Case summaries – Acquittals
R v Hoyeck, 2019 NSSC 7
- Death of worker after explosion while servicing automobile, employer charged with criminal negligence causing death, acquitted.
In 2013, Elie Hoyeck, part-owner of “Your Mechanic Auto Corner”, asked Peter Kempton, automobile mechanic, to remove a gas tank from underneath a minivan. Kempton used a welding torch, and the van caught fire. Kempton was trapped underneath the vehicle, was badly burned and later died of his injuries.
An expert inspected the site after the incident, and reported that conditions were deplorable. The yard was filled with boats, cars, oil and gas containers and garbage. The eyewash station was used to wash carburetors. The hoist normally used in the garage was blocked, and as a result Kempton had been performing the work in the yard. When the vehicle caught fire, Kempton was trapped under the vehicle.
The problems identified were:
- No use of a working hoist
- No flashback arrestors between the torch and the fuel source
- Excess garbage preventing escape from the burning vehicle
Hoyeck denied responsibility for Kempton’s death, and believed that Kempton should have known better than to use a torch to complete the work. Hoyeck was charged with criminal negligence causing death, the first time an employer was charged under the Westray Law in Nova Scotia.
The court noted that the workplace was in ‘deplorable condition’ and that “[t]here were a myriad of safety issues and it can be fairly stated that the site presented an accident waiting to happen”. However, the court explained that they must focus on the employer’s actions or omissions which caused Kempton’s death.
It was found that the method used by Kempton was an unsafe procedure and it was unreasonable to expect that Hoyeck, who was an untrained mechanic and shop owner, supervise his trained mechanics throughout all of their work. In acquitting Hoyeck, the court stated that the state of the workplace showed a “wanton or reckless disregard for the lives and safety of other persons (and himself)”, but the actions of Hoyeck could not be determined beyond a reasonable doubt to have been the cause of Kempton’s death.
R v Ressources Métanor, CQ, No 632-01-003393-149 (decided 2017)
- Employer found not guilty on 3 counts of criminal negligence causing death, after 3 miners drowned in a flooded mine shaft
Métanor Resources operates a mine at Bachelor Lake, PQ. In November 2009, three miners descended into a mine shaft in an elevator at night to refurbish it. When they reached near the bottom, the shaft was filled with water. The water had been filling the bottom of the mine shaft for 10 days. The flood alarm had been disabled and the water pumping system had failed. When company officials raised the elevator after not hearing from the workers for some time, they found it was empty and the top hatch was open. When the bodies of the three miners were subsequently recovered, they were frozen solid.
In 2014, Métanor was charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing death. The company pleaded not guilty, and was found not guilty as the court held that the company had not shown wanton or reckless disregard.
R v Gagne and Lemieux (2010)
In October 2006, one worker was killed and three others were injured when a train collided with track maintenance vehicles. Simon Gagne and Steve Lemieux were the train operators at the time of the accident and faced criminal negligence charges due to this incident. Both were acquitted because their behaviour, though clearly dangerous, did not represent a marked departure from reasonable standards, which is one of the tests for criminal negligence. Rather, the men’s actions reflected a “corporate culture of tolerance” that had developed at the company, Quebec Cartier. Evidence of this included deficient training, failure to obtain proper permits, and drug use.
R v Ontario Power Generation, Tammadge and Bednarek (2006)
In the summer of 2002, a group of approximately twenty people were sunbathing and swimming in an area known as High Falls, which was downriver from the Barret Chute dam. When the sluice gates of the Barrett Chute Generating Station opened, it unleashed a wall of water. A mother and her son were swept away by the water over a ten-metre cliff and drowned, and seven others were injured. At the time, Robert Bednarek was operating the dam and John Tammadge was the manager of Ontario Power Generation’s (“OPG”) Ottawa/St. Lawrence Plant group.
OPG, Bednarek, and Tammadge faced two homicide charges and seven more charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm. The case against OPG was thrown out first. The conviction would require that any alleged deadly acts were the product of the corporation’s directing mind, but there was insufficient evidence to support a case against the senior directing minds. The other charges against Bednarek and Tammadge were later dismissed as well because the judge found that it was a single incident of questionable judgment. Further, he found that the restructuring of Ontario’s electricity system at the time made for a “chaotic corporate environment” that “resulted in havoc” along a previously well-managed river system.
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