Festival du Voyageur denies responsibility for child’s injuries in second lawsuit filed after ill-fated school trip

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This article was published 05/03/2024 (550 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Festival du Voyageur has again denied any wrongdoing in response to a lawsuit over the collapse of an elevated platform at Fort Gibraltar last spring that sent 28 people, most of them schoolchildren, crashing to the ground.

Students from St. John’s-Ravenscourt School had gone to the popular historic site and museum in Whittier Park on May 31 last spring, when they heard a cracking noise before two sections of the platform collapsed, causing the group to fall a distance of approximately six metres.

The field trip was for 10- and 11-year-old Grade 5 students from the private academy. Officials said at the time that 17 children and one adult from the school suffered varying degrees of injury and were taken to the Health Sciences Centre.

The parents of an 11-year-old who allegedly suffered nerve damage causing him to lose the use of his left hand, wrist and arm due to the fall filed a civil suit Feb. 1 in the Court of King’s Bench, seeking undetermined damages from the Festival du Voyageur (which operates the fort), the City of Winnipeg (which owns the land) and Fort Gibraltar Dining Corp.

Last Thursday, lawyers working on behalf of Festival du Voyageur filed a statement of defence in response to the suit, denying legal responsibility and requesting the court dismiss the claim.

The defence papers claim the organization has no knowledge of the extent of the student’s injuries.

Further, the statement of defence denies that Festival du Voyageur should be considered an occupier of the fort under the Occupiers’ Liability Act, and that if it were to be considered one, it denies that the organization was negligent or breached its duty of care.

“In its use of the fort, (Festival) took reasonable care and effort that the fort was reasonably safe for visitors, including following reasonable inspection and maintenance protocols in co-operation with the city,” read the statement of defence, filed by John Martens and Alexandre Mireault of MLT Aikins LLP.

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Festival du Voyageur also denied that it knew or ought to have known the fort was unsafe or potentially unsafe, as the claim alleged, or that it created or allowed to a hazard to exist on the property.

The defence papers denied breaching any duty of care owed to the child, asserting that its duty of care was satisfied, and said nothing Festival du Voyageur did or didn’t do caused the plaintiff any loss or damages that could be legally compensated.

The city and the dining company have not filed statements of defence in response.

The parents of another injured child filed a separate lawsuit in early August against Festival du Voyageur and the city similarly alleging the two parties were negligent and breached their duties.

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The child in that lawsuit allegedly needed surgery to repair fractures in his right wrist and left hip, and there’s a risk of permanent disability.

Festival du Voyageur and the city responded with statements of defence in November, denying legal responsibility. The first lawsuit remains before the court.

The high wooden walls surrounding the replica of the historic fur trading post were replaced with temporary wooden fencing ahead of the namesake Festival du Voyageur in February.

The organization’s executive director previously said the temporary fencing will be place for about three years, ahead of a planned rebuild.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.