Babine Inquest Set to Start
Burns Lake, B.C. – The inquest into the deaths of Robert Luggi Jr. and Carl Charlie will get underway this morning in Burns Lake.
The two men died as a result of the explosion at the Babine Forest Products sawmill in January of 2012, just three months later, a similar blast would rip apart the Lakeland Mills sawmill in Prince George and another two men would lose their lives.The inquest has been scheduled for two weeks and Coroner Chico Newell will be presiding. More than 40 witnesses are scheduled to testify.
A jury will have three tasks. First, it must determine the date, time, location and medical cause of death. Secondly, it will have to classify the death as either accidental, natural causes, homicide, suicide or undetermined. The third task has the jury making recommendations aimed at preventing similar tragedies.
The recommendations may be the most difficult part of the jury’s job. The jury for the Lakeland Mills case , returned 33 recommendations in mid May at the conclusion of the inquest into the deaths of Glenn Roche and Allan Little.
Initially, the Babine inquest was to be held in conjunction with the Lakeland probe as many of the same witnesses will be taking the stand. Chief Coroner Lisa LaPointe changed that decision after considering further information and presentations from the families, survivors , inquest participants and the community.
The inquest is taking place at eh Island Gospel Fellowship Hall.
Comments
Testimony from the families? Is it to allow them a place to vent or do they have some material of relevance? Unless it is a diary they are presenting everything else would be innuendo to the three tasks at hand. The first is simple and already known, second is guided by the evidence, third is the same as Lakeland with the addition of stopping work immediately if anyone smells gas.
Slinky, the only place the families are mentioned in the article is as one of the sources of pressure to hold separate inquests for the two incidents. It doesn’t say anything about the families testifying at the inquest.
Great big waste of tax dollars , were we go again…..tired of this..
Billposer, check again, families testified at the Lakeland inquest why would Babine be any different?
The families of the two fatalities are also raising money to hire a lawyer for the inquest as families are allowed to question witnesses at an inquest. They are not provided a lawyer as an inquest does not lay blame but rather looks at what happened and provides recommendations to prevent it from happening again, or at least reducing the chances.
@gfw; if it’s not your family members dead or injured… who cares right? Bet the family and friends of Allan Little, Glenn Roche, Robert Luggi Jr. and Carl Charlie, and the over 40 injured sawmill workers, are not appreciating your pathetic opinion and comment.
Doesn’t seem to matter if 1,200 women in Canada go murdered or missing, doesn’t seem to matter if people in other countries are accusing “some” Canadian Mining Companies of murder, torture, and gang rape, and it doesn’t seem to matter if Sawmills are purported to operate in such a reckless and unsafe manner that they produce BLAST dead and injured workers.
Everything that is human and decent seems to be absent from your heartless comment gfw, and probably from your character as well. Speaking of a lack of humanity and decency, bring on the comments that these sawmill explosions were the fault of the victims, because victim blaming seems to be popular on this site as well.
Nothing of any substance will come from this “inquest”. A prosecutor has already stated that there will be no charges laid. My opinion, the outcome will be basically the same as the Lake land inquest. My sympathies to the families left behind and those injured.
Wow, the sophic sage sure reads a lot into a single comment.
A little unfair, I think.
This site is a forum for opinions, not everyone will have the same one of those as the next person.
Attacking another because you disagree with their comment is unproductive (in my opinion!)
The families of those affected by the tragedy at Babine F.P. deserve to be involved, same as those involved with the same tragedy at Lakeland, but I think that both inquests could have been conducted simultaneously.
metalman.
“A little Unfair” in my opinion is having four workers dead and 42 injured, with ON ONE being held responsible or accountable. “A little Unfair” is having WorkSafe BS botching not one, but two investigations in a row.
There are a lot of things “unfair” about these tragic sawmill explosions, and the circumstances surrounding them, metalman, and my comments are certainly not among them!
WTH? that should read; … with “NO ONE” being held responsible and accountable. This part of my comment was worth repeating anyway!!!
Sophic Sage I think gwf was trying to say in his own way what you have stated to, I also feel that most of us here are unanimous on the same thought as yours.
Maybe not unfair Sophic but certainly biased. If you are going to hold people’s feet to the fire it should be everyone who held a stake in these tragedies. WorkSafe, the employers, the union. All were complicit & all hold a share of the blame. Unfortunately the whole truth will probably never be known as the CYA factor kicked into high gear once the shock & mourning subsided.
You guys sound like you have the tree and the rope picked out. Probably your neighbor hangs. Everyone tries hard at work. Did you today?
Slinky, what I said was accurate. This article says nothing about testimony by the families. If you know that the families testified at the Lakeland inquest, then you should know what the relevance of that testimony was.
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