XPost: can.politics, ont.politics   
   From: "@nyet.ca   
      
   Hopefully Transport Canada - aka the Harper government Ministry   
   responsible for regulating the transport industry - will answer to their   
   lack of oversight and their granting of an exemption for a   
   single-engineer train.   
   __________________________________________________   
      
   Mon Jun 9, 2014 - ca.reuters.com   
      
   Lawyers to argue dangers ignored in Canadian oil train disaster   
      
      
   WASHINGTON/TORONTO (Reuters) - Shippers wrongly moved explosive gas as   
   part of a crude oil delivery that derailed and killed 47 people in a   
   Canadian town last year, lawyers seeking to represent the devastated   
   town in a class action lawsuit are expected to argue in a proceeding   
   that starts on Monday.   
      
   Several tank cars exploded with surprising force when the cargo from   
   North Dakota's Bakken energy patch jumped the tracks and detonated in   
   downtown Lac Megantic, Quebec, last July.   
      
   Since that deadly mishap, U.S. officials have warned that Bakken fuel is   
   more volatile than previously thought because of the presence of   
   dangerous gas and have encouraged shippers to bleed off that gas before   
   moving it on the rails.   
      
   But lawyers from the Toronto class action law firm Rochon Genova LLP   
   will argue that oil companies were alert to Bakken fuel dangers well   
   before the Lac Megantic tragedy, and failed to handle the fuel safely on   
   the tracks.   
      
   Shippers and others in the supply chain "simply ignored the need to take   
   any meaningful steps to properly test, warn, label or classify the oil,"   
   according to documents filed last week.   
      
   Those allegations have not been tested in court.   
      
   Rochon Genova will on Monday argue in the Quebec Superior Court that   
   residents and others who suffered loss due to the accident should   
   treated as a single group of claimants in a class-action.   
      
   Although the discovery process has yet to formally begin, police   
   findings and industry paperwork already point to a haphazard shipping   
   process, the law firm said.   
      
   For at least eight months before the accident, oil train cargo routinely   
   arrived at the Irving Oil refinery labeled as the least-dangerous class   
   of flammable liquid, and near-empty tankers returned to the field   
   carrying a higher warning, according to a Quebec police report.   
      
   A month before the Lac Megantic disaster, an Irving Oil executive noted   
   that fuel testing at the source "is almost non-existent," according to a   
   company Power Point presentation seen by Reuters.   
      
   Irving Oil did not respond to a request for comment. Besides the   
   refinery, the plaintiffs are suing other companies that they say handled   
   the fuel, such as World Fuel Services Corp, which arranged the delivery.   
      
   World Fuel Services has argued in court filings that the rail disaster   
   was chiefly a human error and nothing in the labeling, or packaging   
   could have changed the outcome.   
      
   "While petitioners desire to find a solvent entity - any solvent entity   
   - to compensate for their losses, their allegations simply cannot   
   logically support pinning that liability on WFS," the firm's lawyers   
   said in a filing.   
      
   Rochon Genova will also argue that officials at Transport Canada, the   
   federal transportation authority, should answer for lax oversight before   
   the accident. The arguments are expected to last for about two weeks.   
      
   The regulator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)