Westray Coal Mine Disaster
Wednesday February 20, 2002
Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg--Transcona, NDP): Mr.
Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Justice. Pretty soon 10 years will
have passed since the Westray coal mine disaster, which many regard not only as
a tragedy but a criminal event. Yet 10 years down the road we still have no
legislation dealing with criminal responsibility in these kinds of situations.
The Minister of Justice will be aware that yesterday
the subject matter of a private member's bill by the member for Churchill was
referred to the justice committee. I want to ask the Minister of Justice
whether he will commit now to working with the committee to make sure that by
the expiry of this year in which we have the tenth anniversary of that disaster
we have legislation dealing with the--
The Speaker: The hon. Minister of Justice.
Hon. Martin Cauchon (Minister of Justice and
Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I know of the matter and of
course I will be working with the committee. I want to hear from stakeholders,
from people all across the country, in order to see what we are going to have
to do. Therefore, I do understand that the matter is under study and I will
fully co-operate with the committee.
