By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
Potton taxpayers will have to wait to find out if they will be on the hook for at least some of the money owed to dog attack survivor Dominique Alain and her partner Leo Joy.
Alain was attacked by three pit bulls belonging to Potton resident Alan Barnes while jogging in Potton in March 2019; according to medical reports cited in court documents, her injuries were so severe that doctors initially feared for her life. While she eventually regained the ability to walk and to drive her car, she still lives with significant physical and cognitive limitations and has not been able to return to full-time work.
The dogs involved were euthanized; Barnes was found guilty of criminal negligence in 2021, served six months in prison and has been banned for life from owning dogs. The same year, Alain and her partner, Leo Joy, sued Barnes; GF Inc., the owner of the land on which the attack occurred; and the municipality of Potton for a combined total of just under $562,000, alleging that town officials had known for several years that the dogs were dangerous, known that they were being kept illegally at a time when an anti-pit bull bylaw was in force, and failed to act.
On May 15, Superior Court Judge Sylvain Provencher ruled that Barnes and the municipality both bore responsibility for the incident, and awarded Alain and Joy $535,000. It is not yet known how or if Barnes and the municipality will split the sum. On May 31, Marie-Michelle Chartier of public relations firm Arsenal Conseils told the BCN that the municipality would respect the judgment and that the Fonds d’assurance des municipalités du Québec, the town’s insurer, would not appeal. Potton director general Martin Maltais said the insurer would determine how the sum would be divided between Barnes and the municipality.
“Whether insurers will cover the entire cost or just part of it, I don’t know. One thing is certain, in addition to the deductible for the municipal administration, the rest is paid by the insurers (and perhaps) Alan Barnes in proportions that I do not know,” Maltais said. “This part is in the hands of the insurers linked to Mr. Barnes.” Maltais didn’t know when the insurers’ decision would be made public.
Former mayor calls for councillor’s resignation
Court documents state that several town employees and elected officials knew about, or should have known about, the dogs and the danger they posed as far back as 2016. Provencher ruled that then-public works director Ronney Korman, Coun. Jason Ball, municipal building inspector Marie-Claude Lamy and town clerk Claire Alger should have been aware of the dogs and ensured action was taken. According to the ruling, in 2016 an unnamed cyclist came to the town hall and reported being bitten by a dog to Alger and receptionist Melissa Harrison, but no action was taken at the time; Ball was slightly bitten by one of Barnes’ dogs in 2017 and Korman’s wife, Suzanne Viens, narrowly escaped attack later that year.
According to the judgment, Ball, who was not yet a town councillor at the time he was bitten, was afraid of the dogs and of how Barnes might react if he filed a complaint, so no complaint was filed. He didn’t bring up the dogs with the municipality until June 2018, when the town’s cultural heritage committee was considering putting a walking path in place near where the incident happened. “The Court is of the opinion that Ball, as a municipal elected official, was not only personally aware of facts and circumstances demonstrating a real danger … but also that he should then have taken measures for Potton to intervene with the aim of minimally ensuring the safety of pedestrians who would use this section of the route … which he neglected to do,”
After the judgment was made public, Louis Veillon, mayor of Potton from 2013 to 2017, issued a statement calling for Ball’s resignation. “I was mayor at the time [Ball was bitten] and I wasn’t aware of it,” Veillon told the BCN. “As an elected official, you are held to a higher standard, and your first obligation is to report it. The fact he was attacked by a dog and he never reported it is a problem.”
Ball and Potton communications director Valérie Thérien declined to comment.