It seems there may be more to a cluster of COVID-19 cases at the Elite restaurant in Kingsville.
As many as 75 people attended a party on November 18 and 44 positive cases have now been identified as a result, but the restaurant's owner says at least one patron faked their vaccination status.
In a statement to CTV Windsor, the owner claims a fake vaccination certificate was used to get in to the party — if confirmed, the patron could face civil and criminal liabilities.
That's according to personal injury lawyer Rajiv Hate who says it's too early to know exactly what charges could be laid.
"There could be some criminal liability behind that. The Criminal Code of Canada does prohibit using fraudulent documents. So what the extent of that will be will depend on the facts here in terms of to what extent was it faked."
He says the restaurant could face consequences if any negligence is found.
"When they checked the vaccine status how closely were they checking the certificates and matching them up to the person's name? How closely were they ensuring that the person confirmed they had to vaccine doses?"
Hate says Bill-218 has been put in place to protect restaurants from behaviour like this.
"There's legislation that was passed which essentially protects businesses and restaurants from COVID-19 exposure related liability as long as they made a good faith or honest effort to act in accordance with the public health guidelines," he stated
Under current COVID-19 restrictions, all indoor dining guests must provide proof they're fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The health unit's investigation into the incident continues.
- with files from CTV Windsor