Leamington restaurant owner fined $20K, pleads guilty to Reopening Ontario Act charges

A Leamington restaurant owner has pleaded guilty to multiple charges under the Reopening Ontario Act and has been slapped with a $20,000 fine.

In Apr. 2021, at a time when the provincial government had prohibited indoor dining as part of its COVID-19 safety measures, the Family Kitchen Restaurant in Leamington proceeded to allow patrons to eat inside its establishment.

According to Ken Marley, a prosecutor hired by the Municipality of Leamington, restaurant owner Kirsty Leathem pleaded guilty to "approximately nine charges" in a Windsor courtroom on Jun. 24, 2022.

The charges were issued between May and June of last year.

"She was facing charges that were laid by both the enforcement officers for the Municipality of Leamington, as well as other charges laid by the OPP and a charge laid by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit," said Marley.

Last spring, anti-lockdown demonstrators gathered outside her business to show their support for Leathem. At the time, she called for a level-playing field between which businesses were forced to shut down and those that could remain open.

"Every business, big and small, is to be opened. The minute you can walk into a grocery store, you've proven the point that every business can open safely," she told demonstrators outside her restaurant on Apr. 6, 2021.

"Everyone has the right and freedom to earn a living, to work and to support their family. This is not a question of what one believes in. This is not the divide of masks or no masks. I respect either view."

For Marley, it's important for the municipality to "carry on with these prosecutions" even though more than a year has passed since the original charges against the Leamington establishment were laid.

Ken Marley, a lawyer for the Municipality of Leamington, says the $20,000 penalty against restaurant owner Kirsty Leathem is 'reasonable'. Pictured on Jul. 16, 2022. (Michelle Maluske/CTV News Windsor)

"In order to respect the people who complied with the law at the time," Marley said Sunday.

He added the municipality considers the $20,000 penalty against Leathem to be "reasonable," as she later switched to a takeout-only model.

"She eventually did all the things that she needed to do to get her business license back, because her business license had been suspended," he said.

"That's one of the reasons why the town didn't seek fines that would eventually cripple or put her out of business."

Marley says charges are still outstanding against a number of other businesses and residents in Leamington for failing to comply with masking requirements.

CTV News reached out to both the Family Kitchen Restaurant and its legal team but did not receive a response.