Thirty years following disaster, families say justice is still rare
Community recalls 26 ‘preventable’ deaths of miners
NEW GLASGOW, N.S. Family members who lost loved ones in the Westray coal mining disaster in Nova Scotia marked the 30th anniversary Monday at a memorial park, while continuing their calls for more criminal prosecutions of workplace deaths.
Genesta Halloran-Peters says the loss of her husband, John Halloran, had a huge impact on the direction of her life and the lives of their two children.
“My daughter was 11 weeks old and my son was 22 months old at the time,” she said in a recent interview from Antigonish, N.S. “My children were so deprived of John’s wisdom, his love and support. Every special occasion his absence was felt.
“I think it would have been easier to deal with if it wasn’t preventable,” she said. “It was production at all costs; it was pure intimidation (of the workers).”
Halloran was one of 26 miners who died on May 9, 1992, when a methane and coal-dust explosion ripped through the shafts in Plymouth, N.S. Eleven miners’ bodies were never recovered from a shaft, located near the memorial site in New Glasgow, N.S.
Halloran-Peters and Debbie Martin, the sister-in-law of miner Glenn Martin, who died in the blast, said the Criminal Code amendments brought in through Bill C-45 — referred to as the Westray law — should be applied more often. They say more training is required for police officers on how to investigate and provide evidence for potential prosecutions.
The amendments allow for criminal negligence convictions when the Crown can demonstrate that an employer was responsible for directing a worker and also showed “wanton or reckless” disregard for that worker’s safety.
However, Martin said the amendments haven’t resulted in many successful cases since the legislation was adopted in 2004. “It (the Westray law) is not being pushed enough. There’s not enough enforcement. There’s not enough training,” she said in a recent interview.
The United Steelworkers recently published a legal brief saying that to date, there have only been nine convictions or guilty pleas across the country — and no convictions in Nova Scotia.
Steven Bittle, a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa, said a federal government review and redrafting of the Westray law is needed to ensure it achieves its original aims of holding company officers accountable for worker deaths.
“It was promised as something that would fundamentally change corporate criminal liability and would hold people accountable, and by any standards it just hasn’t come close to achieving those goals,” said Bittle, who also is the author of “Still Dying for a Living,” published in 2012.
In most cases where companies were either convicted or pleaded guilty as a result of the Westray amendments, large fines have been imposed, rather than “flesh and blood” executives and owners being held accountable, Bittle said.