A Toronto Police Service superintendent entered the licensed lounge in police headquarters in January 2022. Three hours later, he crashed his service-issued SUV into another vehicle.
Toronto police Supt. Riyaz Hussein's security pass scanned into the Executive Officers Lounge at police headquarters about three hours before he crashed on Highway 401 in Pickering, Ont., and was arrested for impaired driving.
"That incident has made me very concerned," said Alok Mukherjee, former chair of the Toronto Police Service Board from 2005 to 2015. By 7:39 p.m. that evening Hussein had already crashed into a delivery truck in a Toronto suburb and been assessed by paramedics, when an OPP officer demanded a roadside breath test which Hussein failed, according to the notice of hearing in Hussein's disciplinary proceeding.
Instead, in an email statement, a spokesperson said the service can't comment on matters that are currently before the disciplinary tribunal. But added, the lounge has maintained a liquor licence for many years and is subject to the Ontario Liquor Licence Act which requires alcoholic beverages be served by a Smart Serve certified person.
"The Board makes clear that impaired driving – whether by service members or by members of the public — regardless of the manner and means of impairment, and where such impairment may have taken place — is absolutely prohibited, contrary to law, and contrary to the duties and obligations of a police officer," said Ann Morgan, interim chair.
The Executive Officer Lounge Committee oversees the day-to-day administration of the lounge, according to the Toronto Police Service Board. And several police sources told CBC News the service's Senior Officers' Organization — the union which represents senior officers — pays for the alcohol to stock the bar.
"We need to discuss whether it is appropriate in this day and age when there's so much concern about impaired driving." CBC News obtained a list of all liquor licenses in Ontario which fell into the same "social club" category as the Toronto police licence through a Freedom of Information request to the AGCO.
"What is the liability on the part of the management, the board, the chief of police? So I think there are good reasons to rethink — very, very seriously — whether the bar on the premises should continue."
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