drop-in centre for shivering prostitutes, a needle exchange for junkies and a soup kitchen for the down and out of Winnipeg's inner city.

Those are the options being considered by proponents of an empty Irish pub that's been denied a liquor licence for the main floor of the historic Exchange-area condominium complex.

"We still have to pay the rent," said Brad O'Connor, president of the group that represents Shannon's Irish Club. "It's starting to get cold outside and these people need a place to go."

O'Connor also said he filed a discrimination complaint against the residents of the Ashdown Warehouse with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission yesterday.

The local businessman said the residents' opposition to the private club, denying it a Manitoba Liquor Control Commission licence to sell alcohol, is based on an unfair bias toward the Irish.

"They have a problem with an Irish pub in there, pure and simple," O'Connor said. "There are other licensed establishments in there and in the area and they don't have a problem.

"But they say an Irish pub is detrimental, because the Irish are drunks, rowdy and troublemakers."

Roger Gripp, president of the Ashdown residents' association, said it's unfortunate O'Connor is playing the "race" card -- a charge he declared is patently untrue. "This is just so outrageous," Gripp, a local lawyer, said. "There's no credence to this at all. It's taken a very, very ugly turn."

Gripp and area city councillor Harvey Smith said O'Connor's threat to turn the proposed pub into a prostitutes' drop-in centre and soup kitchen is a ploy to play on public sympathy.

O'Connor's complaint is the latest salvo in what's been a six-month fight between residents and the pub. It's a fight that has caught the attention of city officials as they try to marry downtown residential and commercial development, and has upset the landlord as they try to find a suitable tenant the residents can live with.

"The boys with the pub are doing everything they can to be co-operative," landlord representative Jack Neaman said. "The other side has turned a blind eye and said, 'We don't trust you.' "

Neaman said the pub is willing to soundproof the premises -- the former Duke of Kent Legion -- and possibly forgo live Celtic entertainment if there are noise complaints.

Smith (Daniel McIntyre) said he's sided with the residents in this fight.

Smith also said O'Connor's allegation of discrimination -- O'Connor is basing it on residents' letters to the MLCC -- isn't credible.

"This is just an attempt to go ahead and harass the tenants of the warehouse," he said. "It's an abuse of the commission."

O'Connor said Shannon's has invested $80,000 in upgrading the 464-square-metre area at 167 Bannatyne Ave., and has signed a five-year lease with a five-year option.

He said the group only signed the lease because the area was suitable for a development since it was a former legion, with a kitchen area and large fridge.

He also said that under MLCC rules prior to Aug. 1, getting a liquor licence would have been a "slam dunk."

O'Connor said Shannon's is the first business in the province to be denied a licence under a new rule, subsection 64 (1). It says a licence can be denied if the applicant doesn't meet the needs and wishes of residents. Kairo, a new nearby nightclub at Bannatyne and Main Street, was not denied a licence.

Shannon's has already filed papers in Court of Queen's Bench to get a judge to overturn the MLCC's denial of the liquor licence.

"The regulation, in our view, has absolutely nothing to do with the applicants and has been applied improperly," lawyer Saul Simmonds said.

Simmonds said it's hoped Shannon's will be granted a one-year conditional liquor licence to show the pub can be good neighbours with the 150 residents of the condominium.

A court date has not been set.