Good Samaritan law

First Aid & CPR Manitoba

The Good Samaritan: compassion and protection

Drawn from the Bible (Luke 10:25-37), the parable of the Good Samaritan tells of a traveller left for dead who is rescued by a stranger that tends to him and sees to his care. Beyond its religious context, it carries a universal message: the moral duty to help others in danger, through compassion and altruism.

Inspired by this principle, many so-called Good Samaritan laws have been enacted around the world to protect those who assist in good faith during an emergency from legal action. The exact scope of that protection, however, varies from one jurisdiction to another: here is what the law applicable to your region provides.

Statute citation

Governing act The Good Samaritan Protection Act, CCSM c G65.
Scope of protection A person who voluntarily provides emergency medical services, aid or advice to the victim of an accident or medical emergency at the immediate scene is not liable in damages unless grossly negligent. Protection extends to members of volunteer organizations (first aid, ski patrol) even where they receive a benefit, outside an employer-employee relationship.
Duty to rescue No
AED liability protection Protected
Statute The Defibrillator Public Access Act, CCSM c D22 mandates public-access AEDs; lay use is covered by the immunity in the Good Samaritan Protection Act (explicit AED protection).
No legal duty to rescue AED protection

Your protection under the law

In Manitoba, the Good Samaritan Protection Act shields anyone who voluntarily provides emergency care, aid or advice to a victim at the immediate scene: no liability for damages can attach, except in cases of gross negligence. Notably, the protection extends to members of volunteer organizations — first aiders, ski patrollers — even where they receive a benefit, so long as they act outside an employer-employee relationship. The province goes further still with the Defibrillator Public Access Act, which mandates public-access AEDs and backs their use with that same immunity.

No duty to act, but every reason to

In Manitoba, no law requires you to step in: rendering aid remains a voluntary act, guided by conscience rather than compulsion. In return, the province has made a clear choice to make that act safe, going so far as to explicitly protect the use of the defibrillators it has made mandatory in public places. The framework is there; all that is missing are hands ready to use it.

Why training matters

If Manitoba has made AEDs mandatory in so many public places, it is because every minute counts: in a cardiac arrest, the chance of survival drops by about 10 percent for each minute without resuscitation. But a defibrillator on the wall is useless without someone able to operate it, and that someone is almost always an ordinary bystander. By training in CPR and AED use, you become the living link that connects the victim to the responders. It is knowledge you do not forget, and one that may one day give a family back one of their own.