Loose Ends and Unanswered Questions
According to this study, investigations to date into the Lac-Mégantic disaster—the most comprehensive of which is the August 2014 Transportation Safety Board (TSB) report—leave too many unanswered questions. The study points to the discrepancy between the withering remarks on regulatory breakdown by the outgoing TSB chair, and the report’s more muted conclusions as to cause and contributing factors of the TSB report itself. Most glaringly, Transport Canada’s decision to allow MMA to operate its massive oil trains with a single crew member which—despite evidence in the body of the TSB report itself—was not listed as a cause and contributing factor to the accident. It also identifies numerous regulatory failures that led to the disaster, the responsibility for which ultimately rests at the very top.
Ce rapport est aussi disponible en français: Lac-Mégantic : Questions sans répsonse
About the author
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell is former Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Adjunct Professor, York University, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change; Senior Fellow, Toronto Metropolitan University, Centre for Free Expression. He is the author of The Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster: Public Betrayal, Justice Denied, (James Lorimer 2018). In French, Enquéte sur la Catastrophe de Lac-Mégantic: Quand les pouvoirs publics déraillent (Fides 2019).