NDP Draw Up Draft Terms of Reference for Public Inquiry
NDP leader Adrian Dix and Labour Critic Harry Bains continue to call for public inquiry into Babine Forest Products disaster – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C.- NDP leader Adrian Dix and New Democrat Labour Critic Harry Bains are not giving up on their call for an independent inquiry into the fatal explosion at the Babine Forest Products sawmill of January 2012.
“We met with family and injured workers last night in Burns Lake” says Dix “We presented to them a proposed terms of reference for such an inquiry.” That session lasted about four hours.
Dix says he hopes to publicly release the proposed terms of reference by the end of this week once it has been vetted by lawyers as to the scope of those terms of reference to ensure they meet “all the legal tests required.”
Dix says there is growing support throughout the province for an inquiry into the explosion and why the investigation was botched. An inquest will be held, likely this fall, but Dix says that inquest will not provide all the answers the families are seeking. “An inquest is profoundly limited in its scope” says Dix who says he has attended a number of inquests into the deaths of workers and not all the evidence is presented. “I am very much in favour of the inquest process, but it will not deliver either the answers or the analysis that a full public inquiry will bring to bear.”
There is an amendment to the Criminal Code in Canada, which reads:
"217.1 Every one who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task."
That amendment is referred to as the “Westray law” , a law which was developed in the wake of the 1992 Westray mine disaster in which 26 miners died when that Nova Scotia coal mine was ripped apart by a methane gas explosion. Dix says since the Westray law came into effect ( in 2003) “Nobody, not a single company has been prosecuted, or company official has been prosecuted under that law in British Columbia. We are talking about work place related deaths in the thousands, and no one has been prosecuted. What that tells us is that the system is not working to bring accountability.”
He says the powers of a public inquiry are needed to get to the truth and to see that this kind of disaster does not happen again in British Columbia.
Comments
I fully support a public inquiry into the Babine incident, however I would not want to see Mr.Dix involved in any way shape or form. This man falsified government documents in the past, so the trust factor with his involvement is minimal. These folks need answers but they need them from a trustworthy source. Mr. Dix is again show boating and just doesn’t get the message (time to go).
I would recommend a class action suite against WorkSafe BC and the Mill owners, this would get the results, and answers the families are after.
There should be an “independent” public inquiry into both the BFP and Lakeland sawmill explosions. I say “independent” because I don’t trust this government!
This inquiry should be the hearing commission type designed to undertake investigations into matters in the public interest and may make findings of misconduct.
Hearing commissioners are authorized to hold hearings, receive submissions and hear evidence under oath or affirmation, and they can compel testimony and the production of information.
Time to find and expose the “TRUTH” and “FACTS” behind these tragedies!!!
“Time to find and expose the “TRUTH” and “FACTS” behind these tragedies!!!”
Truth
Too much dust in a confined area!
Fact
Ignition source with the right conditions will cause the dust to explode!
That pretty much sums it up people#1
Now if you are looking to blame someone or group good luck with that. Even if they did blame the company or worksafe or some piece of equipment or someone sparking a torch or a welder at break time no criminal charges will be laid.
So then where should everyone’s attention be focused then?
Now that 2 have blown up there is no excuse having a dirty mill period! Worksafe, plant owners and the workers on the floor should make damn sure that this never happens again. Worksafe should be able to walk into any plant unannounced and find everything in order. Safety starts now don’t wait for some useless public inquiry to take action.
Right on the money, NoWay.
NoWay, your right on the money.
Yes it is a tragedy that this happened. However, taking people thru this inquiry is not going to bring back the dead workers. It is not going to heal the injured workers, all it is going to do is run management thru the ringers again, causing mental anguish for those, and may result in a mental breakdown in few. For what purpose, Only purpose I see is for the pursuer to get air time, and for their own selfish political angles.
It is a absolute tragedy that this happened and we have learned from it. beatle kill timber causes too much dust, and worksafe BC and management needs to be a lot more diligent about keeping it clean. If it means shutting down an operation, it means shutting down the mill until it passes. Simple.
So to Mr. Dix, can you just stay out of the limelight, your political career is dead, so let us heal from our wounds and carry on with our lives, instead of you opening up coffins.
My turn..
In addition to the above comments a combined average of 150 workers per year are directly killed or die of occupational related desiese or illness..Having said that, why is the NDP so bent on these two incidents when there is equal issues in other industries.. I would like to think that they are doing this for the overall well being of workers in the province but they are using this as a political bargaining chip..(which is down right disgusting..)
People#1 would not even be discussing this if the NDP wasnt digging their slimy fingers into this.
They think its going to make the Liberals look bad, so it may help them in the next elections. Also they are a tad late on the public inquirey.
The WorkSafeBC investigation was botched, important evidence gathered was not admissible in the criminal hearings because of the improper manner in which that evidence was collected.
WorkSafeBC investigators did not inform the victims and witnesses of their rights, therefore their interviews and testimony could not be admitted. Evidence collected at the scene of the explosion was not admissible because subpoenas were not obtained by the WorkSafeBC investigators.
