Vol. 81/No. 32 August 28, 2017
Frame-up trial against Quebec rail workers to
begin Sept. 11
The two workers face 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death, as does company operations manager Jean Demaitre. Each could face up to life in prison. The trial will take place in Sherbooke, Quebec, about an hour and a half from Lac-Mégantic.
The much-delayed trial opens five weeks after the derailment of a massive 178-car, two-mile-long CSX freight train in Hyndman, Pennsylvania, where 1,000 people had to be evacuated as molten sulfur, liquefied petroleum gas and propane burned for three days.
“The Aug. 2 CSX Hyndman derailment reminds the people here that rail industry leaders, concerned about quick profits for their shareholders, have forgotten the lessons of Lac-Mégantic,” Robert Bellefleur, spokesperson for the Citizens and Groups Coalition for Rail Safety, told the Militant Aug. 11. “It’s the same scenario, a long train with a small crew. Are they once again going to blame the rail workers who were working under unacceptable conditions?”
The coalition has been fighting to force Ottawa to build a rail bypass around the town. Bellefleur and others from Lac-Mégantic have attended court hearings in support of Harding and Labrie.
Harding the one person ‘crew’
On that night over four years ago, Harding was the only worker on the 72-car train carrying highly explosive crude oil from the North Dakota shale oil fields. The one-person “crew” was a cost-cutting measure requested by Montreal, Maine and Atlantic bosses to save money and approved by the federal government’s Transport Canada.Harding parked the train as per company rules at the village of Nantes on a grade seven miles from Lac-Mégantic. He set handbrakes on a number of cars, ensured that the lead engine was running to power the air brakes, then went to a hotel in the town of 6,000 to get some sleep after his 12-hour shift.
Under company rules he was forbidden to throw a switch to activate the additional automatic air-brake system, which would have held the train in place if the other brakes failed. This rule was also designed to cut costs, since it would have “lost” time — and money — while the brake system replenished air pressure in the morning.
When this fact was revealed in a front-page article — “Backup Brake Could Have Averted Disaster” — in the Globe and Mail, Canada’s English-language daily, on March 7, 2016, it exposed the bosses’ responsibility for the disaster.
During the night a fire broke out on the running engine due to faulty, company maintenance. Local volunteer firefighters came and put it out. They shut down the engine, and, unwittingly, the brake air pressure system.
When Harding was roused and told about the fire he volunteered to go back to the train and make sure everything was OK. He was told by company officials that it was being taken care of and to go back to sleep. The track manager had been dispatched who knew nothing about locomotives.
A couple of hours later the air brakes bled out and the train began to roll, gathering speed until it hit a curve a few yards from the Musi-Café, which was packed with Saturday night party-goers. Most of the tanker cars derailed, leaked and exploded into a massive fireball that burned for days. The majority of the 47 residents killed were in the café. The downtown core was gutted, the soil, lake and river around the town contaminated.
Harding considered a hero
Awakened again, this time by the explosion, Harding rushed towards the fireball, got protective clothing from firefighters and helped move a number of tanker cars that hadn’t yet exploded. Many people in the town consider him a hero. Most think the wrong people have been charged and hold Ottawa and Montreal, Maine and Atlantic bosses responsible.The tracks through the town were quickly replaced. Trains, now owned by the Central, Maine and Quebec Railway, which replaced the now bankrupt and dissolved Montreal, Maine and Atlantic, continue to run through the downtown at all hours. While they no longer carry highly combustible shale oil, they do transport dangerous cargo like propane, sulfuric acid and sodium chlorate. The curvature of the rebuilt tracks is sharper now than it was four years ago.
“The prosecution, whose motives have been less than honorable, doesn’t have a case against Labrie and Demaitre,” Thomas Walsh, Harding’s lawyer, told the Militant July 12. “They hope the jury will focus on Harding as the last person who had contact with the train. But they don’t have a case against Harding either.
“I think people generally understand, based on the facts that have become known, what happened was preordained,” he said. “Harding is a victim of company neglect and circumstances over which he had no control.”
You can come and sit in on the trial in solidarity with the rail workers, or send a message in support of Harding and Labrie to USW Local 1976 / Section locale 1976, 2360 De Lasalle, Suite 202, Montreal, QC Canada H1V 2L1, with copies to Thomas Walsh, 165 Rue Wellington N., Suite 310, Sherbrooke, QC Canada J1H 5B9. E-mail: thomaspwalsh@hotmail.com.
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