Ontario bar fined $25K after endangered wood for billiard tables seized

A Brampton court has handed down a $25,000 fine to an Ontario bar after a shipment of billiard table parts made of endangered wood was seized from a Mississauga warehouse.

The discovery was made in February when Environment and Climate Change Canada says enforcement officers inspected a shipment of billiard table legs from India.

The shipment was intercepted by the Canada Border Services Agency officers in Mississauga and contained 119 billiard table legs made from exotic rosewood, which is a protected species and requires a permit to import into Canada. Lab tests confirmed the items were made from rosewood and listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Authorities say the parts were on the way to Dream Billiards Sports Bar and Eatery Inc. in Barrie – a pool hall opened in 2025 with over a dozen billiard tables, according to the business’ website.

The company didn’t have the legally required permit to import the items, and enforcement officers detained the shipment. All the rosewood table legs have since been forfeited to the Crown, Environment and Climate Change Canada says.

The company pleaded guilty to one offence under the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act, and was fined $25,000 on July 7 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton. The fine will be directed to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund, with funds used to invest in areas where environmental damage caused by the violation has occurred.