Good Samaritan law

First Aid & CPR Northwest Territories

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 Emergency Medical Aid Act, RSNWT 1988, c E-4.
Scope of protection No liability for damages resulting from acts or omissions of a person who, voluntarily and without expectation of compensation, provides emergency medical services or first aid at the immediate scene of an accident or emergency, unless there is gross negligence. Covers both health professionals and laypersons.
Duty to rescue No
AED liability protection Protected
Statute No dedicated defibrillator statute; lay AED use falls under the general immunity of the Emergency Medical Aid Act.
No legal duty to rescue AED protection

Your protection under the law

In the Northwest Territories, the Emergency Medical Aid Act rules out any liability for damages arising from the acts or omissions of a person who, voluntarily and without expectation of payment, provides emergency medical services or first aid at the immediate scene of an accident. The only limit is gross negligence. The Act covers both health professionals and laypersons, and its good-faith immunity extends to the use of a defibrillator.

No duty to act, but every reason to

In the Northwest Territories, the law imposes no duty to render aid: helping is a choice, guided by solidarity rather than compulsion. What the territory guarantees is that this choice, made in good faith, will not be turned against you, right down to the use of an AED. All that remains is knowing how to act — and that can be learned.

Why training matters

In a territory as vast and sparsely populated as the Northwest Territories, help can take long minutes to arrive, and longer still in remote communities. Yet in a cardiac arrest, the chance of survival falls by about 10 percent with each minute without resuscitation. Here more than anywhere, the first link in the chain of survival is not the paramedic but the neighbour, the colleague, the loved one who happens to be there. Training in CPR and AED use brings a measure of safety to a place where distance makes it scarce.