BURNABY, B.C. – The Metro Vancouver Transit Police (MVTP) have charged a 29-year-old Surrey resident with assaulting and willfully resisting officers, following an altercation at the Metrotown SkyTrain Station in Burnaby on Jan. 29. A news release from the MVTP stated that officers had spotted the man holding an open cider bottle on a train platform at about 9:45 p.m. that day. When police approached him, he smashed other bottles on the floor and attacked the officers without provocation. The man is accused of slapping one officer in the face and grabbing another officer by the groin, police said. After the officers handcuffed him, the man allegedly continued struggling and yelling and even spat in an officer’s face. Police charged Adam Brad Waters with two counts of assaulting an officer and one of willful resistance; he was already wanted on an RCMP warrant for domestic assault, police said. “The officers suffered no significant injuries,” the release stated. “However, it should be noted that spitting on someone… carries with it the potential for transmitting a communicable disease.” After a court appearance, Waters was released on several conditions, including one that he is not permitted on any SkyTrain or Canada Line trains or in their stations.
Category Archives: Occupational Hygiene
British Columbia appeal court overturns decision on asbestos contractor
The British Columbia Court of Appeal recently threw out last year’s decision by the provincial Supreme Court rejecting a WorkSafeBC order against an asbestos-removal contractor.
On Feb. 26, Judge George Macintosh of the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that Seattle Environmental Ltd. had not violated a 2012 order to comply with the province’s Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. The judge stated that the order had been too complex and vague for the company to follow and that WorkSafeBC had not set it out “in unambiguous terms” (COHSN, March 1).
But WorkSafeBC appealed the decision, and on Jan. 13 of this year, Justice John Savage of the Court of Appeal in Vancouver wrote in a unanimous court decision that the order’s terms “are not ambiguous or insufficiently clear so as to be incapable of supporting a finding of contempt, given the nature of the statutory regime for workplace safety and the procedural history.”
The case’s origins go back to July 31, 2012, when WorkSafeBC filed a petition for orders restraining Seattle from exposing people to asbestos. The province’s occupational health and safety authority cited 17 incidents in which the company had allegedly violated the Act and Regulation, while noting that it had issued 244 orders to it, according to Judge Savage’s written decision.
“The respondents,” Judge Savage wrote, “are in the asbestos-abatement business. Asbestos has been determined to be a dangerous carcinogenic substance that requires special detection, handling and abatement techniques. As a result, these businesses are highly regulated under British Columbia workplace safety legislation.”
The judge noted that while the Act and Regulation may be complex pieces of legislation, this does not excuse people in a highly regulated profession like asbestos removal from following them.
“Requiring familiarity and understanding of statutory and regulatory requirements for workplace safety from voluntary industry participants is not an impermissibly onerous requirement,” wrote Judge Savage. “This is especially so, given the nature of the business in this case.”
The decision received praise from the B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFED) and the B.C. Insulators Union. In a Jan. 29 news release, BCFED president Irene Lanzinger said that she was “comforted that the Court of Appeal reinforced employers’ responsibility to abide by health and safety laws.”
But Lanzinger cautioned that the provincial Liberal government was still not doing enough to protect workers and that its asbestos-removal laws were inadequate.
“They failed to act on practical solutions that unions proposed to protect the well-being of workers in the asbestos-abatement industry,” she said. “Workplace protections are weak and not always rigorously enforced.
“Under the B.C. Liberals, workers are only an afterthought in our ‘workers’’ compensation system.”
Seattle Environmental faces $355,000 in fines for oh&s violations, according to BCFED.
“Filmmaker” who interviewed anti-asbestos activists may have been corporate spy
A British man who claimed to be a documentary filmmaker and spoke with a number of anti-asbestos advocates in Canada last year is now accused of working as a corporate agent, paid to infiltrate the anti-asbestos movement.
