Bar employee charged in deaths of Renfrew Timberwolves hockey players

Eighteen months after two 18-year-old Renfrew area hockey players were killed in a single vehicle collision near Burnstown on October 27 2017, the OPP have laid serious criminal charges. Ann Senack, 62, of Greater Madawaska Township, has been charged with two counts of Criminal Negligence Causing Death and two counts of Criminal Negligence Causing Bodily Harm. An OPP investigation following the tragic crash which left the community shattered revealed that the victims had been drinking at Shooter’s Bar and Grill on Calabogie Road on the night of the crash and that alcohol was a factor in it. Senack was employed as a server at Shooter’s at the time.

Subsequently the bar’s liquor licence was suspended by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) which stated that it acted when advised the bar was allegedly “connected to the tragic event near Renfrew on October 27.” The AGCO said it suspended the liquor licence for reasons of public interest and safety. On October 30 2017 the alleged infractions of the Liquor Licence Act were listed as follows:

• Permit drunkenness
• Promote immoderate consumption
• Licensee sell/supply liquor to apparent intoxicated person
• Permit apparent minor to have or consume liquor on licensed premises
• Fail to verify identification of apparent minor
• Permit removal of liquor from licensed premises
• Fail to maintain control over premises

A subsequent appeal against the licence suspension was dropped by Shooter’s and it gave up its liquor licence.

The crash, in addition to killing Timberwolves players Alex Paquette and Brandon Hanniman, also seriously injured teammates Ben Scheuneman and Jake McGrimmon.

Senack was released on a Promise to Appear and is scheduled to appear in Court in Renfrew on May 1.

Above photo: memorial at accident scene Nov. 2017, CBC