Death Draws Resignation

The Alberta Law Society Resignation Committee accepted a statement of facts and an attorney’s resignation based on a criminal conviction.

Based upon the Statement of Facts, the Committee finds that:

On April 15, 2018, Mr. Stevenson caused the death of a child as a result of impaired driving. The child was crossing at a marked crosswalk, for which other motor vehicles had stopped for her. Mr. Stevenson did not stop his vehicle at the crosswalk, struck the child and continued. An off-duty police officer, who happened to be at the intersection, followed Mr. Stevenson and reported the incident to Edmonton Police Services (EPS). Several marked EPS vehicles responded to the area and began following Mr. Stevenson’s vehicle. A helicopter was dispatched to the area and caught up with Mr. Stevenson’s vehicle. When Mr. Stevenson was attended upon by EPS officers, he had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath, had mildly blood-shot eyes and was unsteady on his feet. Mr. Stevenson provided two samples of his breath that night, the lowest reading was 170mg in 100mls of blood. At the time that Mr. Stevenson was operating his motor vehicle that caused the collision and the death of the child, Mr. Stevenson’s ability to operate a motor vehicle was impaired by alcohol.

Substance abuse and addiction issues suffered by Mr. Stevenson were factors in his conduct.

At the criminal trial, several victim impact statements were read into the record.

During Mr. Stevenson’s criminal trial, Mr. Stevenson took full responsibility for causing the death of the child.

Mr. Stevenson has taken steps to rehabilitate himself and is active with the AMA IMPACT program.

Edmonton Journal reported on the victim and incident

Wiwchar was a student at Victoria School of the Arts who dreamed of being a social worker when Stevenson hit her with his truck in a marked crosswalk at Kingsway and Tower Road on April 15, 2018.

Stevenson’s F-150 was travelling between 69 and 83 km/h at the time of the crash, throwing Wiwchar 26 metres. She died in hospital a short time later.

Stevenson, 52, claims he has no memory of the collision, which came after an evening spent drinking at a nearby bar. He drove another three kilometres before police — called in by an off-duty officer who witnessed the crash — arrested him.

He is presently on parole. (Mike Frisch)