It does not seem the sort of thing that is normally just a fine.
Crime and Punishment
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Broken_Erika
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She was hit by a car during a bike ride for cancer. Her insurance says the charity is liable
Erin Townley says the only person liable for her injuries is the driver who struck her
As far as Erin Townley is concerned, the only person responsible for her physical and emotional scars is the man who hit her with his car during a charity bike ride more than five years ago.Not other drivers on the street that day. Not the cancer charity she was raising money for. And certainly not her own father, who helped organize the event.
But while the driver who struck her was convicted and jailed in 2021, the civil case is dragging on because her insurance company has filed documents suggesting that third parties — including dad and the cancer charity — may be liable for her injuries.
"I can't see resolution on the horizon. All I see is that this is going to consume years more of my life, that I have to continue to be in this liminal space, this unknown, this uncertainty," Townley told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
"I just want to be done with it."
TD Insurance, the parent company of Townley's insurance provider, said it could not comment on ongoing litigation. In an email, it told CBC it is "focused on supporting our customers and providing coverage per their policy."
Why is she battling her own insurance?
In May 2018, a group of cyclists called People On Bikes organized a seven-day group bike ride around Lake Ontario to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer Canada.Townley, who lives in Calgary, was there to support her father, People On Bike's founder, and honour her grandmother, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2011.
One of the cyclists hit a pothole near Kingston, Ont., and fell off his bike. His fellow riders moved him to the side of the road to take care of him.
A van passed by and slowed down to give the cyclists room. But a speeding car passed the van, swerved onto the side of the road, and struck several cyclists, killing one man, Jeff Vervaeke. Townley, who was also in the group, wound up with eight broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a mild traumatic brain injury and a fractured humerus, or upper arm bone.
The driver, Robert Saunders, was convicted in 2021 of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and dangerous driving causing death, and given two consecutive four-year sentences.
It was an emotional moment for Townley, a 35-year-old family lawyer.
"I truly thought that this was going to be done, that I was going to have that closure," she said.
After the collision, Townley filed a civil lawsuit against the driver for $3 million.
There was just one problem. Saunders was uninsured.
So Townley filed what's called a 44R claim — also known as "family protection endorsement" — against her own insurance company, Security National Insurance Company, a subsidiary of TD.
It's an optional, but common, clause in insurance policies, designed to protect a client if the at-fault party is uninsured, or underinsured. Under 44R, a client's insurance company pays the claim as if it was the provider for the at-fault party.
Security National is fighting Townley's claim. In 2022, the company filed what's called a third-party claim — adding the two people in the van and Pancreatic Cancer Canada as defendants. The civil claim accused the charity of "failing to adequately protect event participants" by ensuring the route was safe.
It's now seeking to add three more names to that more third-parties list — the provincial government, because of the pothole, People On Bikes, the cycling advocacy and fundraising organization that organized the charity bike ride and its founder Gord Townley — who is Erin Townley's father
"I'm really struggling with many of these people who have been listed, and obviously my father, who rode up onto the scene and who witnessed me covered in my own blood with my arm hanging off of my body," Townley said.
- Charity bike ride turns tragic when driver crashes into cyclists
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"I had an insurance policy that was supposed to be there for me in the event something like this ever happened," Townley said. "It's proven more difficult than what I understood the policy to be."
Gord Townley, People on Bikes, Pancreatic Cancer Canada and Ontario's transportation ministry all declined to comment for this story.
Insurance company is by the rules
Townley is not accusing TD or Security National Insurance of breaking any rules or laws, but says the system has failed her.Her lawyer, Warren WhiteKnight, says the insurance company has made the case unnecessarily complicated and lengthy, compounding his client's trauma.
"Any average person off the street could learn the facts of the case and agree that the driver is responsible. Whereas it would be very difficult to explain to an average person off the street why, you know, the Pancreatic Cancer Foundation or the government ought to be responsible for what that driver did," WhiteKnight said.
