No charges for server in Quebec allergy case

MONTREAL— There will be no criminal charges against a Quebec restaurant server alleged to have mistakenly served salmon to an extremely allergic customer.

The case of the Sherbrooke restaurant employee who was alleged to have given salmon tartare to a man who ordered steak tartare and had warned the employee to take precautions because of his severe allergies made headlines around the world.

But a spokesman with Quebec’s Crown Prosecution service said a police investigation has concluded that charges should not be laid in the matter.

“No criminal offence was committed,” said René Verret. The investigation is closed, hesaid.

The office that decides whether or not to lay criminal charges has a policy that prohibits them from explaining what factors went into the decision, said Jean-Pascal Boucher, an- other spokesman.

Sherbrooke police said earlier this month that they had received information about the customer, Simon-Pierre Canuel, claiming that he had been involved in similar incidents in the past and that they would investigate. At the time, police did not provide any details of the claims.

Canuel is a trained emergency responder who is also president of a Quebec company that offers medical and ambulance services for special events. Neither he nor his lawyer, François Daigle, could be reached for comment on the decision to drop charges.

A police affidavit that was used to obtain a search warrant in the investigation quotes from Canuel’s statement to the police following the incident, saying that “it is the first time that I’ve had a problem at a restaurant concerning my allergies.”

A spokesperson for the Sherbrooke police could not be reached for comment Tuesday.