New Apology Act in B.C
FreeAfrica (April 7, 2006)

Photo from CBC.ca: Attorney General Wally Oppal

“It means that a person who renders an apology after a particular incident, an accident or an event doesn’t render himself to a civil liability”, British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal.

The Province of British Columbia is set to pass an Apology Act in the next few weeks. This Act is meant to make the act of an apology a lot less risky and more even common.

In a recent interview with local media personnel Alex Chadwick, the province’s Attorney General explained that the Act substantially means that the fact that a person has apologized does not and will not mean that they have accepted fault in law.

This Act is also expected to reduce the number of lawsuits in many circumstances where an apology may not necessarily have meant acceptance of wrongdoing. The Attorney General made a particular not of the insurance industry where claims have previously been refused simply because a person had made an apology, even when they should still have been covered or compensated by their policy.

Other areas where this Act is expected to benefit are; law enforcement, hospitals and many other public and private sectors where people may have filed litigations for mistakes to which an apology could have been a sufficient remedy.