Hosting grad parties comes with risk: professor

A Dalhousie University law professor says while ticketing people who host graduation and other parties for teenagers is not common, there is responsibility on those who do so.

“It’s pretty uncommon I think, but may be growing, which is maybe a cautionary tale for any and all of us hosting parties,” Wayne MacKay said in a recent interview.

He said there may be a growing responibility on the host to make sure they are doing whatever they can to prevent issues and ensure safety.

“They can never guarantee there won’t be problems, but are they taking all the reasonable steps necessary to prevent that?”

Two weeks ago, Cape Breton Regional Police charged two people who hosted a graduation party in Leitches Creek on the night of June 9. In the early morning hours of June 10, one of the partygoers was struck by a car and killed.

The couple was charged under the province’s Liquor Control Act with allowing drunkenness on their property.

In late June, RCMP in Lunenburg County ticketed a property owner in Chester for the same alleged offence, after police responded to a call of an unconscious youth at the property.

MacKay said the charge would apply regardless of the age of people at a gathering.

Police were monitoring the Cape Breton party after receiving complaints, but did not shut it down. MacKay said whether or not police shut down a party, or try to, has no impact on their ability to write a ticket.

“No, it wouldn’t, it would have no legal bearing whatsoever,” he said. “But I think the fact that such a tragic consequence did emerge from this, and the high profile the case has had, may be something that was some kind of factor in them deciding whether or not they should lay a charge here.”

For several years it has been relatively common for parents, either individually or as a group, to host grad parties for students as a way to keep them safe in one location under relative supervision, while preventing impaired driving.

“That’s a really good point, in fairness to the people who do this,” MacKay said. “What’s the alternative? Is it a better alternative if you allow it to go completely underground, so the kids just find a place to go do it with no adults around, nobody supervising, nobody putting any rules on? Probably not.”

He agreed that allowing kids to have a couple of drinks at a party is different from heavy intoxication, or drunkenness.

“The other layer you can put on top of all of this these days is the (coming) age of legal marijuana. In hosting these parties generally, if people are using drugs there are impairment issues and driving issues and all those things connected with that as well ... If you’re hosting a drinking party and people are smoking up, do you have a responsibility for that?”

He said civil liability could also be an issue.

“There is also occupier’s liability, that to some extent when people come on to your property you have some responsibility to try to prevent risks of injury.”

In a written response to a question of whether RCMP in the province have any directive or rules for dealing with graduation parties hosted by individuals on their properties, spokesman Cpl. Dal Hutchinson said the force doesn’t condone underage drinking.

“Situations and circumstances vary and officers can exercise discretion when enforcing the Liquor Control Act,” he said.

He said options to police include, but aren’t limited to, a verbal warning, written warning, summary offence ticket or referring the matter to a community restorative justice program.

Hutchinson said different things contribute to when an officer issues a ticket.

“Every scenario is different and because of that each situation presents its own factors for the officer to consider,” he said. “The entire situation is assessed with the information the officer has available to them at the time and they determine what response is most appropriate.”

While RCMP have been in the areas of graduation or prom parties before, they don’t have free rein to go onto the properties, Hutchinson said.

“The parties that you are referencing are being held in people’s homes on private property. The RCMP are not invited guests and are not serving as security guards who monitor a party. As such, officers are not permitted to walk in to someone’s yard and check if offences are being committed,” he wrote. “If the RCMP becomes aware or receives a complaint involving underage drinking we have an obligation to attend and address the complaint. That does not mean we show up at the premise and can enter someone’s home, without a warrant.”