Controversial neknominations drinking game makes its way to Canada

WATCH ABOVE: An online drinking game that encourages others to do something daring has taken the internet by storm has reached Montreal. But as Rachel Lau reports, the recent deaths of four youths have cast a shadow on neknomination.

MONTREAL – When Ivan Fischer got nominated to do a neknomination he thought “hey, why not?”

“You pick what you’re going to drink, where you’re going to do it and actually that’s sort of taken over as the premise of the video from what I’ve seen,” he said.

“It’s not the actual drinking on camera but the creative back drop.”

Neknominations is a drinking game. It started in Australia and has since spread across the globe.

The word “nek” is slang for chugging – or as the Australians define it, drinking yourself into a stupor, preferably in an entertaining way.

“Having worked in a bar, in different bars for a long time, I have seen a lot of stupid things happen,” said Emily Skahan, a bartender at Le Bull Pub on Sainte-Catherine.

She’s since been pulled in as a sort of “facilitator” to neknominations.

“She introduced herself to a man that she didn’t know at the bar,” Skahan recalls. “She put a bunch of salt on his face and then licked the salt off his face and took a shot of tequila.”

The rules in the game are simple. After a friend nominates you, you have 24 hours to out-drink the other gamers and post it to the internet. Then it’s your turn to nominate someone.

“Well it’s not a game,” said André Costopoulos, the Dean of Students at McGill University. “That’s the problem. It’s dangerous so it’s not a game. Alcohol is not a game.”

Neknominations are causing a stir among school administrators who are worried about how far students may go to outdo the competition.

“Our residence staff and our director of residences, the individual hall directors and the floor fellows have all been very involved in the reaction to this and mentoring our students,” said Costopoulos.

The controversial game has already been linked to four deaths in the UK and Ireland. One hostel worker died after apparently being dared to drink something “messed up.”

“If you’re downing a forty-ouncer then what happens is that essentially it all pools inside your abdomen,” said Pierre-Paul Tellier, the Director of Student Health at McGill University. “Then it shoots up into your brain and it starts switching off part of your brain that are working.”

Students may think of neknominations as “just a fun game,” but even Fischer admits there have to be limits.

“It wouldn’t be good to have this game sort of promote overdoing it or promote the next person or sort of intimidate the person you’re nominating it,” he said. “It should be a friendly thing. No one should ever be expected to do this.”

These limits mean not breaking the law or injuring someone in the name of outdoing friends at this online drinking game.