Protests Coast To Coast, And Even Abroad Meet The Final Phase Of The Lac-Mégantic Trial

By admin - The Evidence is in: The Train Crew did not Cause the Lac-Mégantic Tragedy, January 8, 2018

The most important rail safety trial of our time will soon be in the hands of the jury. They are tasked with the difficult decision of whether or not to hold rail workers accountable for actions of their employers because it’s plain that there will be no other accountability, despite what is now a matter of public record.

The wrong people are on trial. Check out this interview with RCI, Radio Canada International. 

The stakes are high. But fortunately, many people across North America are not fooled by the Crown’s phony veneer of holding people personally accountable for the tragedy. No such real personal accountability will ever be made, since the government made it’s decision to target only the last persons in a danger chain that continues across every railroad to this moment.

On January 4th and 5th, in cities across America, people took their call for real rail safety, No More Lac-Mégantics and opposition to scapegoating workers to Canadian consulates as far away as Sao Paulo, Brazil. In several cases, they had to experience severe weather but came out anyway, knowing how important this case is. Active rail workers, Union members, working class militants, rail and other retirees protested in San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC and Minneapolis. Solidarity activists, Climate Change fighters, volatile oil opponents and environmental activists turned out their support to add their voices to the protests and delivering notice to the Canadian government that justice and rail safety cannot be served by framing up rail workers for the conditions they are forced, with government complicity, to work under. In some cities, they delivered printed statements and letters to consular officials.

Minneapolis

Members of rail unions, Railroad Workers United, the United Electrical workers, Communication Workers of America and others were joined by the Workers Solidarity Action Network, the Backbone Campaign, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and many others stood up to oppose scapegoating and stand with the community of Lac-Mégantic, whose activists have an ongoing fight for the safety of their town more than 4 years after the government appointed scapegoats have had no role.

These stand up people across the country have taken their time, money and energy into the street and to the Canadian consulates because they know that their own concerns, health and safety are at stake in the outcome of the Lac-Mégantic trial.

In the court room in Sherbrooke Quebec, one of the scapegoated rail workers, Tom Harding, was able to see photographs of the protests, letting them know they are not alone in the fight for actual accountability.

Seattle

On Monday, January 8, 2018, attorney Charles Shearson has begun presenting the defense of Tom Harding. That defense will be a summary of the evidence presented by the Crown prosecutors in their attempt to demonize Tom Harding as the criminally negligent cause of the wreck that nearly destroyed Lac-Mégantic and killed 47 outright. It should be noteworthy that the defense has made the determination that the facts supporting acquittal of Harding are already in evidence having been made by the Crown itself.

Sao Paulo, Brazil

The case will go to the jury this week. A conviction of one or both of the scapegoated rail workers is the signal the rail industry across the continent has been waiting for…a signal that they are free to conduct any and all of the dangerous practices and policies documented in the wreck of Lac-Mégantic, without any fear of liability. Some, like the actual policy makers and owners of the Montreal Maine and Atlantic (MMA), who are still free and running railroads around the world will breathe even easier as they take their profits; knowing that what they did will never have consequences for them.

Chicago

People are watching this trial all over the world. The stakes couldn’t be higher. The activists who braved the cold last week to deliver the message that we are all watching will be talking in the coming weeks, along with their Canadian counterparts, about the next necessary steps that we must take if we are truly going to see No More Lac-Mégantics!

Washington DC

See Also:

• CSP-Conlutas expresses support for Canadian railways accused of accident negligence-Will Send Delegation To Canadian Consulate In São Paulo - Translated by Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, January 3, 2018
• CUB RAIL, An Italian Rail Workers Organization Has Been A Long Time Supporter Of The Lac-Mégantic Rail Workers - By staff, The Evidence is in: The Train Crew did not Cause the Lac-Mégantic Tragedy, January 3, 2018
• Justice Gaétan Dumas rejected motions to acquit 2 accused but scolded Crown for weakness of case - By Claude Rivest, CBC News, January 11, 2018
• Lac-Mégantic jurors ask judge first questions on Day 5 of deliberations - By Giuseppe Valiante, Canadian Press, January 15, 2018
• Lac-Mégantic trial judge exhorts jurors to try to agree on verdict - By staff, CBC News, January 17, 2018
• No More Lac-Megantics! We Need Safe Rails and Sustainable Communities - By Taylor Smith-Hams, Healthy Communities Campaign Organizer, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, January 8, 2018
• Profits first, safety later: Lessons from Lac-Mégantic - By Matt Krogh, Medium, January 10, 2018
• Superior Court Justice Gaétan Dumas to instruct jury Wednesday as 3-month trial wraps - By Alison Brunette, CBC News, January 9, 2018
• Support for Harding and Labrie is increasingly international - By staff, The Evidence is in: The Train Crew did not Cause the Lac-Mégantic Tragedy, January 3, 2018
• Thomas Harding’s lawyers say rail company never assessed risks of parking train on Nantes slope - By Alison Brunette, CBC News, January 8, 2018

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.