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Vol. 81/No. 46 December 11, 2017
Gov’t presses frame-up of rail workers in Canada
BY JOHN STEELE
SHERBROOKE, Quebec — Stephen Callaghan, a self-styled rail safety expert
and the prosecution’s star witness, took the stand Nov. 21 in the
Canadian government and rail bosses’ frame-up against locomotive
engineer Tom Harding. Harding is charged with 47 counts of criminal
negligence causing death flowing from the July 2013 oil train derailment
and explosion that killed 47 people and burned out Lac-Mégantic’s
downtown core.
On trial with Harding, a member of United Steelworkers Local 1976, is
train controller Richard Labrie, a fellow union member, as well as
former low-level Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway operations manager
Jean Demaitre. If declared guilty they could face life in prison.
Callaghan is a former inspector for the federal Transportation Safety
Board. He also was a supervisor for the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador
Railway, where he helped implement, for the first time in Canada,
one-person “crew” operations. The only other railroad to get
dispensation from the government to do so was Montreal, Maine and Atlantic.
Following the Lac-Mégantic disaster, Callaghan was hired by the Quebec
provincial cops to investigate. The charges against Harding, Labrie and
Demaitre were based on his report.
Accompanied by charts, graphs and photographs, Callaghan told the jury
that the disaster was caused by Harding’s failure to activate a
sufficient number of handbrakes before he left the train unattended.
Harding had driven the 72-car oil tanker train and parked on the main
line in Nantes, as was the normal procedure on a grade above
Lac-Mégantic. As he had done many times before, he set a number of hand
brakes — he said he set seven that evening — and left the lead
locomotive running with its independent air brakes on, confident the
combination meant the train was well secured.
While Harding slept, a fire broke out in the stack of the lead engine.
Volunteer firefighters turned off the locomotive to douse the flames.
They left when a Montreal, Maine and Atlantic official on the scene told
them that everything was in order. Harding, who was called about the
fire, volunteered to come back and make sure everything was OK. He was
told that was not necessary and he should go back to sleep. With the
locomotive engine shut down, its air brakes bled out, and the train
rolled down the hill into Lac-Mégantic, derailed and exploded.
Wakened by the explosion, Harding risked his life to help firefighters
detach and move a number of tanker cars before they could explode. Many
in Lac-Mégantic consider Harding a hero and are convinced that the top
bosses of now defunct Montreal, Maine and Atlantic should have been
charged — along with high officials of Ottawa’s agency Transport Canada,
who had OK’d one-person operation and the erosion of safety on the rail
line to boost company profits.
Evolution of the frame-up
Immediately after the disaster Montreal, Maine and Atlantic top boss Ed
Burkhardt said Harding had done everything properly. Another company
official called him a hero and described him as a “very conscientious
person.” But a few days later the frame-up began, and Burkhardt accused
Harding of not setting enough hand brakes.
In May 2014, guided by Callaghan’s investigative “report,” which left
Burkhardt and the rest of the rail bosses free of blame, the Quebec
police tactical squad, with guns drawn, descended on Harding’s home in
Farnham, arrested him and paraded him in handcuffs into the court in
Lac-Mégantic.
But the Transportation Safety Board’s own independent report concluded
that no single person caused the tragedy and that some 18 different
factors, including Montreal, Maine and Atlantic safety negligence,
contributed to what happened. Rail bosses attacked the report —
including then Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrison, who insisted the
Transportation Safety Board “overreacted” and that Harding alone was
responsible.
Under cross-examination by Thomas Walsh, Harding’s lawyer, Callaghan was
forced to admit that the use of air brakes to back up hand brakes is a
normal and widespread practice by locomotive engineers.
When presiding Quebec Superior Court Judge Gaétan Dumas asked Callaghan
if he knew what caused the fire in the lead locomotive, the “expert”
said he didn’t know. But the Transportation Safety Board report said
explicitly that the locomotive caught fire because of substandard rail
company repairs.
A number of people from Lac-Mégantic have come to sit in on the trial,
including leaders of the Citizens’ Coalition for Rail Safety. “The
Transportation Safety Board report shows that Harding was not
responsible for what happened,” Robert Bellefleur, the spokesperson for
the coalition who was at Callaghan’s testimony, told the Militant.
“There is still a lot of suffering in Lac-Mégantic, and those
responsible are not in court.”
The Transportation Safety Board report is the elephant in the courtroom,
because it cannot be referred to in front of the jury. In a pretrial
hearing, Judge Dumas rejected without explanation a motion requesting
the report be submitted as evidence for the defense, and denied the
defense the right to subpoena safety board investigators.
The trial will continue into January 2018. “As the trial unfolds, we
will bring more of the truth to light so the jury has a chance to assess
the big picture,” Walsh told the Militant.
Messages in support of Harding and Labrie should be sent to USW Local
1976/Section locale 1976, 2360 De Lasalle, Suite 202, Montreal, QC
Canada H1V 2L1. Copies should be sent to Thomas Walsh, 165 Rue
Wellington N., Suite 310, Sherbrooke, QC Canada J1H 5B9. Email:
thomaspwalsh@xxxxxxxxxxx.
Marie-Claire David and Michel Prairie contributed to this article.
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