Given 8, Stobie Jury Returns 24 Ways to Make Mines Safer

Families, union, company praise jury for recommendations to improve safety underground

The families hugged, smiled and shed a tear as the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Jordan Fram and Jason Chenier came to an end today with recommendations from the four-person jury today.

The jury was given eight recommendations to look over last week, and they came back with 24 in total on the final day of the coroner’s inquest.

“We’re very happy with the outcome,” said Briana Fram, Jordan’s sister. “We feel that everything was covered and were are very proud with the work that jury did, along with our stand-in’s, Vale and the Ministry of Labour.”

Fram spoke on behalf of her family. She said she believes her brother would be happy with the outcome, too.

“I think my brother would be very proud at the work that we’ve done, and you saw how much he was loved within that inquest. I think people will take these to heart, and work towards making everything safe for everyone.”

Chenier and Fram died on June 8, 2011 after an uncontrolled run of muck overcame the two at Vale’s Stobie Mine.
After years of fighting for an inquest and finally securing one, Fram said the family is relieved that the process has come to an end.

“The inquest process was very difficult, to relive those moments, and to hear his last minutes, we were never able to hear what he did in his last few minutes,” she said. “So we were relieved to hear some of the wonderful stories that his co-workers shared with him.

“It is a very overwhelming feeling, it feels like the doors are now closed. Everything is over, we can now move on and grieve as a family once again,” Fram added.

But, she said, this won’t be the end of the process for the Fram or Chenier families.

“We hope that (the recommendations) are implemented and that other mines in Ontario and throughout Canada read these recommendations and implement some of them themselves.”

Sixteen of the recommendations were directed to the Ministry of Labour, one to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and one to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Five recommendations were specifically aimed at Vale.

“Some of the recommendations that were presented today are new to us, so we’re going to have to go back and consider those very carefully,” said Angie Robson, Vale’s Manager of Corporate Affairs, Ontario Operations. “But we are certainly committed to doing what we can to prevent an incident from happening again.”

The 24th and final recommendation was an endorsement of 42 recommendations that were indentified by the Vale and USW mining review as outlined in the Stobie Fatality Recommendations.

The family, the Steelworkers Union and Vale had high praise for the four-person jury, who could have stayed pat and accepted the eight original recommendations, but instead agreed with the eight and tacked on 15 more.

Complete article in NortherLife.ca