The Bracebridge OPP have laid 34 charges against various employees and Directors of ClubLink Corp, the company who ran the Golf Club in Port Carling where Tyler Mulcahey, Corey Mintz and Kourosh Totonchian were drinking prior to driving their vehicle off the road and into the Joseph river last summer. A tragedy, unquestionably. Three sets of parents have lost children, one of the worst pains imaginable. Still, I have a hard time seeing how going after this organization and especially a few hapless, if stupid, employees is going to help things. I'm not a big fan of blame. Ultimately and sadly, these three boys and no one else are responsible for their death. These were not six year olds. They were 20, 20 and 19 years of age. They made the choice to drink and drive. No one forced them into a vehicle while inebriated. Yes, the club employees are supposed to work under the rules of 'smart serve', but does that absolve the rest of us from 'smart drink'? And if they're the ones who are guilty who else should we be going after? The parents? Shouldn't they be held accountable for raising kids who made poor decisions? What about the kids teachers, older brothers or sisters? Shouldn't they have been responsible for setting better examples? Yes, my tongue is in my cheek, but only just so. I really do believe that as long as we live in a world where we can always point a finger at someone else for our bad, if not entirely human, behaviour, we'll never really make any strides.
First of all, Neil, how do you know the employees of the golf club were (as you so deftly put it) "stupid"? How do you know, or not know, for instance, that Tyler Mulcahey's father, Tim, wasn't a member of the club? Further, how do we know whether or not a member of that "stupid" staff wasn't in some way threatened by the really, really REALLY "stupid" party in all of this -Tyler Mulcahey himself?
Here we have the grieveing father lobbying the government to take the responsibility he so negligently abrogated himself. Now he denies theat he had any influence in the charges being laid which, if you believe that, I've got some swampland in Florida as they say. Think about it: There's lawsuits flying all over on this and every one of them will be directed at Tim Mulcahey. What we're watching is a giant PR campaign by a rich guy whose rich kid killed two other rich kids and now the rich are suing the rich and Julian Fantino is going right along for the ride.
"stupid" bar staff, Neil? I think not.
Posted by: Daniel J. Christie | January 14, 2009 at 12:42 PM
I whole-heartedly agree, Neil. It is a shame and a terrible suffering, but lets not pass the blame.
Posted by: Theresa Pregent | January 13, 2009 at 01:41 PM
Sounds to me like some local politicians are getting their noses rubbed in it. Such is the nature of true justice.
Posted by: Ron Potter | January 13, 2009 at 10:04 AM
The blame game......there are never any winners. Hey! Maybe I can charge my grade three teacher for thwarting my desire of becoming an electrician by being told that it's a man's job and I was being rediculous! We are responsible for our own destinies. By the way....I was fired from my job as bartender at the Travelodge Hotel 30 years ago because I refused to serve two extremely inebriated and rude business men. The manager came to me and demanded, "You serve these guests or I will fire you!" I snapped back to him, "Take a flying F**k through a rolling doughnut!" I then left and never looked back and I slept well that night. Alcohol consumption is hard to gauge. Every person metablolizes alcohol differently. They can consume many drinks and leave an establishment appearing very sober and in control. It is when the blood volume reaches it's dangerous alcohol level that it renders the person out of control. That could be minutes to an hour after leaving. Then, who is to say that this person didn't drink more after leaving the establishment? It is hard to lay blame on the servers. Unless they demand a breathalyzer before the next drink is served, how are they to know when the customer has had enough?
Posted by: Cher | January 13, 2009 at 08:44 AM
Neil, I couldn't agree with you more. We have got to start taking responsibility for our own actions and stop with the blame game.
Posted by: Pat | January 12, 2009 at 07:09 PM