A provincial court judge has ruled RCMP won’t need to disclose all the evidence gathered after a fatal 2018 trail derailment at an inquest into the victim’s death.
Judge Tim Killeen rejected a motion brought by Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union and the family of the Kevin Anderson, which requested all RCMP evidence be disclosed at the inquest, in a written decision issued Tuesday.
“Continued delays are not helpful to anyone,” Killeen wrote, referring to the inquest that was called in 2020 but has been frequently delayed.
KEN GIGLIOTTI / FREE PRESS FILES
Judge Tim Killeen rejected a motion which requested all RCMP evidence be disclosed at the inquest.
The Hudson Bay Railway train derailed while travelling over a section of track that had been washed out after a period of heavy rain raised water levels in a remote area about 156 kilometres south of Thompson on Sept. 15, 2018.
Anderson, the train’s 38-year-old conductor, died from internal bleeding the following day, after being trapped in the train’s engine car for more than eight hours. The derailment occurred at about 4:30 p.m.
Another crew member, an engineer, was airlifted to hospital in critical condition nearly 10 hours after the derailment.
RCMP arrived at the derailment at about 7 p.m. Concerns over leaking fuel led police to bar access to the site until trained and equipped personnel could get there. Those responders didn’t arrive until midnight.
Crown prosecutors decided last June that no criminal charges would be laid in the case. If charges had been laid, it would have automatically adjourned the inquest.
Killeen said although that appeared to remove the last hurdle for the inquest to begin, it did not.
The RCMP gave its investigative file to its lawyer, who provided it to the inquest counsel, who distributed some but not all of the file to all the lawyers involved.
Inquest counsel Kerry Unruh declined to provide information that he determined wasn’t relevant to the inquest’s scope, leading to the union and family’s motion.
Inquest counsel, the federal Justice Department, Hudson Bay Railway and its former owner Omnitrax, among others, argued not all the materials are relevant to the inquest, Killeen wrote.
The rail company’s lawyers argued the motion for disclosure was an attempt to broaden the inquest’s scope to examine what caused the derailment.
The court decided in August 2021 that the inquest would review the circumstances relating to Anderson’s death and how multiple agencies respond to serious incidents in remote areas, but not what happened before the derailment.
The Teamsters contended the disclosure would be necessary so all involved know whether information is relevant.
Transportation Safety Board of Canada photo
“The information that has not been disclosed could either be immaterial to anything or not relevant to the response but related to the cause of the derailment. If it is the latter, it still cannot change the scope of the inquest,” said Killeen.
The judge said while he understands why the family and union want to attach blame for what led to the derailment, the inquest won’t do that.
“An inquest is not to assess blame, particularly when the province has no control over regulation of the industry. The (Transportation Safety Board) is not to assess blame. There are no criminal charges. This is not litigation,” he judge.
The inquest was to begin in December 2021 in The Pas but has been delayed multiple times.
Anderson’s family had sought to include in the inquest the question of whether he could have survived his injuries if emergency responders got there sooner. That was decided against in 2022.
The initial autopsy report indicated Anderson would have survived if he’d been helped more quickly, but the chief medical examiner, Dr. John Younes, later determined the death was inevitable, given the cold weather and lack of necessary medical infrastructure available.
The Transportation Safety Board, in a 2020 report, found the section of track had been neglected.
The board report condemned the railroad’s former owner, Omnitrax, saying that in the months before the derailment, maintenance was being deferred.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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