FAMILY ALLOWED TO PICKET CINEMA WHERE SON CHOKED

Son nearly died after choking on popcorn in 2009

The family of a young man who nearly choked to death on popcorn during the movie The Hangover in 2009, leaving him semi-comatose for six months, will be free to protest in front of the Kitchener, Ont., theatre after a judge declined Cineplex’s emergency request for a restraining order.

A civil trial on the matter is scheduled to begin in March.

Cineplex Odeon Corporation will defend itself on the grounds that Chadrick John Veenhof, then about 20, was on “illegal substances” at the time of his catastrophic brain injuries, caused by lack of oxygen.

For six months after the incident, Veenhof was only partly responsive. His parents were preparing to move him into a nursing home permanently, but then his recovery began in earnest. Three years later, he was able to walk into a visit with one of the doctors who saved his life. Now he lives with assistance, but can get outside, and is working toward independence, according to a 2012 profile in the Waterloo Region Record.

Last month, according to court records, his father Frederick told the manager of the Kitchener Cineplex he was seeking rehabilitation costs for Chad, and if the company did not reply within a week, as many as 80 people would protest and hand out pamphlets claiming that, when Chad started choking a short way into the movie, the theatre did not turn on the lights, stop the movie, call 911, ask if anyone could help, or follow emergency instructions when a customer called.

“They refused to allow a trained lifeguard to assist,” the pamphlets read.

On Dec. 6, Frederick Veenhof picketed the theatre with a sign saying “YOU ARE NOT SAFE IN THIS THEATRE TONIGHT.” Police were called but declined to intervene. He also made Facebook posts saying, “Cineplex just does not care about your health and welfare.”

Fearing damage to its business, Cineplex asked a judge last week to ban Veenhof ’s friends, family and associates, including Frederick, from picketing or protesting any Cineplex theatre in Ontario, and from “publishing statements which defame Cineplex, including but not limited to defamatory statements posted on social medial networks, and defamatory statements distributed via printed literature or common consumer products.”

In a rushed ruling, with brief reasons, Superior Court Judge Donald Gordon rejected Cineplex’s motion on the legal grounds that a restraining order in this case would, in effect, be permanent.