But family members of the two workers who died said the charges are inadequate and are not enough of a deterrence for what they believe was negligent behaviour on the part of the owner.
A marine services company and its director are jointly facing a slew of Workers Compensation Act criminal charges for the fatal sinking of a tugboat in storm-tossed waters off Kitimat.
Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7 a.m., Monday to Friday.
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Sunrise presented by Vancouver Sun will soon be in your inbox.
The tug’s captain, Troy Pearson, and 25-year-old deckhand Charley Cragg died. A third crew member, 19-year-old Zac Dolan, was rescued after washing ashore.
On Monday, eight charges were filed in provincial court in Prince Rupert against Wainwright Marine Services Ltd. and James Geoffrey Bates, just shy of two years after the sinking.
The counts include failing to ensure the health and safety of workers; failing to maintain protective equipment, including immersion suits and a tow abort system aboard the Ingenika; failing to train and supervise workers on safety procedures, including how to use those suits designed to improve chances of survival in an emergency; failing to give young or new workers proper health and safety training; failing to have a written plan for a water emergency where rescue or evacuation might be needed; and failing to hold and record annual emergency drills.
Genevieve Cragg, whose son Charley died on his first day of work, said the charges are a good start but far too inadequate.
“James Bats needs to be in jail for the rest of his life,” she said. “He scheduled my son to go out on a small tug attached to an oversized barge in gale force winds with freezing spray.”
Without more hefty criminal charges, she added, “the message to the marine industry and its workers is that workplace deaths are the cost of doing business.”
Along with Cragg’s family, Carlick-Pearson has waged a determined campaign to have criminal charges laid. She called the company negligent for putting Pearson and the crew in peril on a night when no one should have been on the water.
She is disappointed the Crown didn’t agree to try Wainwright and Bates on more serious charges.
“I feel that it’s very unfortunate the company wasn’t held responsible for criminal negligence causing death,” she said, noting all the charges laid on Monday are under the Workers Compensation Act of B.C.
Despite the possibility of $777,000 and up to six months in jail, she said that’s not an adequate deterrent for what she sees as gross negligence.
“Three-quarters of a million dollars to a large corporation is nothing, and it isn’t going to bring back my husband and my child’s father, and young Charley as well.”
“Until justice is served we won’t really feel at ease.”
Last fall, Wainwright and Bates Properties Ltd. were fined $62,000 by Transport Canada for safety violations under the Canada Shipping Act.
The financial penalties are the maximum allowed under law but were called a “slap in the face” by Pearson’s widow as being an inadequate punishment.
The Transportation Safety Board has been sounding the alarm over lack of regulation and enforcement governing Canadian tugboats less than 15 gross tonnage in size.
More to come…
jruttle@postmedia.com
chchan@postmedia.com
