Westray Mine
| Westray Coal Mine | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
 Westray Coal Mine
45°33′14″N 062°38′44″W / 45.55389°N 62.64556°WCoordinates: 45°33′14″N 062°38′44″W / 45.55389°N 62.64556°W |
|
| Location | Pictou County |
| Province | Nova Scotia |
| Country | Canada |
| Owner | |
| Company | Curragh Resources |
| Production | |
| Products | Coal |
| History | |
| Opened | 1991 |
| Closed | 1992 |
The Westray Mine was a coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was the site of an underground methane explosion on May 9, 1992. The explosion resulted in the deaths of all 26 miners who were working underground at the time.
Contents |
[edit] Background
Following the closure of the last working mine in the 1970s, Pictou County's hopes for a mining renaissance were revived with the announcement of a proposed mine in the region in the late 1980s. The timing was perfect, politically, since the region had elected a fledgling leader of the federal opposition, Brian Mulroney, in a 1983 by-election in Central Nova. Following the election of a federal Conservative-led government, Elmer MacKay became a Tory political heavyweight in the riding. Provincially, the area was also home to Conservative premier Donald Cameron. Money was made available to Toronto company Curragh Resources for establishing a mine, as well as building an extension to a railway line and custom-built railcars (to be constructed in nearby Trenton). The mine would feed coal to a local Nova Scotia Power Company generating station which was a provincial Crown corporation at the time.
[edit] Mine opens
On September 11, 1991, the mine was opened to great local fanfare, but immediately problems began to surface.[citation needed] Two months prior to the opening, MLA Bernie Boudreau wrote to Nova Scotia Labour Minister Leroy Legere saying the mine "is potentially one of the most dangerous in the world."[1] Accusations were made by mine workers of company cutbacks in safety training and equipment and of negligent and outright criminal behaviour toward safety inspections.[citation needed] Miners complained about working in deep coal dust,[citation needed] and on March 9, 1992, only 2 months before the disaster, a local union official published in a safety report that "I strongly feel there will be someone killed in the near future."[1]
[edit] The disaster
On Saturday, May 9, 1992, a methane gas, and subsequent coal dust explosion at 5:18 a.m. ADT killed 26 miners. It was Canada's worst mining disaster since 1958, when a cave-in at another Nova Scotia coal mine, in Springhill, claimed the lives of 75 miners.
In the wake of the explosion, Canadian and international media coverage descended upon the tiny hamlet of Plymouth and the nearby towns of New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville and Trenton. Coverage gripped Canadians for several days as teams of draegerman (mine rescuers) searched the debris-strewn depths of the mine for survivors.
Over the next several days, media reported non-stop from a community centre located across the street from the mine while rescue teams encountered extremely hazardous conditions underground. Westray officials did not cooperate well with the media, which affected the release of information.
The bodies of 15 miners were discovered and afterward the search and rescue was changed to a search and recovery operation. After underground conditions worsened, the decision was made to abandon recovery efforts, entombing the bodies of 11 miners at the depths of the mine. Several days later RCMP investigators re-entered the mine with a draeger team to gather evidence for criminal prosecution but they did not enter the "southwest main" shaft where the remaining miners' bodies were located, again due to hazardous conditions.
The 117 miners who were not working on shift at the time were given 12-weeks severance pay.
[edit] Cause of death
The 15 miners whose bodies were recovered all died within one minute of the explosion's ignition, according to autopsies and external medical examinations. The majority of the bodies were found to have very high concentrations of carbon monoxide; this would cause death in 20 seconds to one minute. At least three bodies showed injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, causing several injuries, each of which would have been fatal. All of the recovered bodies showed signs of burning, ranging from superficial charring to fourth degree burns. Of the recovered miners, 13 were identified visually.
According to draegerman, one body was located but could not be removed from the mine. This was due to the body being crushed and trapped within machinery which had been compacted by the explosion.
The remaining 10 miners whose bodies were never located are believed to have been killed instantly. Their working areas suffered the most comprehensive destruction in the mine, with many large rockfalls. It is considered unlikely that any of these miners survived the explosion.
[edit] Trial
The company was charged with 52 non-criminal counts of operating an unsafe mine under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 34 were subsequently stayed by the court. In 1993, the remaining non-criminal charges were stayed by Crown prosecutors, who expressed concern they might jeopardize future criminal charges.[2]Two of the mine's managers, Gerald Phillips and Roger Parry,[3] were charged with 26 accounts of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.
Throughout the trial, the Crown was reluctant to provide full disclosure in accordance with the Criminal Code. It was necessary for the trial judge to specifically order disclosure of: (1) the Crown’s intended witnesses (ordered September 2, 1994), (2) the order in which these witnesses (exceeding 200 in number) would be called (ordered December 2, 1994), (3) a list of all the exhibits to be tendered by the Crown (ordered September 27, 1994), and (4) all Crown expert reports by November 15, 1994 (ordered October 18, 1994).
On February 1, 1995, nearly 3 years after the incident, the Crown disclosed 17 new banker boxes of documents that had been in their possession for at least two years and about which they had unilaterally made a decision that there would be no disclosure. On February 27, 1995, the charges were stayed by the trial judge on the grounds that prosecutors had deliberately failed to disclose key evidence to the defence. The stay was appealed to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal which ordered a new trial. The order for a new trial was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada, which criticized the trial judge for having called the director of prosecutions during the trial to complain about the manner in which prosecutors were conducting the case.
