Although money cannot replace the 47 people who died in Lac-Mégantic on July 6, 2013, hundreds of millions of dollars have been claimed for all types of damage caused by the train disaster. Who paid for the compensation of the victims and their families, for the reconstruction of the city center that had been reduced to rubble, and for the rehabilitation of the soil and waterways? And who will pay again? Because 10 years later, not everything has been clarified and a class action lawsuit is still in court.
Unsurprisingly, the lawsuits began pouring out shortly after the oil wagons blew up and the fire ravaged downtown.
Around forty people directly or indirectly linked to the rail disaster were prosecuted, including the lessors of wagons and the producers of the oil being transported. The victims filed a class action lawsuit, and other lawsuits for damages were filed, most notably by the Quebec government, seeking reimbursement of all bills it owed. Insurance companies also went to court, wanting to recover from the companies allegedly responsible for the disaster all the amounts they had paid to their policyholders, who in particular had lost their homes.
Lac Mégantic, ten years later
Barely a month later, however, the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MMA) railroad company, which was at the center of this deadly gaffe, sought bankruptcy protection from the Quebec Supreme Court against its creditors. His assets on Canadian soil were less than the value of the claims that continued to mount against the company, the company that owned the railroad said at the time. Similar protections were granted to its parent company in the United States.
The claims filed exceeded $1 billion, calculated a Quebec judge hearing the case. The sale of MMA’s Canadian and US assets was used to pay secured creditors – including the US government – but that money fell far short of the total amount requested.
compensation fund
The various companies sued have reached an agreement: they have agreed to pay amounts into a compensation fund for the benefit of creditors, victims and their families. In return, the court case against them was dropped. Ultimately, this fund contained more than $430 million from the settlement with MMA’s creditors. Different figures were circulated, in particular because of the amounts paid in US dollars and the exchange rate fluctuations.
For example, the federal government contributed $75 million, World Fuel Services $135 million, and Irving Oil $75 million. But no one was fully compensated: for example, Quebec received only 93.4 million (of the 320 million it claimed) and insurers only 1 million of the 15 claimed. The fund was passed by creditors and victims in June 2015. It was approved by a Quebec judge that same year. Millions of dollars were paid to the victims, but the amount they received varied depending on their situation.
Only the Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) resisted, refusing to participate in the fund or pay any amount on the grounds that they had nothing to blame. The case against her was ongoing.
She was finally exonerated in December 2022, with Supreme Court Justice Martin Bureau finding that “CP accepts no legal liability in this tragic accident.” That responsibility rests primarily with the train driver and last train driver, Thomas Harding. and his employer, the MMA.” The judge therefore dismissed the three claims against CP, including the class action.
However, the victim group that filed this class action lawsuit appealed the verdict: this is not the end of this lawsuit against the KP.
An injunction is also in sight to prevent the expropriation of 42 plots of land for the construction of the Lac-Mégantic railway bypass. Lawyers said the lawsuit will be filed in early July.
Pay for pollution
According to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, about six million liters of crude oil were spilled that day and about 100,000 liters ended up in the Chaudière River and Lake Megantic.
The railroad company MMA was fined the maximum fine of one million dollars under the Fisheries Act for polluting these fish-dwelling waters. Of that amount, at least $400,000 went to the Environmental Damages Fund.
The municipality of Lac-Mégantic and the governments of Quebec and Canada had to foot the bill for soil and waterway decontamination.
criminal and criminal charges
Criminal proceedings also took place in 2017. Charges of criminal negligence resulting in death were brought against conductor Thomas Harding, lane controller Richard Labrie and head of Quebec MMA operations Jean Demaître.
All three were found not guilty by a jury in January 2018 after an emotional trial that lasted several weeks at the Sherbrooke Courthouse.
MMA was also charged with criminal negligence, but the trial never went ahead: the chief of law and law enforcement dropped the case against the company because he no longer believed in a conviction after the acquittal of the three employees charged with the same charge achieve crime.
MMA executives and train driver Thomas Harding were also prosecuted for offenses under the Railway Safety Act. They all pleaded guilty in 2018. Mr Harding received a suspended sentence of six months. The five leaders were fined US$50,000 each, the maximum amount allowed, for a total of US$250,000.