A Provincial Court judge in Fort St. John ruled a father who intervened when his daughter was on the verge of taking a ride with a potentially drunk driver was not guilty of assault and uttering threats.
The Aug. 20 written verdict by Judge Darin Reeves, after a three-day trial in June, contains a ban on publication of the identities of the father and daughter and their location.
On May 18, 2024, the date of the incident, the father was organizing branding and inoculation of 200 cattle and 200 calves at a barn on a rural ranch.
Family and neighbours assisted him and he provided food and beverages, including beer, to the crew. The man’s daughter “repeatedly asked him to go out with an older girlfriend who had been drinking all day,” but he refused. That sparked several arguments. One of their heated exchanges was captured on a cell phone audio recorder.
The father remained at the barnyard at the end of the day, after most helpers departed. The daughter returned to the farmhouse, which is several miles from the barn.
The father, Reeves said, was obviously annoyed and upset and he did apply force in an attempt to raise his daughter to her feet and to seat her in his truck, all against her will.
“This force was applied, however, for corrective purposes. [The father] was fearful that [his daughter] would continue in her attempts to be transported by a driver he feared was intoxicated, thus placing her safety at risk.”
Reeves said it was “entirely reasonable” that the man felt disrespected and became frustrated and angry. He threatened to report his daughter’s friend to police for impaired driving if she drove her to the town where her mother lived. The friend instead brought the man’s daughter to her home and the daughter was later transported to her mother’s home by a sober driver.
Reeves said the daughter’s testimony “varied considerably,” while the father testified in his own defence and much of what he said was “plausible.”
“In all circumstances,” Reeves decided, he used reasonable force intended to restrain, control or express disapproval of his daughter’s behaviour.
“I do not find that [the father] struck, kicked or slapped his daughter, or that he used or threatened to use an object,” Reeves said.
