{"id":24200,"date":"2014-08-29T12:58:04","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T04:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=24200"},"modified":"2014-08-29T12:58:04","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T04:58:04","slug":"lawyers-for-lac-megantic-accused-want-charges-dropped-call-for-public-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/29\/lawyers-for-lac-megantic-accused-want-charges-dropped-call-for-public-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers for Lac Megantic accused want charges dropped, call for public inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Picture<\/a>
Picture taken from a helicopter of Lac-M\u00e9gantic, the day of the derailment. Photo by S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \/ Twitter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL\u2014The union and lawyers representing two railway employees accused in the Lac-Megantic disaster are urging the Crown to drop the charges in light of recent findings by the Transportation Safety Board.<\/p>\n

Engineer Tom Harding, railway traffic controller Richard Labrie and Jean Demaitre, the manager of train operations, each face 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death\u2014one for each victim of last summer\u2019s oil-train derailment in the Quebec town.<\/p>\n

A conviction carries a maximum life sentence.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the attorneys for Harding and Labrie, as well as a union official, called on prosecutors to re-evaluate their cases following the release of last week\u2019s TSB report into the catastrophe. Demaitre was not unionized.<\/p>\n

In its findings, the TSB criticized the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic railway for its \u201cweak safety culture\u201d and also targeted Transport Canada for its poor oversight of the industry, particularly amid a boom in oil-by-rail shipments across the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re asking the Crown to revise the charges against the workers implicated in Megantic,\u201d Daniel Roy, Quebec director of the United Steelworkers, told a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can see who\u2019s really responsible for this event, this whole tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the day, however, a spokesman for the prosecutor\u2019s office said the TSB report does not change anything about the police evidence that was already evaluated by the Crown. Therefore, proceedings are expected to move ahead.<\/p>\n

The TSB report, the first comprehensive account of the derailment released to the public, identified 18 contributing factors it says led to the crash.<\/p>\n

Among the factors, the TSB said Harding applied an insufficient number of hand brakes on the train and conducted an inadequate test before he left the convoy unattended for the night.<\/p>\n

Attorney Thomas Walsh, who represents Harding, said his client\u2019s actions amounted to \u201chuman error,\u201d not \u201cwanton and reckless disregard,\u201d which he added was necessary for a criminal-negligence conviction.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to the TSB\u2019s findings on Transport Canada and the MMA.<\/p>\n

The TSB report concluded that the railway did not thoroughly identify security risks, nor did it have a functioning safety management system\u2014both contributing factors to the crash.<\/p>\n

The company Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Canada, a subsidiary of the now-bankrupt MMA, was charged in the case, but Walsh asked what good could come from accusing a company that can\u2019t be punished.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to pierce the curtain which protects the people who are actually out there neglecting things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Walsh went a step further, calling on authorities to read the TSB report closely and consider pressing charges against corporate and government officials whose decisions may have had a hand in creating systemic deficiencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s responsible for the system? Walsh asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not Thomas Harding. He works in that system.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also suggested that a public inquiry be called to examine the disaster, an inquest he said could help dig deep into all the factors behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the public has interest in finding out what the real causes of the tragedy are and making sure that they\u2019re avoided,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The next court date for the three men has been set for Sept. 11.<\/p>\n

Walsh said the Crown has yet to disclose on what basis they made the accusations against Harding.<\/p>\n

He said he might advise the judge that he intends to present a motion to require the Crown to explain why it charged his client.<\/p>\n

Roy, meanwhile, took particular aim at federal cabinet ministers for their reactions to the TSB document.<\/p>\n

He accused Transport Minister Lisa Raitt, her predecessor Denis Lebel and Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney of either deflecting blame or dismissing the TSB findings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we have a government that\u2019s washing its hands,\u201d Roy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot even the humility, the decency, to accept their responsibility. It\u2019s shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Raitt declined an interview request Thursday, but said the minister would deliver a formal response within 90 days of the release of the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we have always said, and as the TSB report indicates, this is a case where rules were not followed,\u201d Jana Regimbal wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat being said, the report sets out higher expectations of Transport Canada in the area of oversight. The public shares these expectations and so does our government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lebel, who was shuffled from the transport portfolio to infrastructure about a week after the disaster, was not available Thursday to comment on the allegations, his spokesman said.<\/p>\n

Quebec provincial police said recently the investigation remains active, which could lead to more arrests.<\/p>\n

The three accused were arraigned in Lac-Megantic last May. At the time, Walsh said Harding intended to plead not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n

Walsh also said he asked the court for a jury trial in the devastated community.<\/p>\n

Several locals who watched the suspects enter the courtroom said they hoped authorities would eventually lay charges against railway and government officials.<\/p>\n

In releasing her report, TSB chair Wendy Tadros said the underlying causes of the accident go well beyond the number of hand brakes applied and the engineer\u2019s actions that night.<\/p>\n

Before he left the scene, Harding called MMA\u2019s dispatcher to report mechanical problems on the locomotive and thick smoke belching from its exhaust. They agreed he could leave the engine for the night, so he retired to a hotel.<\/p>\n

Later in the night, a fire broke out on the locomotive. Firefighters called to the scene shut down the engine, which allowed engine\u2019s air brakes to slowly disengage.<\/p>\n

An MMA track foreman with no background in locomotives met the firefighters at the scene and, after consulting the rail-traffic controller, they left without restarting the locomotive. Eventually, the train started rolling toward Lac-Megantic, where it derailed and exploded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL\u2014The union and lawyers representing two railway employees accused in the Lac-Megantic disaster are urging the Crown to drop the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":18128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","mauthors-andy-blatchford","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}