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Opinion:

Tyson Kelsall
Culture Editor

B etween the court cases, investigations,
and public relations, workers and their
families are being allowed to fall through
the cracks. The Babine Forest Products
sawmill in Burns Lake exploded two years
ago in January 2012. Two years later, on

16 January 2014 WorkSafeBC produced

an 88-page report finding that the fire

was preventable. Despite this conclusion,
the Crown decided not to press charges
against the mill owners. Under public
pressure, Christy Clarke decided to appoint
somebody to review this decision. That
somebody is her deputy minister, John
Dyble. Perhaps it was soon-to-be ex-NDP
leader Adrian Dix who quietly critiqued the
decision best; as was reported by Gordon
Hoekstra in the Vancouver Sun, “The
government can't investigate itself.”

Well, Dix was one word off, because
although the government should not
investigate itself, it certainly is. Dix has

also come out demanding an independent
probe of the mill itself and local families are
supporting his call, Hoekstra reported.

However, as of now, the Oregon-based
ownership of the Babine mill can at

most face an administrative fine, which
under current laws can only go as high

as $500,000. Jim Sinclair, President of the
BC Federation of Labour, called out the

BC government in a press release saying,
“Today, a detailed investigation report was
released that clearly shows the incident
was preventable, that risks were known
and that necessary measures were not
taken. And yet, in the face of an apparent
wall of evidence, the crown has chosen

to not lay charges.” Sinclair says workers
confidence in provincial safety regulations
are “shaken,” to no real surprise.

Since the explosion, which was said to
have been caused by a build-up of sawdust
that caught fire due to its proximity to the
rotating belts that were part of a conveyor
belt motor; some BC lumber companies,
on 21 June 2013, implemented a program
called the “Wood Dust Mitigation and
Control Audit.” In theory, this will act as a
mechanism for companies to be audited
in the name of safety when it comes to
dust created in mills. However, this tool

is unenforceable by provincial law and is

thus, completely voluntary. Considering the
voluntary inaction currently occurring, is
this really a solution? It might be helpful,
but does it solve the issue? In fact, the
ownership of Babine mill is not even really
shouldering the responsibility of the

Burns Lake tragedy, as they recently filed a
complaint through the BC Supreme Court
in an attempt to sue Toshiba, claiming

that Toshiba built the motor that caused
the explosion. Ian Bailey, reporting for the
Globe and Mail, said within the specifics of
the complaint Babine says, “As a result of
the [explosion], caused by the negligence
and/or breach of contract by the
defendants... [Babine] has suffered damage,
injury, loss and expense.”

WorkSafeBC has long been criticized as

an organization that protects elites and
large corporations, while punishing the
workers. Although in theory, it is mandated
to “provide fair compensation to replace
workers' loss of wages while recovering
from injuries,” it should also be recognized
that WorkSafeBC developed out of workers
and their families giving up their right to
sue their employers. Its defendants will
say that it cuts out time in court and other

resources; however, in this case there is
certainly some kind of misconnection
between workers and WorkSafe. It should
also be noted that pressing charges in this
case would be outside of WorkSafeBC’s
jurisdiction, they provide the final report
and the Crown has to make the final
decision. WorkSafe, then, is acting as

a stagnating apparatus, assuming any
family or worker would have decided to
take matters into their own legal battle,
either right away or because of the present
context.

In any case, it is time to squash the gaps
between government, the justice system,
WorkSafe and workers. The current
movement toward safety taking a lesser
seat in the political stadium to productivity
is not worth the expense of the two lives
lost in the explosion, nor the injuries to the
20 others. It is not worth the future human
loss either. The new auditing tool is a nice
framework, but if it is unenforceable, it will
not serve a clear enough purpose. Let us
put workers before profits, human safety
before big business protection!