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Bonnie Korzeniowski and the Good Samaritan Protection Act

March 1, I spoke in the Manitoba Legislature to pay tribute to Bonnie Korzeniowski who served as the MLA for St. James from 1999 to 2011.

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Mr. Deputy Speaker, Bonnie Korzeniowski will be known for her attention to the needs of people in St. James com­mu­nity and for her dedi­cation to and support of the military in Manitoba as the special envoy for military affairs for five years from early in 2008 to June of 2013.

      A social worker by training, she was instrumental in the esta­blish­ment of the Movement Disorder Clinic at Deer Lodge Centre and made many other con­tri­bu­tions to her com­mu­nity of St. James.

      She will also be known for bringing forward The Good Samaritan Pro­tec­tion Act, a bill which was passed into law and became effective December the 7th. It's an im­por­tant and sig­ni­fi­cant law which provides liability pro­tec­tion for a person who comes forward to help others, and it could even include, for example, off-duty military person; it could include a health pro­fes­sional who comes forward to help some­body who has a health issue.

      There's an interesting history behind this act. Both Bonnie and I in­de­pen­dently got the idea for a bill to protect good Samaritans who come forward to help and protect others. It had become clear that sometimes people were reluctant to come forward and help others in need if there was a concern about liability; that is, being sued if some­thing went wrong, in spite of their good in­ten­tions in coming forward to help others.

      To end this concern of people being sued and found liable when they came forward to help someone–you know, including, for example, trying to save someone's life–we had both in­de­pen­dently brought forward legis­lation, conceived the idea in­de­pen­dently to protect citizens with a good Samaritan act as, in fact, has been done in other juris­dic­tions.

      My bill was actually first, and first on the Order Paper, in the fall of 2005 and it was debated extensively November 6th, 15th, 17th, 24th, 29th, December the 6th. I tried six times to get this bill past second reading and it never worked. The NDP caucus effectively blocked the passage because they wanted Bonnie's bill, but there were rules of precedence and although Bonnie intro­duced her bill on November 24th and it was debated on December the 8th, because of those 'prestance' rule, her bill was unable to proceed further.

      So the next year, in the fall of 2006, once again I intro­duced my bill, this time on November 17th, but when it was apparent that there was never going to be support from the NDP, I decided it was more im­por­tant to get a good Samaritan act passed than what was happening then, was it was being blocked.

Madam Speaker in the Chair

      So I approached Bonnie to indicate I would support her bill and so she moved it for first reading on December 5th, 2006, with me seconding it. It passed second reading later that morning and passed third reading, receiving royal assent on December 7th and became law on that day.

      It was an im­por­tant bill because without this, some people are reluctant to step forward and help others. Well, it's interesting that surveys in the United States have shown that between one third and one half of all physicians would refuse to stop or render aid to a victim without the–a good Samaritan act in place. It seems extra­ordin­ary. I suspect the proportion would be less in Canada but, nevertheless, whatever their proportion is here in Manitoba, this is no longer a concern because of Bonnie's bill.

      And in Manitoba, with our history of volunteer­ing, it is really im­por­tant to protect well-meaning volunteers, including people like Grayson, who come forward and do amazing acts and occasionally some­thing goes wrong and people need to be protected from liability.

      We can ask how much less kind might this world be if people didn't come forward when someone else was in need. We, as humans, would be worse off. Thanks to Bonnie's bill, that won't happen here in Manitoba.

      When her bill was able to move forward, Bonnie was gracious, she complimented me on my efforts and we worked together to get the bill passed. She showed she was ready to work with other members of the Legislature in other parties to get things done for Manitobans and, for that, we can all remember and thank Bonnie Korzeniowski.

      So on behalf of myself and our caucus, I extend con­dol­ences to Bonnie's family and friends, Bryan and Veronica, and all the rest of the extended family and to the members of the NDP caucus.

      Merci, miigwech, thank you.

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