"If it's not explainable to an average Joe or Jane on the street, then I think it ought not to be advanced to such a degree where we can't have our court system functioning properly because of backlogs."
Bronwyn Martin, an insurance litigator who is not involved with the case, says that it's not unusual for an insurance company to defend itself against a 44R claim by suing third parties.
"I can see how it comes across as very unfair to the plaintiffs because this is dragging out. But the insurance company does have certain rights. And one of those rights is to go after anybody else who may or may not be liable for the accident," Martin told CBC.
"Thinking about it from the insurance company's perspective, their lawyer has an obligation to advance a strong defence on behalf of their client, who is the insurance company."
But she says it's not good for anyone involved for a case to go on this long without resolution.
"There's problems with delay in every single civil case. And that's not necessarily the problem of the parties. That's a problem with the system," she said.
"Quite frankly, I would ask every single person in Canada to write to their [provincial lawmakers] and say, 'Please appoint more judges, so we can deal with this backlog.'"
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In September, the case will hit its five-year mark, which means that, under Ontario law, a trial date must be set, or the lawsuit gets tossed entirely.
But even then, says WhiteKnight, there's no clear end in sight. The actual trial date, he says, will likely be years in the future because each defendant must be interviewed and have a chance to make their case.
Townley, meanwhile, says she just wants to move on.
"It's incredibly disappointing that almost six years later … I'm still here and I'm still talking about this, and I'm still dwelling on this and that it still consumes a large portion of my life," she said.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/charity-bike-ride-insurance-1.7086837
EgonSpengler
Deity
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Wiring healthcare into insurance companies may be the 'original sin' of the American healthcare system, imo. Insurance companies have to look for ways to not pay. They have to, or they wouldn't be in business. This thread isn't about the American healthcare system, so I'll stop there. I could go on all day.
Lexicus
Deity
For-profit insurance is a scam
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Bodycam shows police raiding home with ill child inside
Police in Elyria, Ohio are under investigation after using flash-bang devices to raid a home, where an infant was on a ventilator. The officers say they were carrying out a search warrant for stolen guns, but the family alleges police raided the wrong home.Courtney Price was inside the home with her son Waylon, who she says was hospitalised after the raid for breathing problems as a result of chemicals from the flash-bang. In a statement, police said that flash-bangs do not use any chemical agents.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68014721
"No chemicals in this" is one of those things that is a good way to spot people who do not know what they are talking about.
In Connecticut a woman disappeared. Whether she's currently alive or dead is unknown, as her whereabouts have never been discovered. Her husband was hounded by the police until he killed himself. Now the husband's girlfriend is being put on trial for conspiracy in a murder, where there is no actual proof of a victim.
www.courant.com
Michelle Tronconis’ trial continues with more testimony around first days of Jennifer Farber Dulos’ disappearance
Michelle Troconis’ lawyers question the validity of blood testing used by investigators in Jennifer Farber Dulos’ disappearance as Troconis’ trial continues in Stamford.
www.courant.com
Lexicus
Deity
Oh, they know what they're talking about for sure, they're just BSing. Sure, a flash-bang doesn't have chemical agents but according to wikipedia:
Like any combustion that is going to leave chemical residue to which people in the vicinity would be exposed...
According to the Health and Safety Agency:
What are Chemicals Agents?
The term chemical agent means any chemical element or compound, on its own or admixed, as it occurs in the natural state or as produced, used or released, including release as waste, by any work activity, whether or not produced intentionally and whether or not placed on the market.
Lexicus
Deity
That's a workplace/occupational safety definition. In military and law enforcement the term is basically synonymous with "chemical weapon." In law enforcement contexts it would generally refer to these:
Yeah, that is chemical weapon as described by the Chemical Weapons Convention. I think using chemical agent, which has its own definition that will be familiar to a lot of people, when you mean chemical weapon is at the least misleading.That's a workplace/occupational safety definition. In military and law enforcement the term is basically synonymous with "chemical weapon." In law enforcement contexts it would generally refer to these:
Lexicus
Deity
Yes, my point is they were intentionally misleading.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Thailand: Man jailed for 50 years for defaming monarchy
A Thai court has sentenced a man to 50 years in jail for comments deemed to have defamed the monarchy - the highest ever sentence handed down under the country's notorious lese majeste law.Thirty-year-old Mongkol Thirakot was originally sentenced to 28 years for posts he made three years ago on Facebook.
