Festival du Voyageur has again denied responsibility in court filings in the latest lawsuit over the collapse of a platform at Fort Gibraltar last spring that sent 28 people, including schoolchildren and a teacher, tumbling to the ground.
The lawsuit was filed in the Court of King’s Bench on March 28 by lawyers Alyssa Mariani and Sacha Paul of Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP on behalf of Angelina Constantine, the teacher who was injured in the collapse.
Festival filed a statement of defence May 17, in which it denied it should be held legally liable for Constantine’s injuries and asked for the suit to be turfed with costs.
DAVID LIPNOWSKI / FREE PRESS FILES
An elevated walkway at Fort Gibraltar collapsed during a school field trip, causing 17 children, and an adult to be taken to hospital.
Constantine’s court filings name the City of Winnipeg, which owns the land the fort stands on, and Festival, which leases and operates the site, as defendants. The city has yet to file a response.
The teacher said in court documents she suffered a fracture to her thoracic spine in the collapse, as well as injuries to her neck and right foot and psychological injuries. She claimed she has suffered lost income, a lessened ability to earn an income and that she incurred medical expenses.
The teacher argued Festival and the city were negligent and breached their duty of care.
Festival says it took reasonable care and effort to ensure the property was safe in its use of the fort — and, further, if there was any negligence in inspections of the fort, it wasn’t responsible for that negligence.
“No act or omission of the Festival was the cause of any legally compensable loss or damage suffered by the plaintiff,” say Festival’s court papers.
Students from St. John’s-Ravenscourt School went to the popular historic site and museum in Whittier Park on a field trip when they and supervising adults heard a cracking noise before two sections of a platform that ran along the edge of the fort’s walls collapsed, causing the group to fall approximately six metres.
The field trip was for 10- and 11-year-old Grade 5 students from the private school. Officials said at the time 17 children and one adult suffered varying degrees of injury and were taken to Health Sciences Centre.
Constantine’s is the third lawsuit filed after the May 31, 2023 incident.
The previous lawsuits remain before the court, records show.
Festival du Voyageur announced in October it would dismantle and reconfigure the historical site.
Festival built the site, which is a replica of two earlier forts of the same name, in 1978 on city-owned land. It had been used regularly for public and private events.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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