The slippery slope of a city ban
Orangeville residents plan ‘sled in’ to protest policy that forbids tobogganing
Well-bundled and defiant, John Haggett holds aloft a GT Snow Racer and scales the snowy face of Murray’s Mountain, the tobogganing hill you’re not allowed to toboggan on.
He’s there with his son, Keagan, a 6-year-old in a snowsuit and Super Mario toque who repeatedly zips down the hill on his sled, skidding across the windswept snow with a smile on his face.
As Haggett puts it, sledding is a quintessentially Canadian activity, and there’s no way he’ll let his son miss out. Certainly not because the town of Orangeville’s insurance company says it’s a liability to toboggan on municipal property. And certainly not because of the sign.
“No tobogganing,” it reads, according to photos on Facebook. The placard, which has caused much controversy this week in the town northwest of Toronto, was mysteriously absent from its wooden stake at the crest of Murray’s Mountain this weekend, where residents plan to stage a “sled in” protest Sunday morning.
“A little civil disobedience,” chuckles Rob Stewart, the Orangeville resi- dent who organized the gathering online after annoyance over the sign hit the media.
“It’s just silly,” Stewart added. “Tobogganing is as Canadian as maple syrup. And it’s hard for kids to find safe, clean things to do.”
Orangeville’s mayor, Jeremy Williams, says it’s pointless to try to stop people from sledding down one of the most inviting hills in town. The sign exists on the advice of the town’s insurer, he says, pointing to the possibility of a lawsuit if someone is injured sledding on a municipallyowned slope. A case from 2004 in Hamilton comes to mind, where the city was forced to pay out $900,000 in a tobogganing-related settlement, Williams says.
Hamilton has banned tobogganing on city property, joining a handful of cities that have done so in Canada and the U.S.
Williams doesn’t want a sledding ban though, and promises to raise the matter of Murray’s Mountain at town hall on Monday, after personally attending Stewart’s protest to hand out hot chocolate to anybody tobogganing and wearing a helmet.
“Officially right now, there’s no tobogganing allowed. We have to post that sign, but people are still tobogganing,” Williams says. “To put a sign on the top of (the hill) that says ‘no tobogganing’ is ludicrous.”
The sign was first erected in 2009, after the town bought the hill from the local school board, Williams says. Nobody seemed to care until a new sign went up in December. This time, it featured coloured letters and faced down the hill instead of away from it.
Earlier this week, the sign was briefly taken down by a local teen, who was swiftly stopped and told by police to put it back, says Williams. The mayor laughed when told that the sign is now missing. “It has a habit of disappearing,” he says.
But the Murray’s Mountain situation uncovers a deeper issue that’s no laughing matter for the mayor. Williams wants the province to change liability legislation so that municipalities like Orangeville aren’t so exposed to potential lawsuits for mishaps on public property.
“That’s not really fair to the municipality . . . It can be very costly,” he says. “Where does it end? Are we going to have signs up on sidewalks saying you can’t walk here? It has to come back down to reality.”
Back on Murray’s Mountain, Haggett sips from a thermos of coffee as his son skitters down the hill. He used to come here to toboggan when he was a kid, and can’t imagine the hill being devoid of winter fun, regardless of what any sign says.
“It’s part of life, really: you go out, you get cold, you have some hot chocolate when you get home, you put your wet boots on the floor vent, you wait for them to dry out and you do it all over again,” he says. “They’ve got to leave this for the kids.”