Wet’suwet’en Committed To Finding Closure For Burns Lake
Prince George, BC – The Chief of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation says she's disappointed in the Premier's decision not to call for a public inquiry into WorksafeBC's handling of the investigation into the fatal explosion at Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake, but Karen Ogen remains committed to finding closure for the community.
Last month, Crown Counsel announced no charges would be filed against the mill owner due to the inadmissability of some evidence gathered by WorksafeBC investigators. In releasing the findings and recommendations of her Deputy Minister's review of the botched investigation on Thursday, Christy Clark said the Province received a legal opinon that an inquiry was highly unlikely to result in criminal charges. Clark says, instead, her government will focus on what can be done – finding what went wrong at WorksafeBC and fixing it. (click here, for previous story)
The blast on January 20, 2012 killed 45-year-old Robert Luggi Jr and 42-year-old Carl Charlie, and injured 20 others.
"My focus, as Chief, is on the many community members and others that are still dealing with the physical and psychological trauma of the explosion," says Karen Ogen. "There are lots of discussions going on regarding other options to ensure those responsible are held to account."
Ogen met with Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, John Rustad, yesterday. "(I) took the opportunity to propose a government/industry-sponsored community healing project led by an independent and well-respected First Nations person," says Ogen. "This would enable us to better understand the ongoing impacts to community members and develop recommendations on how to heal the community. The Minister thought it was a good proposal worthy of consideration and I am hopeful that Premier Clark will agree."
Comments
Does that mean none of the families will be compensated because they found no one liable???
Interesting, the WorkSafeBC investigation (if you can call it that)report states that the saw mill explosion was “preventable”. Yet the two parties identified as being responsible for preventing the explosion get a free pass.
Only in BC… hey?
Carpenter, the workers will get WCB until they are well enough to return to work. Knowing the WCB system they will send them to a conditioning course and declare them fit for work and cut them off. One needs to exercise their right to appeal WCB rulings and have your own doctor check you out as well as the one hired by WCB. Every worker when injured should take advantage of the workers advisory office.
The families of those who sadly perished do get a lump sum from WCB, but in this case I hope they chose to get advise from a lawyer before accepting any check from WCB as is their right.
Even if the company was prosecuted in the courts that would not affect any sums from WCB, ie. they would not get more compensation if the company went to court.
Peeps, it was totally preventable if Worksafe didn’t drop the ball. Their officers are allowed to shut down an operation the second they set foot in it if they see anything dangerous and life threatening.
There is still a lot of talk about the smell of natural gas that lingered for days before the explosion at Burns Lake
Sorry Peeps forgot my second thought, if Worksafe did not shut them down, and only wrote an order that would mean they did not think it was life threatening but rather a smaller safety issue. To after the fact turn around and say it was a life threatening issue means the Worksafe officer who wrote the order is also partially (if not 100%) responsible for allowing the subsequent shifts to continue without correcting the fault.
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