The victims, their families, and the public have a right to see and hear that inadmissible evidence, the truth must come out, and an independent public inquiry is the best venue for that to take place.
NoWay, couldn’t agree more, but I’m sure that you have heard the saying “round and round and round we go, where it stops, nobody knows”.
I told you guys. The worksafe investigation was botched by two investigators named Basi and Virk.
“Jobs Minister Shirley Bond will sit down on Monday with top executives from the forest industry to confront them about a dismal new report on sawmill safety.”
“Two years after a pair of deadly sawmill explosions in central B.C., WorkSafeBC inspectors checked every mill in the province for dangerous accumulations of sawdust. Two out of every five mills failed the test.” ~ The Globe and Mail, March 10, 2014.
Wow, 4 workers killed, and over 40 workers injured, and 2 years later these sawmill owners and executives still don’t get it!!!
These sort of things take time.
How could two out of five mills NOT fail the test when WorksafeBC is on a politically ordered witch hunt to find dust even in areas where ALL five requirements for a dust explosion listed in their own ‘dust explosion pentagon’ don’t apply?
In any case, where they have now ordered further attention be paid to those areas, that’s what will happen before those mills can legally operate again.
http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/the-honourable-christy-clark-call-for-an-independent-inquiry-into-fatal-babine-forest-products-sawmill-explosion
What is the public enquiry going to prove again? You are hoping that the enquiry will end with a list of recommendations so something like this can never happen again? All good and fine if those recommendations are followed.
Any fuel refineries blow up lately? Maybe all sawmills should be built or upgraded to refinery standards! Oh but explosion proof equipment is expensive!
It is important that a public inquiry happen because of the combined failure of Worksafe and the ministry of Justice. I personally don’t like to see the NDP and mr. Dix’s in volvement as they are making this into a political ball. But the Premier and her staff should wake up and see that this has become a bonus for the opposition and will be used in the next election. I don’t care what spin she puts on it but she should wake up to the truth and seek the truth.
I have a personal interest in one of the two explosions and am not some one who enjoys blathering for the sake of blathering! I.m speaking as a father and one concerned for the families of the 4 dead and the over 40 burned just because they went to work.
While we can have great empathy for the families of the four killed in this tragedy and also the others injured, and do, what real good would a public inquiry do?
As NoWay says, “Maybe all sawmills should be built or upgraded to refinery standards. Oh but explosion proof equipment is expensive.”
And it is. And in spite of it being mandated for use in refineries there are still refinery explosions. And people who work in them still get killed or injured when they blow up. Accidents still do happen.
And while we seek to know the reason why, and do what can ‘reasonably’ be done to prevent their repetition, society has been all too quick to forget that even ‘reasonably’ has a cost, albeit miniscule when compared to the cost of a human life, or suffering, but nevertheless one that must be paid.
Is society prepared to pay it? CAN society pay it ~ does it have enough ‘money’ to do it? Or does it imagine that the ‘owners’ of sawmills and refineries and all other workplaces have a never ending source of the same ‘money’ which society says it’s always so sorely short of itself?
Will such a question be dealt with at a public inquiry? Or will it merely be another attempt to put the blame for this unfortunate tragedy on some “Company” and its owners and managers, and portray all as being callous and profit hungry to the exclusion of workplace safety?
And what if they are found to be at fault? What if their guilt was the result of trying to obtain a positive enough of a financial result that they could remain ‘credit worthy’ enough with their bankers to continue to operate and employ anyone?
Would the workers be able to survive ‘financially’ if the mill had been doing all the things all mills are now mandated to do in regards to mitigating dust accumulations, found that the costs of doing so put them in the red, and had to close until the prices for their product rose high enough to again cover those costs? Society is great at affixing blame on some individuals that make it up ~ that’s the easy part. But is it ever willing to, or currently even able to, pony up to paying to correct the problems it wants corrected? And if not, why not? But don’t expect any public inquiry to deal with issues like that.
Like I said, I don’t blather because I like to blather as obviously some do. We have close to 50 immediate families that want questions answered. So far the only thing that has happened – 2 years later- is that Worksafe BC has been told to clean up their act.
Here is something that needs reposting.
The response to the petition regarding the Babine Forest Products mill explosion in 2012 has been absolutely great. But the petition needs more signatures. If you who read this have been a bit reluctant to sign or mean to but just “haven’t got around to it”, please think what it was like for those people who said “see you later” as their, husband, son, Dad went off to work that day. The “see you later” was either to see their bodies a few hours later or their horrible pain as they died from the effects of just doing their job and for other family members, never to see their loved one again. Think of those men and families who survived but now have to live with the scars and anguish of what has happened to their lives because they just went to work that day.
Think how these families and loved ones have waited and are still waiting for some kind of justice, for answers, for responsibility defined but all they hear is clean up your act and do a better job next time.
Put your self into the picture, suppose it was you, your husband your wife or your son or your daughter who said see you later and went off to do their job and were killed or maimed because they did.
Please support these families, please sign this petition and maybe the slogan “families first” may have a better ring to it.
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