June 7/00 - Corporate decision-makers could soon be held criminally accountable for their actions, if the House of Commons Justice Committee gets its way. Eight years after the Westray disaster took the lives of 26 miners, the Justice Committee passed an all-party resolution calling on Justice Minister Anne McLellan to introduce Criminal Code amendments to incorporate the recommendations of a two-year public inquiry into the Nova Scotia tragedy.
In an extraordinary show of multi-partisan consensus, the House of Commons Justice Committee unanimously passed the following resolution this morning:
That the Committee recommends that the Minister of Justice and the Department of Justice bring forward proposed legislation in accordance with the Motion 79, agreed to by the House on March 21, 2000, and the principle underlined in C-259 for consideration by the Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
Motion 79 and Bill C-259 - a private member's bill from NDP Leader Alexa McDonough - both arise from the Westray inquiry recommendations, which called on Ottawa to eliminate the legal ambiguities that usually protect corporate executives and managers from criminal prosecution. The recommendations also urged the government to set fines and jails terms for corporate executives found to be criminally responsible for harm or injury to employees or the public.
"If the government moves quickly to introduce Criminal Code amendments, all the political parties would agree to fast track the bill, if the debate at the Justice Committee is an indication," said Lawrence McBrearty, National Director of the United Steelworkers of America.
A special meeting of the Justice Committee was convened yesterday in response to public pressure. A delegation of Steelworkers has been in Ottawa for the past week urging MPs to support changes to the law. The union also released public opinion research yesterday showing that more than 8 of 10 Canadians want their MP to support Criminal Code amendments.
"It's been eight years since the Westray tragedy took 26 lives. No on will ever be held accountable. It's long past time for Ottawa to act," McBrearty said. "Even if found responsible, as the owners and managers of Westray were, the loop holes in the Criminal Code are so large corporations in Canada are accountable to no one."
Get More/Do More
Read Straight Goods article Delegation lobbies feds for "No more Westrays".
For more information, visit the Steelworkers' website.
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