Robert Solomon challenges alcohol manufacturers and public authorities for failure to warn
March 24, 2025
On March 17, 2025, Robert Solomon, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Western University, delivered the second Tort Law Research Group Public Lecture of the 2024-25 academic year. Addressing a large crowd in the Faculty’s main classroom, Solomon was back on familiar territory, having taught at Western Law for over 45 years.His lecture was titled “If All Else Fails, Sue? The Alcohol Industry, the Duty to Inform and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder”. He examined the question of whether a negligence claim against alcohol manufacturers and provincial liquor authorities for failure to warn of the dangers of alcohol, particularly FASD, would succeed.
In the first part of his lecture, he explained the link between alcohol consumption and FASD. He stressed that profound cognitive/behavioural disabilities are associated with binge drinking (meaning consuming four or more drinks on a single occasion) during the first 3 to 8 weeks post-conception. This particular risk is less well known than the more general notion that a woman should not drink, either heavily or at all, once aware that she is pregnant. Many women are unaware that their fetus can suffer profound, lifelong alcohol-related harm before they realize that they are pregnant.
In the second part, Solomon revealed the lack of action by either the alcohol industry or public authorities to require warnings of these risks of FASD on alcohol containers. This is in sharp contrast to the warnings now found on tobacco and cannabis packaging. Federally, many private member’s bills aimed at requiring alcohol warnings have been introduced but none have passed.
Finally, as an alternative to legislative action, Solomon considered whether a civil claim in negligence for failure to warn would succeed. He reviewed each of the elements of the action, concluding that such a claim would succeed. There are significant issues on some aspects, such as factual causation, but in his view, these could be overcome in the litigation. His conclusion was that it is only a matter of time before Canadian alcohol manufacturers and government liquor authorities are sued and held liable for failing to warn of the risks of FASD. He sees considerable parallels between the eventual liability of the tobacco industry for the harms caused by its products and similar liability regarding alcohol.
Solomon has been engaged in research on alcohol and drug policy and health law for nearly 50 years. He has received the University of Western Ontario Prize for Teaching Excellence, the Ontario Faculty Association Award in Teaching Excellence and numerous other Western University teaching honours. He was named a Distinguished University Professor in 2013. For many years he was the National Director of Legal Policy for Mothers against Drunk Driving Canada. The International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety selected him as the recipient of the 2007 Widmark Award for making an outstanding, sustained and meritorious contribution to the advancement of traffic safety research. He is known to thousands of lawyers as the lead author of the Carswell/Thomson Reuters casebook on Canadian tort law, used across the country to teach first-year tort law.
The TLRG’s Public Lectures for the 2024-25 academic year are generously sponsored by the London insurance defence law firm Shillington McCall LLP, continuing its long-standing support for the lecture series.
