Date: March 25, 2015
To: BC Federation of Labour Executive Officers
From: Stephen Hunt, Director, United Steelworkers District 3
Re: Call for a Public Inquiry into Babine Forest Products/Lakeland Mills sawmill explosions
Background:
On January 20, 2012 an explosion at Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake, BC, killed two workers and injured dozens more. Just three months later on April 23, 2012 another explosion at Lakeland Sawmill in Prince George, BC, killed two more workers and left others with life-changing injuries and trauma.
At the time the United Steelworkers, like many others, were first and foremost focused on the injured and deceased workers and their families. We struggled to have our concerns and voice heard by Worksafe BC, and were only successful after directly appealing to then Labour Minister Margaret MacDiarmid and threatening to shutdown BC’s forest industry.
The United Steelworkers and our members, families and communities, were assured Worksafe BC would conduct the most thorough and exhaustive investigations in their history. On November 29, 2012, Worksafe BC disclosed its investigations into both the explosions, Babine and Lakeland Mills were complete, and would be submitted to the Criminal Justice Branch for determination of charges under the Workers Compensation Act. At no time was there any consideration of charges under the Criminal Code, in particular the Westray provisions regarding employer/corporate negligence.
During the 2013 provincial election campaign it was revealed that in January of that year, at the direction of BC Liberal ministers, the BC Safety Authority was ordered to suppress its investigative report into the Babine sawmill explosion notionally to not jeopardize any criminal or Worksafe BC investigations underway.
On January 10, 2014 the Criminal Justice Branch announced it would not be laying any charges against Babine Forest Products, and made a similar pronouncement a short while later regarding charges against Lakeland Mills.
Public outrage compelled Premier Christy Clark to order a review by her Deputy Minister John Dyble. That review ascertained what we in the labour movement have long known; that Worksafe BC needed appropriate inter agency protocols with the Criminal Justice Branch, police services and other investigative agencies. Dyble’s findings led to the later “retirement” of former Worksafe BC CEO David Anderson.
Since the Criminal Justice Branch’s decisions to not lay charges, our union, workers, family members of those killed on the job, the BC NDP, the First Nations Summit and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs have all called for a public inquiry into the circumstances that led to the explosions and the botched investigations that followed.
Coroner’s Inquest
On March 10, 2014, Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe publically announced that she herself would oversee a single inquest into both explosions, saying: “I am confident, in fact, that a Coroner's Inquest is the best venue to address the many concerns and questions raised about how and why the explosion happened and what can be done to prevent a similar event in the future.”
After previously announcing a scheduled date for a joint inquest, on January 27, 2015 Lapointe announced the separation of the inquests, one into the Babine explosion and one into the circumstances surrounding the Lakeland Mills explosion. The Babine inquest is scheduled for July of this year while the Lakeland Inquest began on March 5th.
From the outset we have had strong concerns that the Inquest would be limited in its ability to determine the causes of the explosion and the circumstances leading up to it. At no time have we believed it was ever the venue to determine either the cause of the explosions or how both investigations were so badly botched. Nevertheless we believed it was important to participate and do our utmost to help uncover as much of the truth as possible.
Sadly the inquest has failed to produce the truth. At the outset through our counsel, John Rogers of Victory Square Law Offices, we have endeavoured to ensure a full hearing of facts including the regulatory environment administered by Worksafe BC, was fully canvassed. Despite that the Coroner ruled against our request to subpoena former CEO David Anderson and other senior management.
We have been thwarted in our efforts to ensure the Coroner’s Jury would have the full ability to see all pertinent documents and our counsel the opportunity to cross-examine all appropriate individuals. Instead defensive posturing by both Lakeland’s legal representatives and in particular those representing Worksafe BC have ground the Inquest to a halt.
It’s clear to Steelworkers that Worksafe BC is doing its utmost to avoid any scrutiny of its actions prior to the Lakeland sawmill explosion. In advance of my own testimony to the Inquest last week that was made abundantly clear by Worksafe BC representatives.
Earlier this week, after much consideration and the advice of legal counsel, the United Steelworkers publically shared our lack of confidence in the Inquest and formally withdrew from the process. We cannot and will not lend credence to a process that fundamentally fails to ask and answer the most critical questions required to determine the cause of these explosions and ensure it does not happen again.
While both the employer and Worksafe BC try to somehow claim they are victims because of the light being shone on their actions, we cannot lose sight that workers and family members are the real victims of these tragedies.
Call for public inquiry:
The United Steelworkers are renewing our call for a public inquiry and are asking for our sisters and brothers in the labour movement to join us. Families and injured workers, our members, concerned citizens, have responded passionately, and supportively, to our call for an inquiry and withdrawal from the Inquest process.
To that end the Steelworkers are developing an online and print petition calling on Premier Christy Clark to hold a public inquiry into the circumstances leading to both explosions; that we will be launching early next week.
I am asking for your support by:
Issuing a statement of your support of a public inquiry, and
Your help in distributing our petition and directly engaging your members and asking them to support our call. We may also seek your support for local events/meetings to support this call.
Please advise me if there is a more appropriate person in your organization we should contact to further discuss this.
Finally, while I have grave misgivings about the management and leadership of Worksafe BC, I also want to take this opportunity to ensure that you are all aware that workers at Worksafe BC are represented by the Compensation Employees Union. Throughout all of this it’s abundantly clear that this group of workers does not receive adequate training, support and resources from Worksafe BC management. I want to thank Sandra Wright, President of the CEU and their union for her support of our union and our members, and their steadfast support for a public inquiry.
As a former member, and the then sole labour representative, on the Board of Directors of Worksafe BC I’m all too aware of the agency’s focus, not on worker safety but employers’ premiums. We must change that.
Thank you in advance for your consideration. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.
In solidarity,
Stephen Hunt
Director
SH/JU/gt
