Talk About Stepping Up

[waterninja]

There have been a few threads in the last couple months about how a lot of lakes will no longer be aerated due to liability concerns. Turns out that no matter how many precautions you take, or how well you flag or fence off the open water that surface areators create, if someone drowns in the open water you can be charged with manslaughter. The criminal code section (263) covering this does not allow for a due dilligence defence.
A number of solutions are being tried, like extra areating before ice up, or experimenting with sub-surface aerating (Muir lake), but this is expensive, difficult to implement and might not work.
Another solution........ A local Edmonton criminal lawyer and avid fisherman has stepped up and leased the aerators at Spring lake from the Alberta Conservation Association. He has undertaken to run the aerators and assume all legal consequences that might arise. There has never been a prosecution or a charge laid for an open water incident, and the risk of one is extremely low.
In mid November the ACA shut down the aerators at Spring lake, and mr. - officialy turned them back on. Now thats what I call stepping up.

[mudbug]

Right on :)
Nice to see someone that is doing this

[SNAPFisher]

There have been a few threads in the last couple months about how a lot of lakes will no longer be aerated due to liability concerns. Turns out that no matter how many precautions you take, or how well you flag or fence off the open water that surface areators create, if someone drowns in the open water you can be charged with manslaughter. The criminal code section (263) covering this does not allow for a due dilligence defence.
A number of solutions are being tried, like extra areating before ice up, or experimenting with sub-surface aerating (Muir lake), but this is expensive, difficult to implement and might not work.
Another solution........ A local Edmonton criminal lawyer and avid fisherman has stepped up and leased the aerators at Spring lake from the Alberta Conservation Association. He has undertaken to run the aerators and assume all legal consequences that might arise. There has never been a prosecution or a charge laid for an open water incident, and the risk of one is extremely low.
In mid November the ACA shut down the aerators at Spring lake, and mr. - officialy turned them back on. Now thats what I call stepping up.

Are you sure about this? This was posted a while back:

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=271102&highlight=aeration

Do you have any info/source?

[waterninja]

Are you sure about this? This was posted a while back:

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=271102&highlight=aeration

Do you have any info/source?
Yes I do have more info, including the names of the person from the ACA and the criminal lawyers name. This is no troll or BS thread. ACA will still continue aerating the 8 lakes named in your link, but will have to stop on 8 others. Spring Lake is home to the Edmonton Trout Club, and the lawyer was a guest at one of the clubs meetings when he proposed the suggestion of him running the aerator. The ACA had to do some reasearch, but in the end felt like it was a viable plan. Wish more people like mr. lawyer were out ther.
I'm not naming the ACA member or the lawyer involved, simply because though it is not a secret I'm not sure if I should. I did, however, want to get this great story out on AO.

[tight line]

Awesome!

[SNAPFisher]

Yes I do have more info, including the names of the person from the ACA and the criminal lawyers name. This is no troll or BS thread. ACA will still continue aerating the 8 lakes named in your link, but will have to stop on 8 others. Spring Lake is home to the Edmonton Trout Club, and the lawyer was a guest at one of the clubs meetings when he proposed the suggestion of him running the aerator. The ACA had to do some reasearch, but in the end felt like it was a viable plan. Wish more people like mr. lawyer were out ther.
I'm not naming the ACA member or the lawyer involved, simply because though it is not a secret I'm not sure if I should. I did, however, want to get this great story out on AO.

Cool! Thanks for the follow-up. Very interesting story indeed. Kudos to him!