The story came to light earlier in January, when a publication ban was lifted on the man’s name, Robert Moore, regarding his involvement in a civil case before the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom. Moore and a company called K2 Intelligence Limited allegedly infiltrated a worldwide anti-asbestos network to gather information on behalf of an unknown public-relations firm that had contracted them, according to court witness statements obtained by COHSN.
Among the individuals that Moore interviewed was Laura Lozanski, an occupational health and safety officer with the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Based in Ottawa, Lozanski is an activist who has taught asbestos-awareness courses at the local Workers Health & Safety Centre.
“He said he was a documentary filmmaker, he was really interested in doing asbestos filmmaking,” Lozanski told COHSN, “regarding especially children that were involved in having to be part of any processing or manufacturing asbestos products.” Moore was planning to interview other anti-asbestos advocates, and Lozanski referred him to other contacts, she said, adding that he seemed very credible at the time.
“He actually worked for a reputable documentary company that did some stuff for National Geographic,” she explained. “He had done the work so that if you tried to look him up, he was who he said he was, at least on the surface.”
Lozanski allowed Moore to interview her in her office in September, but she did not feel afterwards that she and her associates had given him any potentially harmful information.
“We’re a very transparent group of people,” she said. “We were just talking about what we do, which, everybody knows what we do – we’ve been lobbying the government, and holding conferences, and talking about the medical fallout from developing asbestos-related diseases, and trying to get people compensated.”
Just before the Christmas holidays, Lozanski found out about the court case in the U.K., but still did not know that Moore was involved, due to the publication ban. She knew that Laurie Kazan Allen, the founder of the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, had filed a claim along with two other people, alleging breach of confidence and misuse of private information.
“When I first came back to work, the first week of January,” said Lozanski, “the ban got lifted, and lo and behold, it was this person that had been sitting in my office.”
What concerns Lozanski and her fellow activists now is that corporate spies may be infiltrating anti-asbestos communities elsewhere.
“It wasn’t just here in Canada, it was in a number of countries,” she said, referring to Moore’s alleged activities. “We do have a number of activists in other countries, particularly in Asia and south Asia, who might be quite vulnerable to whatever it is that might be going on behind the scenes.”
Lozanski could not say for sure why Moore and K2 had gone to so much trouble to try to subvert the anti-asbestos movement. “We’re just speculating right now, because we don’t know, and of course, these are all allegations,” she said. “There’s money to be lost, for sure, so is that what’s driving it?”
Lozanski began working for CAUT in 2003 and became involved in the anti-asbestos movement as the issue became a large focus of her job. “The universities are full of asbestos,” she noted.
“We just want to see that it gets banned from being mined, produced and manufactured. And so we’ve been working towards that for the last decade, been quite successful in getting almost 50 countries now, Canada included, in agreeing to either full bans or partial bans and looking for safer substitutes.”
Asbestos exposure leads to $50,000 fine for regional municipality
KITCHENER, Ont. – A provincial court has sentenced the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ont. to pay a $50,000 fine, plus the standard victim fine surcharge, after eight of the Municipality’s employees were exposed to asbestos for 25 days during a construction project more than a year ago. The workers were removing and replacing equipment in a well house at the Waterloo water-pumping station from Oct. 2 to 27, 2015, according to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL). Over the course of the project, the employees drilled into the interior concrete block walls of the building, which caused asbestos-containing vermiculite to spill out of the holes. At first, the workers were not wearing proper personal protective equipment during the exposure and did not treat the vermiculite as containing asbestos, the MOL stated. The Regional Municipality later pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice in Kitchener to failing to provide required information about materials containing asbestos to workers, and Justice of the Peace Michael A. Cuthbertson imposed the fine on Jan. 13 of this year.
