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Bouncer faces manslaughter charge in fight

Death raises questions about training for personnel at bars

By: Lindsey Wiebe

Posted: 07/30/2010 1:00 AM

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PHOTO Gary Rent: personal trainer (HANDOUT )

Case not the first

Other deaths involving bar staff:

In 2004, 28-year-old James Ronald Hanson died of axphyxiation following a skirmish with security staff outside The Beach nightclub, at the Pembina Highway Canad Inns. Three bouncers were ultimately cleared of manslaughter charges.

One month after Hanson's death, Denis Vandal, brother of City Coun. Dan Vandal, died in an altercation with a bouncer at Silverado's Cabaret at Canad Inns Garden City. Manslaughter charges against a doorman were ultimately stayed.

A 26-year-old bar employee faces manslaughter charges in connection with the death of a 33-year-old man while the province considers enhanced training for bar staff.

Police say Gary Rent, 33, died in hospital Thursday morning of injuries suffered during an assault outside Bar Italia at Corydon Avenue and Cockburn Street at 2:40 a.m. Wednesday.

A committee has been working on recommendations that came out of an inquest last year into the death of a man at the St. Regis Hotel in 2006. It found security staff at the province's liquor-licensed establishments need better training. It recommended changes to the MLCC's training and licensing guidelines.

"... Recommendations are going to be made probably to the minister fairly soon," said Gary Shewchuk, Manitoba Liquor Control Commission manager of inspection services.

Shewchuk was referring to Gord Mackintosh, the minister in charge of the Liquor Control Act.

The Act says servers, security staff and managers in the province's liquor-licensed establishments are required to take a Manitoba Liquor Control Commission training course. The program costs $30 and can be done in a class or online. It focuses on legal responsibilities in sales, practice and procedures involving alcohol, as well as the duty of care to customers.

The training course for bar staff "should be enhanced as a result of the recommendations," said Shewchuk, who would not discuss specifics.

Police say the accused in Rent's death was a bar employee who turned himself in to police. Nicholas Garrett Somers, 26, faces charges of manslaughter and is being held in custody.

He works as a bouncer at Bar Italia, the deceased's mother, Deanna Rent, said.

Her son's death was the result of "a bar brawl," she said.

"Somebody punched him," she said. "He fell to the ground with a tremendous force."

A man who answered the phone inside Bar Italia Thursday said he couldn't comment.

Thursday night, it was business as usual as the popular bar's patio was packed with customers. Many were saddened and surprised by the incident, but said they won't shy away from the establishment.

Unlike security guards, who are required to take at least 40 hours of training, security staff in bars and nightclubs are exempt from the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act.

"Our belief is that everyone in a licensed premise should have the enhanced training," especially smaller establishments with less staff, Shewchuk said.

Rent said her son was a University of Manitoba student taking his master's degree in animal sciences. She said she's been flooded with calls from his friends.

Former girlfriend Fiona Campbell said Rent was a personal trainer and, in the past, had worked as a fitness model and competed in bodybuilding shows.

Campbell, who lives in Calgary, had expected to see Rent this weekend when he flew to Alberta for a family wedding.

"He shouldn't have died," she said, fighting back tears. "He had so much potential. He would've been pretty amazing in whatever he did. He had a lot of drive and motivation."

-- With file from Matt Preprost

lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 30, 2010 A5

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