Of course it won’t uncover the real facts.. This is a inquest to set the owners free. Has nothing to do with future workers safety. It’s all about laying the blame anywhere else but where it should be..on the owners..

So convenient that work safe makes huge mistakes in their investigation.. Then the coroner screws up.. Perfect set up to remove blame .

While the union is busy pointing fingers in all directions they should also have a look in the mirror and answer a few questions such as:

The union has a Health and Safety Officer who according to their website worked in the forest industry since 1983. What did he do to help protect members of 1-424 following the Babine explosion?

What did the union executive do about Joint Safety committee meetings at Lakeland being cancelled because too few union members even bothered to show up? These are elected positions among the union and there is an obligation that if a member cannot attend then an alternate should attend in their place.

Did the fact that the local union president moonlights on city council have any effect on the union taking it’s eye off the ball and not doing all it could to protect the membership of 1-424. Even though most council meetings take place in the evenings there is prep work and out of town meetings and conferences that can mean he might be away for day job for up to a week at a time.

I believe a copy of the minutes from Lakeland safety meetings, both the joint committee and shift, are sent to the union. Were they reviewed by Union Health and Safety officer and followed up on to assure concerns were addressed? If not why?

sparrow, I agree!

Many are pointing fingers at the company and the Government and rightly so! But at the same time, the Union had a part to play in this!

Does the Union not have the power to withdraw workers if the workplace in unfit/unsafe? If the Union has or had the ability to do this, why did they not exercise this option?

I can understand an individual worker choosing to continue to work in unfit or unsafe conditions due to economic necessity or fear of reprimand or reprisal for refusing to work!

But isn’t this the part where the Union steps in on behalf of it’s members. Does the Union not accept responsibility for it’s inaction on behalf of the membership?

There are many fingers to be pointed in this tragic mess and it seems that some would rather not spread the pointing of fingers around!

No one knew. It’s easy to push blame around after a tragedy. Two tragedies. Know one knew even you arm chair critics. Regardless of Babine. No one knew or knows about Babine either. True? Odd to me that two mills go in a matter of months. Dry wood dust has been in process for over a decade. And well before that in other industries.

I would suggest to you that since there is NOT going to be a public lynching of the owners / executives of the company that the union is now making a show of withdrawing from the proceedings in order to Placate those among it’s members that are stupid enough not to see through union’s smoke screen!
I’m sure the fact that the company decided to waive privilege regarding their own forensic investigation took the wind right out of the union’s sales! Can you imagine how the union’s council would have been howling if the company had refused to waive?
Now here is my own theory of what happened in both cases.
1) Lakeland sits on an old landfill site. I used to go there with my Grandfather, and it is known that there is always Methane leaching to the surface. I would bet that the night of the explosion there was a higher than normal concentration of methane in the basement of the mill, a spark lit the saw dust, and triggered an explosion of methane and fine wood dust!
2) In the days prior to the Babine explosion several employees had complained of a GAS odour in the lower are of the mill, again at the mill site they have discovered the presence of methane in the ground. Could this be why the 2 mills in question had catastrophic explosions and other mills around the province have not had anything even remotely close to a similar occurrence?

The point of an inquest is not to lay blame but to establish some guidelines to prevent something like this from happening again. Problem is, everyone including the union is still trying to use this as a blame exercise.

The mill hasn’t “held back crucial evidence”, complete hogwash and grandstanding. The mill has no more info than all the countless other agencies involved. Did the union not do an investigation? Did the Coroner not do an investigation? The RCMP is not rely on an internal employers investigation to perform its work, it wouldn’t make any investigation they did flawed because they didn’t see the company investigation report. Next they will be asking on PVal to turn over all his documentation on the event.

Somehow the insinuation is the company uncovered something in their investigation of the incident that neither the WCB, Coroner, RCMP or any other agency uncovered and is somehow trying to cover it up.

I agree a public inquiry should be called for, why would anyone not want this, only if their concerned of the whole truth of the matter being brought forward with possible blame to attach.

This was a horrible tragedy coming on the heels of another horrible tragedy.

What is the point of a public inquiry and rehashing again everything we now know that we did not know before.

Worksafe pays workers and families for injuries and deaths that occur on the job without the necessity of endless litigation.

Just because you smell a little methane does not means it will burn or explode. The concentration of methane in air must be between 5% and 15%. Any amount under 5% or over 15% and it will not burn. These values are called the LEL and UEL. Lower explosive limit and upper explosive limit.

I was in the vicinity of worker’s, in Port Alberni who were overcome by methane, there was no odour or smell, methane gas is odorless.

Resident and Nytehawk..

Sorry to blow your credibility to pecies..You cant smell methane which is why you have to test for it therefore without a gas detector you wouldn’t know the concentration or if in fact even methane is present. As well depending on the source of ignition and other gases/oxidizers or combustibles in the atmosphere methane can ignite under the LEL.

Gases you can smell providing you aren’t in an atmosphere that exceeds the TLV.. Sulphur Dioxide (So2) & Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S)both these gasses are common in old landfills and anywhere there is the breakdown of organic matter.