Public Protection

This was a woman so intoxicated, she was pie-eyed.  She was also offensive in her manner, crude and unruly, earning the description of being "drunk as a skunk".  But she was with people who were her friends, and they, responsibly enough, offered to drive her home.  In the process, stopping briefly on the way, the driver exiting the vehicle, enabling this boozed-up woman to grasp the vehicle keys and drive off.

Erratically, recklessly, speeding down the main Ottawa thoroughfare of Bank Street.  And in a 23-minute time span, no fewer than nine alarmed people dialled 911.  Alex Hayes, 16 years old, was bicycling home on the evening of September 9, 2010, after work as he usually did.  Samira Daoud struck Alex Hayes, then sped off, leaving him to die agonizingly in a field, alone, close to this home.

Ms. Daoud, a rather disreputable figure of the demi monde, had, at that time, three times the legal limit of alcohol in her system.  She was sentenced to six years in prison.  She will be 47 when she exits prison.  Alex Hayes will be forever 16.  Those who loved him will never see a day when  they will not be reminded of his loss.

This woman committed vehicular murder; driving under the influence of alcohol. 

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has stepped in finally, in a demonstration that they also hold responsible those who serve the clearly inebriated.  The pub where she drank the last of the alcohol she had imbibed that day - and it was considerable - has had its liquor licence suspended for 28 days, for failure to safely deal with a drunk client.

Ms. Daoud was well known to the people in the bar, the servers, bartender, and owner.  Before even entering the bar she had consumed six bottles of beer at home, and from there went to a Chinese restaurant, insisting that the owner give her a drive to Pub 31.  She had sweetly convinced him he should have a drink with her at the bar: "if he did not go in, she would get her gangster boyfriend to shoot him."

Some 45 minute after arrival Ms. Daoud was in a mood to socialize, flashing her body parts, slapping men back of the head, choking one patron, writhing on the floor, slurring her speech, drooling, slopping drinks on the bar and sitting on men's laps.  One of the bar's servers who knew her well, offered to drive her home at the end of her shift.

The bar's owner made a similar offer.  And it was the bar owner's vehicle that Ms. Daoud had made off with.  And from that juncture it took no time at all for Alex Hayes to lose his life.