Lieutenant pleads guilty to disgraceful conduct in assault case
OROMOCTO, N.B. – A military officer with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has been ordered to pay a $3,000 fine with a severe reprimand, after he pleaded guilty to a charge of disgraceful conduct towards a female colleague. Second Lieutenant Antoine Brunelle was charged with sexual assault and disgraceful conduct towards another officer regarding an alleged incident in Gagetown, N.B. in Nov. 2014, according to a news release from the Department of National Defence. The standing court martial began on Jan. 10 of this year. Two days later, the assault charge was dismissed and the military judge, Commander J.B.M. Pelletier, accepted 2nd Lieut. Brunelle’s guilty plea and passed the sentence. “In addition to a military judge’s sentence, CAF members can be subject to an administrative review, which can result in actions that range from remedial measures up to release from the CAF,” the release stated.
RCMP officers suffer smoke inhalation during building fire
NANAIMO, B.C. – An early-morning fire at an apartment building resulted in three RCMP officers being sent to a local hospital for assessment, after they had inhaled smoke during the building’s evacuation. A news release from the RCMP’s Nanaimo detachment stated that the police had received a report of a fire at the Willow Grove Estates at about 3 a.m. on Jan. 11. Three officers arrived before the fire crews did and began helping tenants evacuate the building, of which the entire southwest part was on fire, police said. Firefighters later contained the blaze and allowed many of the tenants back inside, but the officers had suffered different levels of smoke inhalation during the evacuation. After a hospital examination, two of the officers were released immediately, while the third stayed for several hours before also being released, police said. “No injuries were reported to occupants of the building,” said Const. Gary O’Brien, the detachment’s media-relations officer, in the release. “Investigators with both the Nanaimo RCMP and City of Nanaimo Fire and Rescue are examining the scene, and the investigation remains active.”
Ontario to implement full smoking ban on healthcare property
TORONTO, Ont. – The Smoke-Free Ontario Act has deemed that the grounds of all hospitals and psychiatric facilities in the province must be smoke-free beginning next New Year’s Day. For the time being, healthcare facilities may have designated outdoor smoking areas for patients, employees and visitors; these areas must be at least nine metres away from any entrance or exit and clearly identified as designated smoking areas by signage, according to a fact sheet from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. But these designated areas will no longer be permitted starting on Jan. 1, 2018, in order to protect workers and patients from second-hand smoke. “A smoke-free hospital is a positive step in promoting health and wellness, but to be truly effective, we need to do more than implement a policy,” Janet Allen, the tobacco-control program coordinator with Algoma Public Health (APH), said in a Jan. 6 press release. “Having services available both in hospital and the community to help individuals effectively manage and comply with restrictions or stop smoking when they are ready is essential.” APH runs healthcare institutions in the Algoma district, including Sault Ste. Marie.
New app helps workers, employers evaluate and improve air quality
NATIONAL – The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has launched a free cell-phone app for workplaces to evaluate the air quality and find solutions to any problems. The app, AirAssess – Improve Indoor Air Quality at Work, consists of a questionnaire about stress levels, allergies and other factors in the work environment, according to a media release that CCOHS sent out on Jan. 6. The user’s responses help to identify issues with the workplace’s air quality, and the app then provides links to information on what actions to take. AirAssess is a collaborative effort between CCOHS and Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW), the release added. “OHCOW has been successfully using an Indoor Climate survey since 1993 in over 120 buildings,” explained Valerie Wolfe, OHCOW’s executive director for the province’s south central region, in a press statement. “We are very pleased to be launching an app version of this validated survey. Once again, we are putting health and safety in the hands of workers.” Users can download AirAssess from both organizations’ websites, as well as from the Apple App Store, BlackBerry World and Google Play.
