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Thirteen years ago today, on July 6, 2013, a runaway train carrying 72 tank cars of volatile shale oil derailed and exploded in the middle of the night, spilling six million litres of oil, obliterating the centre of the historic town of Lac-Mégantic in southern Quebec. That night, 47 people died, and 27 children lost their parents. It was the worst catastrophe on Canadian soil since the 1917 Halifax explosion.
The Lac-Mégantic disaster was the consequence of a decades-long trajectory of mutually reinforcing policies—deregulation, fiscal austerity, privatization—which enhanced corporate self-regulation, and systematically eroded safety protections.
Today the federal government is moving at warp speed to “remove red tape” (i.e. implement deregulation) which it sees as obstructing its economic objectives and private sector priorities. Its planned cuts to the public service workforce will undoubtedly include cuts to regulatory agency staff.
The power relationship between the government regulator and the regulated industry—regulatory capture—was a central contributing factor to the tragedy, repeatedly subverting public safety to profit.
Recent developments in the saga
The Supreme Court decision: another slap in the face
Industry executives and owners blamed the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic (MMA) company’s locomotive engineer and two other frontline staff. However, the deck was stacked so heavily against these employees that calamity was a foregone conclusion. Investigators laid criminal charges against the front-line employees, but they were subsequently acquitted.
No corporate executives or owners were charged. No senior government officials or politicians have been held to account. Successive governments have refused demands by the community to hold an independent commission of inquiry.
The victims’ families filed a class-action lawsuit shortly after the disaster. In 2015, they reached a combined settlement with 25 defendants contributing to a $460 million victims’ compensation fund. CP Rail (now CPKC) was the sole defendant connected to the disaster that refused to pay into the fund, stating it bore no responsibility for the tragedy.
In May 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada ended efforts by litigants to sue CPKC over its responsibility regarding the disaster, declining to hear an appeal of two lower-court rulings (the Superior Court and the Court of Appeal) that found CP did not have any liability. The lower courts assigned responsibility solely to the engineer, failing to set enough handbrakes.
A Lac-Mégantic Rail Safety advocate fined by CP police
Major railways in Canada, alone among private corporations, have their own police forces with full investigative and jurisdictional powers over accidents on, or near, their property. They are able to police themselves without being held accountable for their actions which may violate Canadian laws. They have authority to enforce all federal and provincial laws within 500 metres of railway property.
In early June 2025, Robert Bellefleur, rail safety activist and spokesperson for the Lac-Mégantic Coalition for Rail Safety responding to worries from neighbours about a culvert under the railway tracks that was collapsing, took photos of the culvert and sent them to the company. Three days later, a CPKC maintenance crew repaired it.
Shortly thereafter, CPKC sent two private police officers (armed with bullet vests, pistols, clubs and handcuffs) to Bellefleur’s home accusing him of illegal entry on their property. Following CPKC’s police complaint that he was illegally on their property, Quebec’s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) issued a fine of $700 including legal fees against Bellefleur. He decided to pay the fine since fighting it in court would have been costly.
Nevertheless, it has not stopped him from speaking out at public events and in the media highlighting the arbitrary policing powers of railway corporations.
The Transportation Safety Board watchlist
The federal Transportation Safety Board (TSB) created a watchlist to highlight “those issues posing the greatest risk to Canada’s transportation system” and that need to be rectified by Transport Canada.
Its most recent 2025 watchlist highlighted a number of long-time systemic safety issues involving failure by Transport Canada to detect noncompliance with regulations and ensure corrective action. They included fatigue management, companies’ safety management systems, and crews failing to recognize and follow signal indications, all of which, according to the TSB chair, “still present a high risk to the transportation system, which is why they need to stay on the watchlist.” Drug and alcohol impairment issues were added to the latest watchlist.
The railway bypass circumventing the town still on hold
Currently, four to six CPKC trains, each consisting of 225 freight cars and tankers carrying hazardous goods, pass through Lac-Mégantic daily, often during peak hours. These trains, often measuring over 3.8 kilometres long, indiscriminately block the eight level crossings that intersect the town’s main traffic arteries.
In 2018, the federal and provincial government committed to funding a 12.5 km bypass around the town centre. Upon completion, Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), will own and manage the bypass.
In September 2025, the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) received the CPKC’s formal application to construct the bypass. Once consultations are completed, the CTA will move forward if it determines the proposed route is suitable, and construction will hopefully begin although there could be further delays. The CTA has not yet made a decision.
An open window
The government, the railway corporations, and the justice system have all failed the people of Lac-Mégantic. They have also continued to fail to learn the lessons of Lac-Mégantic terms of protecting the public against future disasters. Time and again, the corporate game plan in the wake of major disasters is dispute, deny, and delay.
The government continues to delay implementing safety measures necessary to diminish the probability of a recurrence. As the Environmental Commissioner in the Auditor General’s Office warned, “The window for a recurrence of a Lac-Mégantic-type disaster is still open.”
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).
