OSOYOOS TIMES-June 24, 2009
Watching a loved one die right before your eyes must be terrible.
And nothing but sympathy should be directed towards Gilles Blackburn, whose wife, Marie-Josée Fortin, ended up succumbing to hypothermia after the couple became lost in the back country of the East Kootenay region for roughly a week in February.
The anger and hostility that, according to some media reports, is directed at Blackburn now that he has launched a negligence lawsuit against the Golden District Search and Rescue Association and a number of other defendants is despicable.
This is a man who has lost a part of his family.
His actions are understandable and no one should lash out at him until they have been in his shoes.
That being said, Blackburn’s lawsuit is unfortunate, not only because it is confusing a tragic mistake made by emergency crews for negligence, but because of the ramifications it will have on the search and rescue world.
How many volunteers will decide to leave our province’s valuable search and rescue squads out of fear that they could face legal action if a mistake is made?
How many people will be dissuaded from joining rescue teams in the future because of the risk of liability?
As rescue teams across Canada frantically try to determine if they are properly insured, it’s likely some will fold, especially the smaller ones, when the financial burden of obtaining sufficient liability coverage is realized.
It’s also likely that some teams, given that these are volunteer organizations, will work hard to make sure they have the cash to pay for the proper liability insurance, thus diverting cash—which in some cases is raised through fundraising— away from training and equipment costs where it belongs.
Sadly, the end result of Blackburn’s action won’t be a more accountable search and rescue system in Canada as his lawyer has suggested.
The end result will undoubtedly be a country where fewer and fewer people are out there making sure we can get home safely.
