How confident are you sending your kids off to daycare or summer camp?
A Calgary father is calling out what he calls a “deeply concerning” clause in a contract sent out by Rundle College’s summer camp staff.
Chris Llewellyn says he was planning on sending his 7-year-old to the week-long camp this summer, until he read what he is calling questionable details of the contract for the week-long camp.
He claims the assessment of risk form they have parents sign completely absolved the school from responsibility for negligence, or providing “reasonable care.”
“I just think it’s ridiculous they’d be charging me for giving care to my child at a camp, which they are saying they do not have to provide reasonable care, or any supervision,” he says.
Llewellyn says the form asks the signee to accept that the “negligence could cause the participant property damage, bodily injury, personal injury, and death.”
It comes after one of the Fueling Brains daycares, which was linked to the E. coli outbreak earlier this year, was put in the hot seat for a similar reason. When parents received a code of conduct from the company, it included a section that seemingly released Fueling Brains from liability for any negligence.
Chadwick Newcombe, council with Kahane Law, says contracts like that are actually quite common, which is why parents should always read before signing.
“What we are talking about is an allocation of risk whenever you’re leaving property or engaging in activity,” he says. “In some respect, it’s not fundamentally different from a waiver you’d sign if you were at a trampoline park.”
Newcombe says there is still some opportunity for recourse even though the forms absolve some responsibility.
“There are certain requirements under the law that apply in a lot of these cases,” he says. “For example, is the risk assumption written in fine print on the back as oppose to slightly larger or bold print on the front of the form?”
CityNews has reached out to Rundle College for comment.