Vol. 79/No. 13      April 13, 2015

Under a special dispensation given to the now-bankrupt Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway by the Canadian government, railroad bosses ran their oil trains with a one-man “crew.” Harding was the one person working on the 72-car train, which carried more than 2 million gallons of highly volatile crude oil. He parked it, leaving the engine running to set the air brakes and set seven handbrakes as required by company rules, and left to get some sleep.

The engine caught fire. Local firefighters put it out and turned the engine off. Railroad dispatchers called Harding to tell him about the fire. According to a transcript of the call, Harding asks, “Do I need to go up there?” The dispatcher tells him, “No, no, no, no,” saying another company worker is there. “There’s nothing to do?” Harding asks. “There’s nothing to do,” the dispatcher answers. He tells Harding to go to sleep.

With the engine off, the airbrakes bled out. The train began to roll, derailing in the center of Lac-Mégantic and exploding.

“A preliminary inquiry is a way a guy can find out what case the Crown has got against him and to act accordingly,” Thomas Walsh, Harding’s attorney, told the Militant March 26. “So it’s kind of a low blow.”

Harding, Richard Labrie, who was rail controller at the time of the disaster, both members of the United Steelworkers union, and company manager Jean Demaître were charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death. They face the possibility of life in prison.

No company official has been charged.

When the explosion woke Harding up, he rushed to the site, risking his life to help firemen depressurize brakes on some of the cars that had not caught fire so they could be moved.

For this reason he is considered a hero by many in Lac-Mégantic. They were angered when he was charged, arrested at gunpoint at his home by the riot squad and then paraded in handcuffs to a courthouse.

“I had planned to call as yet unnamed and hidden officials from the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway to testify under oath,” Walsh said, “as well as officials from the Transportation and Safety Board.”

The board had issued a report on the derailment. Walsh said he wanted to ask them about one thing they discussed, but did not include in their report, “that is the role the one-man crew played in that situation.”

While refusing to comment on Harding’s case, the prosecution said pushing to go straight to a trial can be in the “public interest.”

“What ‘public interest’ is served by this?” Walsh said. “It’s all pretty hollow. Every time you hear the phrase ‘public interest’ you know there is nothing there.” The decision reflects either “an element of panic or political pressure,” he said.

The Steelworkers and fellow rail workers in Canada and the U.S. are raising funds for Harding and Labrie. To contribute in Canada, send checks to Syndicat des Métallos, 565 boulevard Crémazie Est, bureau 5100, Montreal, Quebec H2M 2V8. Online contributions can be made by credit card at www.justice4USWrailworkers.org.

In the United States checks can be sent to Tom Harding Defense Fund, First Niagara Bank, 25 McClellan Dr., Nassau NY 12123. Credit card donations can be made by visiting: www.tomhardingdefensefund.com.
 
 
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On the Picket Line
 
 
 
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