636 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 80 PART 4 JULY 2022
South Carolina also has an official “State Hospitality Beverage” (tea), a plain
old official “State Beverage” (milk), an official “State Snack” (the boiled
peanut) and an official “State Vegetable” (collard greens).
Rene-John B. Nicolas, formerly a lawyer at the BC General Employees’
Union, and Gurleen S. Sahota, formerly in-house legal counsel at the
Health Sciences Association of BC, have both been appointed as vice chairs
of the BC Labour Relations Board for four-year terms.
Francis William Drake, of the Drake family, was governor of Newfoundland
in the mid-1700s, at a time when criminal courts were established there
(avoiding the need for the accused to be sent to England for trial). According
to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “despite the fact that the courts sat
only during the short period of the governor’s annual presence on the
island, they were effective in curtailing the lawlessness prevalent in Newfoundland,
particularly in St John’s”.
The City of Vancouver explains on its webpage “Policies and Guidelines for
Picnics” that “you can have a picnic without a permit so long as your picnic
site is not on the list of reservable picnic sites” and so long as “your group
is less than 50 people, or less than 25 if you’re holding your picnic at Maple
Grove park”. Shouldn’t that be “fewer than 50 people”? – Ed. Yes. I’ll inform the
grammar police. – Copy Ed..
Robert McDiarmid, Q.C., was presented the Georges A. Goyer, QC Memorial
Award for Distinguished Service at the Vancouver Bench & Bar Dinner
on June 16, 2022.
In Heps v. Burdine’s, Inc., 69 So. 2d 340 (1954), the Supreme Court of Florida
considered a claim in negligence related to a plaintiff being injured on the
escalator of a Miami department store after being struck by a stroller; the
plaintiff alleged the defendant department store owner should have had
attendants present or signs to prevent people with strollers from getting on
the escalator. The complaint was dismissed, with Supreme Court noting, in
affirming that dismissal on appeal:
There is nothing inherently dangerous about a mother conveying her
child in a stroller, along the street, through a public building or down an
escalator and we do not yet require that injury from such an operation will
be anticipated by the proprietors of the building. The use of escalators in
large stores is common practice and we indulge the presumption that
those who use them will conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen, and
so long as they do this, we do not require the presence of attendants to
determine who shall ride them or who shall not be permitted to do so.