The Westray Bill 
The Westray Bill, now Section 217.12 of the Criminal Code,
was passed by the House of Commons in 2003 and came into effect in
2004. The legislation was the culmination of over ten years of work by
workers and their organizations for legislation to hold employers
criminally responsible for injuries and deaths of workers due to their
actions or inactions. On May 9, 1992, all
twenty-six miners working in the Westray coal mine in Nova Scotia were
killed when methane gas ignited, causing an explosion. Workers, union
officials and government inspectors had all raised serious safety
concerns before the tragedy, all of which the company had refused to
act on. The explosion occurred eight
months after the mine opened. The Province of Nova Scotia initiated a
public inquiry within a week of the tragedy but its work and report
were only completed following the conclusion of criminal trials of
company officials, trials which resulted in no convictions. The
Report of the Westray Mine Public Inquiry was issued in November 1997,
entitled "The Westray Story: A Predictable Path to Disaster." The
executive summary states "The tale that unfolds in the ensuing
narrative is the Westray Story. It is a story of incompetence, of
mismanagement, of bureaucratic bungling, of deceit, of ruthlessness, of
cover-up, of apathy, of expediency, and of cynical indifference." The
Inquiry concluded that the company refused to uphold its legal and
ethical responsibilities for the safety of the miners, and was
permitted to do so by an indifferent provincial Department of Labour
which permitted Westray to operate with impunity. After a concerted
campaign
by unions and others, Bill C-45, known as the Westray Bill, was finally
passed. Bill C-45 amended the Criminal Code to add
Section 217.1 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." The
legislation also
added Sections 22.1 and 22.2 to the Criminal Code imposing criminal
liability on organizations and their representatives for negligence and
other offences.
Since the Westray Bill was passed, there have
been very few charges and even fewer convictions. In
both the Cargill and CP rail disasters (the February 2019 derailment of
a runaway CP train near Field, BC in which three workers were killed),
it is the families and the workers who are demanding an investigation.
There is no evidence or indication that either the police or crown have
taken any measures to carry out their responsibilities
under section 217.12.
This article was published in
Number 2 - February 4, 2021
Article Link:
The Westray Bill
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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