But on Thursday an appeals court added an extra 22 years to the sentence.
The lese majeste law criminalises any negative comment about the monarchy.
The law, which has been widely criticised, is still in force despite the election last year of a civilian government for the first time in 10 years.
At the hearing on Thursday, the judge said he had already reduced Mr Thirakot's sentence by a third because of the defendant's co-operative behaviour.
Details of what prompted such a harsh sentence for Mr Thirakot, an online clothing vendor from Chiang Rai province, have not been published. The judge referred to multiple comments on Facebook, and Thai courts typically pile on additional convictions for each individual post.
The lese majeste law was briefly suspended at the start of the reign of King Vajiralongkorn in 2019, but has been revived and used extensively since the outbreak of unprecedented student-led protests three years ago, which called for sweeping reforms to the monarchy.
An activist and lawyer who first called for a public discussion of the monarchy, Arnon Nampa, also had his jail time increased by four years on Wednesday.
Later in January the Constitutional Court will rule on whether to dissolve Move Forward, the youthful party which won the most votes in last year's general election, over its call to amend the lese majeste law, which some Thai conservatives argue amounts to an attempt to overthrow the entire political order.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68020494
Broken_Erika
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Théo Luhaka: French police officers given suspended sentences for brutal assault
Three French police officers have been given suspended jail sentences for assaulting a black man with a baton in a north-west Paris suburb.One officer received a 12-month suspended sentence and the other two received three-month sentences.
Théo Luhaka was left disabled with irreversible anal injuries from a police baton during a stop-and-search in Aulnay-sous-Bois in February 2017.
Mr Luhaka, then 22, also said he was beaten, racially abused and spat at.
The case sparked unrest and protests on housing estates in Paris.
Officer Marc-Antoine Castelain, 34, was found guilty of a truncheon blow that seriously injured Mr Luhaka, and was handed a 12-month suspended sentence.
Jeremie Dulin, 42, and Tony Hochart, 31, were handed three-month suspended sentences for intentional violence, following a trial which started on 9 January.
In French law, a suspended sentence means the offender avoids prison for a specified time providing they do not commit another criminal offence and fulfil other obligations.
"I felt like I was raped," Mr Luhaka, now aged 29, told the Assizes court in Bobigny on Monday.
Video footage of the assault was shared widely on social media, caused an uproar and prompted then-President Francois Hollande to visit Mr Luhaka in hospital.
Mr Luhaka was a young sports mentor with no criminal record and had hopes of starting a professional football career in Belgium.
On the day he was attacked, he said he left his house and encountered a police identity check targeting drug dealers by chance.
The police operation turned violent and he was set upon by four officers, he said.
CCTV footage showed Mr Luhaka forced to the ground and beaten for eight minutes.
Mr Luhaka said one officer proceeded to pull his trousers down and assault him with a truncheon.
Bleeding, he was then taken by the officers to the police station by car where he was also racially abused.
Mr Luhaka was treated for serious injuries to his anus, which were initially investigated as rape.
Prosecutors had asked for a three-year suspended jail term for Castelain, who yielded the baton and has been accused of voluntary violence that led to a "permanent disability".
They had requested suspended sentences of six and three months for his two colleagues Dulin and Hochart for taking part in the aggravated voluntary violent assault.
The case against a fourth officer was dropped.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68034899
For-profit insurance is LIFE... the rest is just details
Broken_Erika
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It's not fit for putting down animals, but Alabama plans to use nitrogen hypoxia on death row inmate
Barring successful appeal, Kenneth Smith will be 1st U.S. execution using the method
Alabama intends to strap Kenneth Smith to a gurney Thursday and use a gas mask to replace breathable air with nitrogen, depriving him of oxygen, in the nation's first execution attempt using the method."What effect the condemned person will feel from the nitrogen gas itself, no one knows," Dr. Jeffrey Keller, president of the American College of Correctional Physicians, told the Associated Press by email. "This has never been done before. It is an experimental procedure."
