In Sydney v. Slaney (1919), 1919 CanLII 90 (SCC), 59 S.C.R. 232, 50 D.L.R. 351, the statute of incorporation of a city provided that the city council “shall keep in repair” certain streets. The plaintiff fell on a sidewalk made slippery by ice. Duff J. (as he then was) at p. 235 said: “It has repeatedly been decided that natural accumulations of snow and ice on a highway may amount to disrepair within the meaning of statutes requiring municipalities to keep highways in repair; and counsel for the appellant did not deny that these decisions may legitimately be appealed to as a guide for the construction and application of the statute now before us. There can, I think, be little doubt that the accumulation of ice and snow which occasioned the respondent’s injury constituted a serious danger to pedestrians, though proceeding with ordinary care, a condition which amounts to disrepair within the contemplation of the statute.”
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