Demands for Action in Defence of Rail Workers' Safety
Investigation Launched into 2019 Derailment
February 4 marked the second anniversary of the tragic deaths of three
CP rail workers in a derailment near Field, BC. Conductor Dylan
Paradis, engineer Andrew Dockrell and trainee Daniel
Waldenberger-Bulmer died when CP Train 301 derailed near Field, British
Columbia and plunged into the Kicking Horse River. On the anniversary
Lyndon Isaak, President of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, issued
a commemorative statement which read, in part, "With the anticipated
release of the Transportation Safety Board's investigation expected in
the coming months and the RCMP investigation underway we are hopeful we
will have some answers to many of the outstanding
questions surrounding this tragic event. We are committed to fighting
for improvements to rail safety and ending these senseless tragedies
that have plagued the rail industry over the recent years."
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, working with Niki Ashton, NDP
MP for Churchill -- Keewatinook Aski, and the families of the three
workers, had organized an e-petition to Parliament and video appeals to
Prime Minister Trudeau. The petition stated "The CP investigation has
led to deeply concerning allegations and a call for an
independent criminal investigation; The handling of the investigation
has raised major concerns about the ongoing role of the railway police
forces; The government of Canada through the department of Transport
and the department of Public Safety have failed to ask the RCMP to
launch a full and independent investigation on the accident; and
The safety of rail workers, who are essential workers, is at stake and
the families of those who perished deserve answers." Petitioners called upon
the government to "launch a full and independent criminal investigation
into the deadly derailment of CP train 301."
The CBC reports that the RCMP's major crimes unit in British
Columbia has now opened a criminal investigation into the derailment. A
spokesperson for the RCMP is quoted as saying that the BC
prosecutor's office agreed that "potentially there could be some
criminality here and that it warranted further investigation."
The two main rail monopolies in Canada, Canadian National (CN) and
Canadian Pacific (CP) each have their own private police forces. The CP
Police conducted an initial investigation which was ended only a month
after the tragedy. The investigation only looked at the actions of the
crew in the period before the derailment. It did not look at any of the
policies and actions of the company. One of the officers involved in
the investigation, who subsequently quit and is now an RCMP officer in
Golden, BC, told the CBC's Fifth Estate that the investigation was
hampered by CP which failed to provide investigators with information
they needed. A separate Transportation Safety Board investigation is
yet to be completed. On its website, the Transportation Safety Board of
Canada lists investigation R19C0015 into the Field derailment, last
updated February 1, 2021, with the notification that "The investigation
is in the report phase, the final phase of a TSB investigation. The
draft report will be circulated to designated reviewers on a
confidential basis for comment. For more information, please refer to
the TSB investigation process." No date is given for when the report is
to be released. In any event the TSB has no power to lay charges but
can only publish findings and make recommendations.
 Rail workers work in dangerous conditions. The need for adequate
rest and training, for the implementation of rigorous safety procedures
and for safety standards related to crew size, transportation of
hazardous goods, and matters such as the length of trains on mountain
passes, modifying or halting operations in extreme weather situations,
are
of utmost concern. In 2019 the workers waged an eight-day strike over
safety conditions which resulted in some improvements but conditions
remain far from satisfactory. The TSB, in its annual 2019 report on
"rail transportation occurrences," states that 72 people, five of them
employees, were "rail fatalities" that year, "up from 57 reported last
year and approximately the same as the previous 10-year average of 73."
In 2019, besides the increase in fatalities, in comparison to the
average in the years 2009-2108, there was a 17 per cent increase in rail
accidents, a 42 per cent increase in the number of main-track accidents per
million main-track train miles, an increase in the number of accidents
that
involved dangerous goods, and the number of accidents resulting in
release of dangerous goods was eight, double the ten-year average of
four.
The use of a company police force to investigate, and the
self-regulation of the industry by the companies without public
oversight, has resulted in tragedies like the Lac Megantic disaster in
2013 and many other preventable incidents. Railway companies and the
federal government must be forced to account for and take
responsibility for the
safety of railway workers and everyone who lives in the communities
through which the trains pass.
This article was published in
Number 3 - February 8, 2021
Article Link:
Demands for Action in Defence of Rail Workers' Safety: Investigation Launched into 2019 Derailment
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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