While Under The Influence : Reckless Endangerment
"[Canoeing is] an extremely dangerous activity even in favourable conditions."
"In many ways the risks and dangers involved in canoeing are greater than those involved in driving a motor vehicle such that impairment caused by the consumption of alcohol and marijuana can and often do cause serious bodily harm and death."
"This was an extremely risky endeavour which he would have been aware of, but ignored. I find his decision to engage in such an endeavour with an eight-year-old boy, inexperienced in canoeing and swimming … showed a wanton and reckless disregard for the life and safety of Thomas Rancourt."
"He decided it was OK to take an eight-year-old boy, who was an inexperienced canoeist and swimmer, to dislodge and retrieve a blue barrel, with more than half of it submerged under water and wedged against a floating yellow warning barrier, not far from the top of a turbulent, raging waterfall."
"She was clearly trying to rationalize her decision to allow her son to go for a canoe ride. Ms. Hooper was a partisan, biased witness who clearly had her own agenda."
Justice Peter West, Ontario Provincial Court
"I'm overwhelmed. I wish I was going home and celebrating Thomas finishing Grade 4 today. But I'm not. I'm going home, thinking that people cared about Thomas, and his life mattered."
"It's just been such a sad, hard two-and-a-half years."
"Justice would be that Thomas gets a second chance and he’s back. But he’s never going to come back."
Donna Posnikoff, maternal grandmother
"For us, it's a fantastic decision that a vessel involving muscle power is still determined a vessel in the Criminal Code."
"I've been a marine instructor for a long, long time ... In a canoe, in a vessel propelled by muscular power, you go into the water while you're impaired, that can take your life away in minutes."
"So I've always had that attitude to lay the charge where it's appropriate. And in this case, the Sillars case, it was a very appropriate charge."
Sgt.Dave Moffatt, provincial marine co-ordinator, Ontario Provincial Police
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| A court observer wears T-shirt to mark the death of eight-year-old Thomas Rancourt. David Sillars was convicted of impaired operation of a canoe causing death. (Stan Behal, Toronto Sun) |
Police laid four charges against David Sillars a 37-year-old man who felt that a recreational canoe ride with an eight-year-old boy on a lovely early spring evening would be just the thing to cap off a great day in cottage country. The four charges were: Impaired operation of a vessel causing death; operating a vessel with more than 80 mg of alcohol in 100 mL blood; dangerous operation of a vessel; and criminal negligence causing death.
It all began when David Sillars, after hanging out and sharing drinks at a friend's cottage in Muskoka, decided to go for a spin on the Muskoka River and took along his girlfriend's son, Thomas Rancourt, eight years old. Paddling toward a floating yellow barrier warning that boaters should avoid a dam and the High Falls waterfall with its 50-foot drop onto rocks. They parked the canoe at the barrier while attempting to move junk pressed against the barrier.
The canoe tipped in the river swollen with snowmelt. The current, strong enough to defy his efforts, Sillars still managed after kicking off his shoes, to swim to shore. Eight year-old Thomas? That current carried him along in the frigid waters and brought him over the dam and that's where he was found, at the bottom of High Falls, wearing a T-shirt, a hoodie, a winter jacket and a too-small and vastly inadequate life-jacket.
Thomas Rancourt, 8, drowned in the Muskoka River.
Sillars was reported by motorists on a freeway ramp as staggering about, drunk. Two Ontario Provincial Police constables responded to the calls within minutes. There they found David Sillars, in hypothermia, soaking wet and shoeless that cold April a year ago. His message was difficult to get through, but the police soon understood that a young boy was somewhere in the river. They found him, on the rocks, as inanimate as death could make him.
Sillars admitted he had consumed two coolers earlier in the day, and a breathalyzer test registered 97 mg of alcohol in 100 mL of blood, above the legal driving limit of 80 mg; a half-hour later another test read 100 mg. And blood tests showed positive for THC. The criminal trial began in October of 2018. Thomas's mother, Jessica Hooper, defended her boyfriend's actions, testifying for him. This served to alienate her from her family. The young boy's father was banned from the court as a result of his pained outbursts.
Last Thursday, Sillars became the first Canadian in history to go to trial and be convicted of impaired driving charges for paddling a canoe under the influence. A special ruling on whether the Criminal Code's language around "vessels" included a canoe under impaired driving laws, aided the presiding judge in his deliberations. Justice West concluded that being drunk while paddling is no different than driving a pickup truck after smoking a joint and imbibing alcohol.
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| David Sillars leaves court in Oshawa, Ont., after his conviction on four charges related to impaired operation of a vessel, June 27, 2019. |
Labels: Canada, Canoeing, Paddling While Under The Influence
posted by Pieface @ Monday, July 01, 2019
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