After the Supreme Court ordered a new trial, prosecutors decided not to further pursue the charges because they determined there was not enough evidence to secure convictions.[4]
[edit] Inquiry
The Nova Scotia provincial government conducted a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Westray Mine and the safety issues resulting from the explosion. The commission was headed by Justice K. Peter Richard of the Trial Division of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Clifford Frame was a founder, principal shareholder, developer and Chairman and CEO of Curragh Inc. Through that company he was also Chairman of the executive committee for all of Curragh's subsidiary projects including Westray. Frame refused to testify at the Richard Inquiry, as did Marvin Pelley, former president of Westray.[5][6] Chairman of The report submitted in 1998 recommended a sweeping overhaul of all provincial labour and mining laws which were mostly acted upon.
[edit] Legislation
As a result of the failure to successfully prosecute the mines owners and managers, the Canadian Labour Congress and some of its affiliates initiated an intense lobbying campaign in the mid-1990s to amend the Criminal Code of Canada in order to hold criminally liable managers and directors of corporations that failed to take steps to protect the lives of their employees. Using the tactic of having a private member's bill introduced, typically by an MP from the New Democratic Party or the Bloc Québécois, this agenda was advanced. Each time that the House of Commons was prorogued, the private members bill would die on the order paper, and the process would start again in the next session of Parliament. On about the fifth attempt, in late 2003, the federal government enacted Bill C-45 in direct response to the Westray Mine disaster. The bill provided a new regime outlining the framework of corporate liability in Canada. It also provided a new punishment scheme to allow the Courts not simply to fine corporations, but also to put them on probation to ensure that the offences were not repeated. However, some observers believed Bill C-45 was largely seen as an exercise of political posturing by the federal government, as it is doubtful that the new provisions would have had any effect on the legal implications of the disaster. Because of the division of powers in the Canadian Constitution, the province is the only government that would be able to enact any real change.
Conversely, the United Steelworkers, the union that represented the miners and that spearheaded the lobbying effort, touted the law as an important new tool with which to hold accountable corporate leadership in on-the-job disasters. The key amendment to the Criminal Code reads as follows: "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."
[edit] Memorial
Today a memorial sits in a park in nearby New Glasgow at the approximate location above ground where the remaining 11 miners are trapped. The memorial will always be there in remembrance of those who died there: The memorial's central monument, engraved with the names and ages of the twenty-six men who lost their lives in the disaster states, "Their light shall always shine."
The names and ages of the 26 miners who were killed in the Westray coal mine disaster at 5:18 am on 9 May 1992[7]: John Thomas Bates, 56, Larry Arthur Bell, 25, Bennie Joseph Benoit, 42, Wayne Michael Conway, 38, Ferris Todd Dewan, 35, Adonis J. Dollimont, 36, Robert Steven Doyle, 22, Remi Joseph Drolet, 38, Roy Edward Feltmate, 33, Charles Robert Fraser, 29, Myles Daniel Gillis, 32, John Philip Halloran, 33, Randolph Brian House, 27, Trevor Martin Jahn, 36, Laurence Elwyn James, 34, Eugene W. Johnson, 33, Stephen Paul Lilley, 40, Michael Frederick MacKay, 38, Angus Joseph MacNeil, 39, Glenn David Martin, 35, Harry A. McCallum, 41, Eric Earl McIsaac, 38, George S. James Munroe, 38, Danny James Poplar, 39, Romeo Andrew Short, 35, Peter Francis Vickers, 38.
[edit] Mine site razed
The former mine site was razed in 1998 with the most visible reminder of the tragedy, the two 15-storey blue concrete coal storage silos, being imploded on November 27, 1998. The damaged mine shaft had been permanently sealed following the decision to abort further recovery attempts in May 1992 and after investigations were completed.
[edit] Related works
The disaster was the subject of a 2001 National Film Board of Canada documentary Westray, written and directed by Paul Cowan. The film included dramatic reenactments by three Westray widows — Harriet Munroe, Vicki Drolet and Bernadette Feltmate — as well as miners Wayne Cheverie, Fraser Agnew and Carl Guptill. The film won the award for best documentary at the 22nd Genie Awards.[8] An exhibit at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry in nearby Stellarton explores the history of the mine and the disaster. The band Weeping Tile (band) recorded a song about the disaster, entitled Westray. Different arrangements of the song were featured on their 1994 album Eepee and their 1996 album Cold Snap (album). The song was written by band member Sarah Harmer.
[edit] References
- ^ a b O'Malley, Martin (2002-05-09). "Westray - Here's What Happened". Teamsters Canada Rail Conference - 2010. CBC News. http://www.teamstersrail.ca/TCRC_Westray_Horror.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-11.
- ^ R. v. Curragh Inc., 1997 CanLII 381 at para. 36: The Supreme Court's decision on the appeal of the stay of the criminal trial.
- ^ Westray Mine Criminal Trial Index. retrieved Dec 1, 2011
- ^ Westray Charges Stayed Maclean's Magazine, retrieved 2008-06-08
- ^ Clifford Frame website. retrieved Oct 2, 2010
- ^ The Horror of Westray. Martin O'Malley.CBC News Online. Retrieved Oct 4,2010
- ^ The Westray Story Executive Summary
- ^ "Westray". National Film Board of Canada Web site. http://www3.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?lg=en&id=50625&v=h. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
[edit] Further reading
- Shaun Comish, The Westray Tragedy: a miner's story (Fernwood Publishing, 1993)
- Dean Jobb, Calculated Risk: greed, politics and the Westray tragedy (Nimbus Publishing, 1994)
- Dean Jobb, "Legal Disaster: Westray and the justice system," in Christopher McCormick, ed., The Westray Chronicles: a case study in corporate crime (Fernwood Publishing, 1999), pp. 163–182.
- Leo McKay Jr, Twenty Six - work of fiction based on the Westray disaster
