A speedy post

Hey readers,

Had an exciting day today as I successfully completed my first half-marathon here in Toronto in just under one hour and 45 minutes! It was an early start and a cold morning (temps hovering just above freezing), and thankfully I was well-dressed and in good mental and physical shape to enjoy myself. The course was surprisingly scenic and the kilometers really flew by, with my legs only starting to get heavy on the last 2-3 (Anne-Marie, you were right about that!)


Even with the run I don't have a lot of time to sit back on my laurels; later this week, I will be participating in the Canadian Community for Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2) conference here in Toronto. I'm really looking forward to it because it will give myself and some other amazing former Canada@150 alumni an opportunity to present some of our experiences to a broader, non-government audience, while also giving them an interactive taste of using in a Web 2.0 environment to work together and think creatively about Canada's future. Of course, the best part will be a chance to get away from the law for a bit and spend some time with some policy minds that I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for; after all, while I'm not working full-time at TBS at the moment, I haven't forgotten that I am on leave and that I'm still, both on paper and in heart, a public servant!

But to return to the law, at least quickly, I am owing you all some thoughts and discussion on Childs v. Desormeaux, our case from last week about what legal types call "social host liability." I see from the poll that a slight majority favoured not holding hosts responsible for the subsequent behaviour of their guests if they drink and drive. And while it should be noted that other jurisdictions (e.g., certain US states) have taken different approaches, that was the same conclusion reached by our very own Supreme Court of Canada.   The basis for their ruling was essentially that there wasn't sufficient proximity (i.e., a relationship) between the hosts of the BYOB party and the people injured in the car crash to hold the former liable for the damages to the latter.


However, what I think was really driving the court's decision (and why I'd also be inclined, at least reluctantly) to support the ruling was that the court just didn't want to get itself heavily involved in the policing of private individual's parties. While there exists a significant and detailed regulatory regime to monitor and uphold social liability for private businesses like bars and restaurants to take care of their guests, it would be a much larger measure to hold private citizens to the same standard, especially given that in this case, the hosts didn't even serve any alcohol of their own aside from a small glass of champagne. If the hosts were held liable in this case, a likely result would be that similar lawsuits would emerge, and courts would be forced to look at each circumstance and make individual determinations as to whether hosts acted responsibly "enough" to contain their guests; for example, would they still hold the host liable if an "uninvited guest" did the same thing? What if there were 200 people at the party - would the hosts be responsible to pay sufficient attention to each one?


While I understand and accept the court's concern, there's something that still seems troubling about the fact that there is no liability for private social hosts - keg parties, and large "events" like the now-abolished Queens' University Homecoming come to mind - but only time will tell as to whether the finding in Childs could be re-interpreted to provide for more liability in more egregious cases. In any case, perhaps the most important point to take away from this is that just because no legal duty exists to do something doesn't mean that we shouldn't do it anyway. So as a small addition to my closing last week, don't be satisfied to not drink and drive yourself, but do your best to make sure your friends and family don't either, even if there might not be legal consequences for your failure to forget.


Have a great week everyone - will try to give a debrief of C2D2 next week (or maybe a little bit after!) :)