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![\"MIKE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4042295_web1_33824182_220916-CHAISE-CAFE-0004.jpg\")
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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
Shea Ritchie said he plans to leave Canada and is winding down his business dealings in Winnipeg, including handing over Chaise Cafe & Lounge to other operators.<\/p>\n
The outstanding amount is subject to a four per cent interest payment.<\/p>\n
Ritchie also owes $28,707 on a business line of credit which he stopped repaying in August, the lawsuit says. The outstanding amount is subject to a 9.3 per cent interest payment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plaintiff has demanded payment of the said debts from the defendants, but the defendants have neglected or refused and continue to neglect or refuse to pay the said debts to the plaintiff,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Ritchie claimed not to know about the $100,000 loan referenced in the lawsuit and said he wouldn\u2019t comment on it.<\/p>\n
Ritchie said he plans to leave Canada and is winding down his business dealings in Winnipeg, including putting Chaise Cafe & Lounge in the hands of other operators.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just not a fan of the Canadian system and believe there are better options out there,\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n
Ritchie told the Free Press in 2022 he was selling both of his restaurants, Chaise Corydon and Chaise Cafe & Lounge on Provencher Boulevard, and moving out of the country because he believed Canada was becoming a communist state.<\/p>\n
The Corydon Avenue location was sold and closed in 2023.<\/p>\n
Ritchie\u2019s comments about Canada go back to the pandemic, when he was fined multiple times for contravening provincial public health orders that put limits on restaurant capacity. He had said the pandemic \u201cdestroyed\u201d his business and the government\u2019s direction on how businesses could operate would eventually lead to the government restricting residents\u2019 freedoms.<\/p>\n
In 2023, one of the tickets he received was dismissed by the province, but Ritchie said at the time he had 10 outstanding fines totalling about $60,000.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Ritchie said Monday he has no plan to pay the fines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can give me a trillion dollars in tickets, but I\u2019m just gonna leave (the country) anyway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A provincial spokesperson said the province doesn\u2019t track the status of individual tickets.<\/p>\n
As of June 2025, the province\u2019s COVID-19 Ticket Outcomes dashboard said a tad more than $1.6 million in federal and provincial fines had been paid, of the more than $9.5 million in levies that had been issued.<\/p>\n
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Nicole Buffie Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College\u2019s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Multimedia producer
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