Canadian Forces member acquitted of assaulting colleague in 2011
GATINEAU, Que. – A master corporal with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has been found not guilty of two charges under the National Defence Act, relating to the alleged sexual assault of a female military officer in Oct. 2011. Master Corporal Dustin Jackson was accused of assaulting his colleague in Ottawa in a complaint reported in Jan. 2014, according to a news release from the Department of National Defence. The ensuing standing court martial began on Aug. 17 of last year and ended on Jan. 4, when Judge Lt.-Col. Louis-Vincent d’Auteuil acquitted Master Corporal Jackson of sexual assault and of behaving in a disgraceful manner. Lt.-Col. d’Auteuil rendered his decision at the Asticou Centre in Gatineau, according to the website of the Office of the Chief Military Judge. “The CAF takes all allegations of any form of sexual misconduct seriously and is committed to dealing with them as quickly as possible,” the release stated.
B.C. ferry union calls for increased removal of vessels with asbestos
As ferries dating as far back as the 1960s continue to run in British Columbia, the union representing the province’s marine employees is working to persuade B.C. Ferries to speed up the total abatement of older vessels containing asbestos.
Graeme Johnston, president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers’ Union (BCFMWU), appeared at a Canadian Labour Congress news conference in Nanaimo on Dec. 7 and gave a speech asking the federal government for a full asbestos ban. He highlighted the risk that the carcinogenic mineral poses to marine workers, including those on ferries.
“Many vessels operated by B.C. Ferries still contain significant amounts of asbestos,” Johnston told COHSN. “While full abatement on a working fleet is incredibly difficult because asbestos is literally interwoven into the fabric of many of the vessels, abatement to greatest extent possible in high-risk areas is not only reasonable, but appropriate, given the deadly effects of asbestos exposure.”
The BCFMWU plans to submit a proposal for more comprehensive abatement of asbestos in these work environments, he added, including quicker retirement of hazardous ferries from the provincial fleet.
“We will continue to work with B.C. Ferries towards an asbestos-free workplace,” said Johnston. “Our main goal is to ensure our members will not be exposed to any asbestos spills while at work.”
David Fagen, the executive director of safety and health with B.C. Ferries, said that the organization was already working hard to retire and replace older vessels, while training employees to avoid contamination.
“In the past five years, we’ve done over $4.5 million worth of abatement,” said Fagen. “Part of our new vessel strategy includes vessels that currently have asbestos in them being removed from service.”
In addition, B.C. Ferries has a committee devoted to addressing asbestos issues. “We have revamped training, and we’re working with the union to try and figure out what areas they have highest concerns about, and when we have opportunities to work on that, we do.”
Fagen explained that it is not feasible to keep older ferries in service by removing the asbestos from them, since the mineral is encapsulated securely within the vessels. Removing the asbestos could create unnecessary hazards for the workers involved, so it is more practical and realistic to replace older ferries over time, he said.
“Since 2007, we’ve brought eight new vessels into service,” said Deborah Marshall, B.C. Ferries’ executive director of public affairs and corporate development. “Next year, we’ll have three brand-new vessels.” One of the new ferries is expected to be delivered during the first week of January, while the other two should be in service by the summer, she added.
In his Nanaimo speech, Johnston pointed out that avoiding asbestos while working on a ferry or ship is sometimes impossible.
“Moreover, when work with asbestos-containing material is necessary and limited abatement is done, the risks associated with that abatement recur each additional time such work is needed. Consequently, the risks associated with doing limited abatements only grow,” he said on Dec. 7.
“This raises a very salient question: Why do we not simply do wholesale abatement in our worksites once?”
While employers usually believe that complete asbestos abatement is too expensive and risky, Johnston added, the BCFMWU feels that it is more risky not to remove the mineral. “And we are the ones who have to work in asbestos-containing worksites every day.”
But Fagen maintained that B.C. Ferries was doing what it reasonably could.
“We have all the proper procedures in place to manage asbestos, in accordance with WorkSafeBC policies and procedures,” he said. “All our employees are at as low a risk as we can possibly make it.”
Saskatoon-based NDP MP Sheri Benson introduced a private member’s bill proposing to stop all importing, exporting and manufacturing of asbestos, Bill C-321, in the fall (COHSN, Nov. 22). The bill became law on Dec. 14.