Nitrogen, a colourless, odourless gas, makes up 78 per cent of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when breathed with proper levels of oxygen. The theory behind nitrogen hypoxia is that changing the composition of the air to 100 per cent nitrogen will cause Smith to lose consciousness.
"Since the condemned person will not be breathing any oxygen, he will die," Keller said. "It is little different than putting a plastic bag over one's head."
The state of Alabama has predicted in federal court filings that the nitrogen gas will "cause unconsciousness within seconds, and cause death within minutes."
After Smith is strapped to the gurney in the execution chamber, the state said in a court filing that it will place a "NIOSH-approved Type-C full facepiece supplied air respirator" over his face. The nitrogen gas will be administered for at least 15 minutes or "five minutes following a flatline indication on the EKG, whichever is longer," according to the state.
Unknown territory
The American Veterinary Medical Association wrote in 2020 euthanasia guidelines that nitrogen hypoxia is not an acceptable euthanasia method for most mammals because the anoxic environment "is distressing."UN Human Rights Council experts are alarmed by the proposed execution method. They said it could violate the prohibition on torture, which the U.S. is a party to.
Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist who is one of four professionals who filed the UN complaint, said Smith is at risk for seizures and choking to death on his own vomit. He said any leak under the mask could prolong the execution.
"A leak will do two things. It will potentially endanger people around. Air could then get under the mask as well," Zivot said. "And so the execution could be prolonged or maybe he might never die, he just could get injured."
- U.S. Justice Department authorizes death penalty for 1st time in Biden term, for Buffalo mass shooter
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Much of what is recorded about death from nitrogen in medical journals comes from industrial accidents, where leaks or accidents have killed people, and from suicide attempts.
Among other arguments made by Smith's attorneys to prevent the execution is their argument that the plan violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment and at least merits more scrutiny before it is used.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 2019 opinion, ruled that a painless death is not guaranteed by the Constitution.
Death penalty on the wane, but election could be factor
Hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide have been used in the past for gas chamber executions. Electrocution, hangings and firing squads have also been employed.But lethal injection has been the dominant method since the 1980s, used in 89 per cent of all executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Some states are exploring new methods as some pharmaceutical companies have balked at their drugs being used for lethal injection, making them harder to obtain. The issue came to the fore following the plagued 2014 Oklahoma execution of Clayton Lockett.
"They've tried to fix lethal injection … and they haven't been able to," said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University and an expert in execution methods. "The same thing happened with electrocution. It's just sort of this continuing theme of pushing to get executions no matter the cost involved, and that did propel this change to nitrogen gas."
- U.S. government carries out 1st execution for federal crimes in 17 years
- Analysis
Trump could be U.S. president again. Here's what he plans to do if he wins
In 2023, just five states executed people. A total of 24 inmates were executed, the ninth consecutive year of fewer than 30, and a steep drop from 1999, when a modern-day high of 98 prisoners were executed in the U.S.
Executions of federal death row inmates were paused between 2003 and mid-2020. Donald Trump's administration re-authorized them, with the short-acting barbiturate pentobarbital employed to replace a previous three-drug regimen.
Thirteen federal executions were carried out, with the last on Jan. 16, 2021.
Trump, who is on the campaign trail for president again, has spoken enthusiastically at rallies for expanding the use of the death penalty.
The U.S. is an outlier among Western and advanced nations on the issue, with the vast majority of executions carried out by authoritarian regimes in China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Protests planned in Alabama
Smith's spiritual adviser said the inmate is afraid of what is about to happen to him."Presently, Kenny is sickened, deeply pained and horrified at the nitrogen hypoxia experiment that is to come," the Rev. Jeff Hood, a death penalty opponent, said.
