Workplace Safety and the Criminal Code
In May 1992, 26 miners died in an explosion at the Westray Mine in Nova Scotia. One of the recommendations from the public inquiry into that disaster was that the Government of Canada, should look into the accountability of corporate executives and directors for workplace safety and, based on the findings, introduce amendments to legislation.
In November 2002, after a review by the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the federal government announced plans to introduce amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada.
The Government's summary statement says:
"The criminal law should clearly impose on every person who employs or directs another person to perform work a legal duty to take reasonable care to avoid foreseeable harm to the person or the public. Wanton or reckless disregard of this duty leading to death or bodily harm would be the basis of a charge of criminal negligence."
The effect of such changes could be to criminalize corporate managers guilty of violations of occupational health and safety standards that result in the injury or death of a worker anywhere in Canada.
The proposed criminalization of workplace health and safety violations is not a simple issue. Occupational health and safety is currently a responsibility of provincial and territorial governments. The federal government says it does not intend to use criminal law to supplant or interfere with their regulatory role. However, adding workplace safety violations to the Criminal Code may have a major impact on the role of existing provincial and territorial legislation and enforcement.
In response to the Westray Mine disaster, Nova Scotia made comprehensive changes to its workplace health and safety laws. In the 10 years since Westray, no workplace disaster of this magnitude has occurred anywhere in Canada. Lessons have been learned from that terrible incident, and appropriate actions have been taken.
Why then the move to criminalize corporate managers for safety offences? It seems to be based more on political expediency than best practices to assure worker safety.
Criminalizing OH&S Violations, by Norman Keith. Accident Prevention, January/February 2003
Government Response to the Fifteenth Report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights
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