Multimedia
Audio
Video
Photo

Two CN Rail Derailments, Two Environmental Disasters

Anonyme, Lundi, Août 8, 2005 - 12:27

Frank Zappatista

Two Canadian National freight trains derailed last week leading to massive environmental damage in waterways in Alberta and BC.

On Wednesday August 3, a CN train derailment poured more than 700,000 litres of bunker fuel oil into Lake Wabamunin, a popular recreational lake west of Edmonton. Three days later, a CN train derailed near Squamish spilling highly toxic sodium hydroxide into the Cheakamus River.

In both instances, dozens of fish, birds and mammals were killed or weakened by the spills.

And in both instances the company acted extremely slowly to mitigate the damage and altering local people to the hazard. In Wabamunin, the company seemed more interested in repairing the track to keep its distribution lines open than in containing the fuel oil spill. Local residents were so disgusted with CN's slow response that over 100 mobilized to block a Canadian National railway crossing.

Residents near the Cheakamus River spill also complained that there was no immediate warning regarding possible health risks.

Additionally, both the Alberta and BC governments, notorious for their neoliberal, deregulatory ideology, were slow to respond.

For more info on the Cheakamus spill:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/08/06/bc_derail050806.html
http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_spill-derail20...

For more information on the Wabamunin Lake spill:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050803.wderail0803/...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050808.walbertaspil...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050805.waltaoil0805...

To contact CN regarding its lax safety and clean-up policies:

contact (at) cn.ca

E. Hunter Harrison CEO
Canadian National Railway Company
935 de La Gauchetière Street West
Montreal, Quebec H3B 2M9
P.O. Box 8100
Montreal, Quebec H3C 3N4



Dossier G20
  Nous vous offrons plusieurs reportages indépendants et témoignages...

Très beau dessin: des oiseaux s'unissent pour couper une cloture de métal, sur fonds bleauté de la ville de Toronto.
Liste des activités lors de ce
« contre-sommet » à Toronto

Vous pouvez aussi visiter ces médias alternatifs anglophones...

Centre des médias Alternatifs Toronto
2010.mediacoop.net


Media Co-op Toronto
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca


Toronto Community Mobilization
www.attacktheroots.net
(en Anglais)

CMAQ: Vie associative


Collectif à Québec: n'existe plus.

Impliquez-vous !

 

Ceci est un média alternatif de publication ouverte. Le collectif CMAQ, qui gère la validation des contributions sur le Indymedia-Québec, n'endosse aucunement les propos et ne juge pas de la véracité des informations. Ce sont les commentaires des Internautes, comme vous, qui servent à évaluer la qualité de l'information. Nous avons néanmoins une Politique éditoriale , qui essentiellement demande que les contributions portent sur une question d'émancipation et ne proviennent pas de médias commerciaux.

This is an alternative media using open publishing. The CMAQ collective, who validates the posts submitted on the Indymedia-Quebec, does not endorse in any way the opinions and statements and does not judge if the information is correct or true. The quality of the information is evaluated by the comments from Internet surfers, like yourself. We nonetheless have an Editorial Policy , which essentially requires that posts be related to questions of emancipation and does not come from a commercial media.