Restaurateur who fought COVID rules convicted of 17 licensing violations

Adamson Barbecue founder faces fines

- BEN SPURR

A Toronto restaurant owner who waged a public fight against COVID-19 lockdown orders has been convicted of more than a dozen counts of operating a business without a licence.

In a Sept. 6 judgment, Justice of the Peace Keon Lee convicted Adam Skelly of 17 non-criminal violations of the Toronto Municipal Code related to the Wicksteed Avenue location of his Adamson Barbecue restaurant in Leaside.

The fight over pandemic measures centred on his second location in Etobicoke.

Skelly and his companies had been facing a total of 95 charges related to the Wicksteed eatery, all arising from similar circumstances and laid between November 2020 and September 2021. Lee dismissed 78 of them.

Skelly is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 17. Each conviction comes with a potential fine of up to $25,000, although it’s far from certain he will receive the maximum.