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Montreal waitress fired after stopping drunken patron from driving home

Valérie Couturier was let go from her job as a Montreal-area waitress after stopping an intoxicated patron from driving home. Photo via Facebook.

Sometimes reason and civic duty are ignored, thrown out of the window and even punished in the face of threatened legal action.

That, at least, is what one Montreal-area waitress learned when she was fired from her job after stopping a drunken patron from driving home.

CBC News reports that Valerie Couturier was fired from a Montreal-area restaurant after an Aug. 16 incident in which she called the police and blocked an intoxicated customer from taking his car into traffic.

Traffic in which you could have been driving, or one of your loved ones could have been driving. On streets filled with unsuspecting pedestrians and other innocent bystanders.

Couturier had just finished a shift and was visiting with friends when a visibly intoxicated customer began to leave.

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“Me and my friend tried to stop him and ask him if he wanted to call a cab,” she told the network, adding that the man was insistent on taking his car home. “The guy just took his keys and left.”

In a Facebook post, translated from French, Couturier said that they took the man’s car keys and wallet, and waited with him until police arrived.

Officers eventually drove the man home, and no charges were laid. But that couldn't be the end of the dram, now could it?

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What comes next? Couturier is fired and her boss admits that it was connected to that event, although he won't talk about it thanks to the threat of litigation. Not that the restaurant fears that Couturier will sue, but because it seems there is concern the customer will.

This is precious. It is not clear what the argument is, but Canadians bars and restaurants that serve alcohol have a "duty of care" to protect the public from obviously inebriated customers.

The restaurant knows this. In a Facebook post, it cites a company policy on how to handle drunk customers, which includes calling police as a final measure.

Regardless, Couturier is now without a job. But at least she still has her conscience and her principles, which will take her a lot farther in this world.

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