The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
The date hasn’t been set for the coroner’s inquest into the June 8, 2011, deaths of two men at Vale’s Stobie Mine, but months of planning for the complicated procedure are under way.
The examination into the deaths of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, who were killed when they were overcome by 350 tons of muck while working at the 3,000-foot level of the century-old mine, is expected to be lengthy and complicated.
Cheryl Mahyr, issues manager with the Office of the Chief Coroner and Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, said Friday she couldn’t make any announcement about the timing of the inquest.
Coroners’ inquests are mandatory in workplace deaths in Ontario, and are not held until after outstanding investigations and charges under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act are dealt with, including appeals.
Both United Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale conducted exhaustive investigations into the double fatality. Charges were laid against Vale and one of its supervisors under the OHSA. Vale pleaded guilty to several of those charges, agreed to a $1 million fine and charges were dropped against the supervisor. ”In the interest of natural justice and fairness, we can’t proceed (with an inquest) until other things have taken place and appeal periods have passed,” said Mahyr.
It isn’t known if the comprehensive mining review ordered by Labour Minister Yasir Naqvi into mining health and safety in the province will affect the timing of the Stobie inquest, Mahyr said.
The mining review is important and is “informing” the timing of the inquest, so it’s one of the factors under consideration in planning.
Mahyr couldn’t say if the inquest would be held “before the review is conducted or during” it.
It could be logistics that hold up the start date for the examination.
The inquest will be one of the longer ones the coroner’s office has conducted, involving a large company, several interested parties seeking standing and inquest briefs that could take months to prepare, depending on the amount of documentation they contain.
For the rest of this column, click here: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/02/01/stobie-mine-inquest-in-planning-stage