Smith, 58, was one of two men convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire of a preacher's wife. Prosecutors said the men were paid $1,000 US to kill Elizabeth Sennett, 45, on behalf of her husband, who wanted to collect on insurance.
Sennett's husband killed himself when he became a suspect. John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted, was executed in 2010.
Smith is one of few people to have experienced a prior execution attempt. The state attempted a lethal injection in 2022, but the prison system called it off before the drugs were administered because the staff had difficulty connecting the two required intravenous lines.
Several protests are planned in the state if appeals don't delay Thursday's execution.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/alabama-nitrogen-hypoxia-execution-1.7091845
Broken_Erika
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Japan: Man sentenced to death for Kyoto anime fire which killed 36
A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio in 2019 which killed 36 people and injured dozens more.The incident, one of Japan's deadliest in recent decades, killed mostly young artists and shocked the anime world.
Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to the attack but his lawyers had sought a lighter sentence on grounds of "mental incompetence".
Judges rejected this however, ruling that Aoba knew what he was doing.
"I have determined that the defendant was not mentally insane or weak at the time of the crime," Chief Judge Masuda said on Thursday at Kyoto District Court.
"The death of 36 people is extremely serious and tragic. The fear and pain of the deceased victims was indescribable," Japanese broadcaster NHK reported him saying.
Many of the animation staff - young artists - were killed after being trapped on the upper floors of the studio as the fire spread.
The attack was one of the deadliest cases in recent decades and sparked national mourning in Japan. The country's public and media have followed the case closely.
Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Aoba, saying he was motivated to attack the studio after believing his work had been stolen. He said Kyoto Animation - known as KyoAni- had plagiarised a novel he entered into their contest.
In July 2019, he burst into the studio during a work day, splashing petrol on the ground floor and setting it alight while repeatedly shouting "Drop dead".
He later said during his guilty plea in September 2023 that he did not think so many people would die.
"I felt I had no other option but to do what I did," he said at the time.
"I feel tremendously sorry and the feeling includes a sense of guilt."
Aoba himself suffered burns to over 90% of his body in the fire, and was only arrested after he had recovered from operations.
"The delusion that KyoAni Studio had plagiarised his work influenced his motivation," prosecutors had told the court.
But they said he was not controlled by such delusions and had full capacity and understanding of his actions.
On Thursday, the judge read out a lengthy reasoning with victim testimonies before announcing the verdict. More than half of the animation studio's 70-strong workforce was killed in the event, and another 32 injured.
"Some of them saw their colleagues engulfed in flames, and some of them are suffering from psychological effects, and they are tormented by feelings of guilt and remorse," said Judge Masuda.
Families of the victims were seen in the court room, with many visibly emotional as the judge read out the details of Aoba's crime, NHK reported.
The outlet reported that Aoba kept his head bowed as the judge read out the death penalty sentence.
Japan retains capital punishment for its most serious crimes, like multiple murders. Those convicted typically remain on death row for years, or even decades. The death penalty is conducted by hanging.
The KyoAni studio in Kyoto is a beloved institution, known for producing films and graphic novels that are well-regarded by fans as well as critics - including K-On! and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68090388
Kenny was executed today by pure nitrogen gas.
Alabama executes a man with nitrogen gas, the first time the new method has been used
Kenneth Eugene Smith, a 58-year-old convicted killer, has become the first person in the U.S. to be executed with nitrogen gas at a South Alabama prison.
apnews.com
Broken_Erika
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Charles Littlejohn: Man who leaked Trump's tax returns sentenced to five years
A former US tax worker has been sentenced to five years in prison over the unauthorised leak of Donald Trump's personal tax records to media outlets.Charles Littlejohn, 38, must also spend three years under supervised release and pay a $5,000 fine for his actions.
Littlejohn stole tax data from thousands of wealthy Americans while working as a contractor for the US-wide Internal Revenue Service.
It was "an attack on our constitutional democracy", a judge said on Monday.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68131435
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