Is it too late to get a public inquiry into Theresa’s death?
Tonight I was watching CBC’s Fifth Estate report of Laura Gainey’s death. (She’s the young woman who was swept overboard on the tall ship, the Picton Castle, last December.) I also watched the news and once again, they aired the story of the Polish immigrant who died after being Tasered by the RCMP at the Vancouver Airport. Public inquiries have been launched into both deaths. (I think there are about five public inquiries/inquests underway into Robert Dziekanski’s death alone.)
While my heart goes out to both the Gainey and Dziekanski families, I couldn’t help but wonder why the murders of Theresa Allore, Louise Camirand, and Manon Dube, (all Canadian citizens who were killed on Canadian soil) never warranted a full-scale public inquiry.
Is it too late to lobby the government and get one now? Do we need to rally the residents of the Eastern Townships to demand a public inquiry? After all, it was their communities that became the killing fields and it was their public health that was threatened by a possible serial killer.
Quebec’s Public Inquiry Commissions Act states:
“Whenever the Government deems it expedient to cause inquiry to be made into and concerning any matter connected with the good government of Québec, the conduct of any part of the public business, the administration of justice or any matter of importance relating to public health, or to the welfare of the population, it may, by a commission issued to that effect, appoint one or more commissioners by whom such inquiry shall be conducted.”
To read the rest of Quebec’s Public Inquiry Commissions Act, click the following link:
http://www.canlii.org/qc/laws/sta/c-37/20040210/whole.html
Canada’s Inquiries Act states:
"… that a public inquiry may be called into “any matter connected with the good government of Canada or the conduct of any part of the public business thereof.” This includes almost any event or issue relating to government. Further, the Act states that a public inquiry may only be called when the Governor-in-Council (or Cabinet) deems such action to be “expedient.” Put differently, Cabinet has complete freedom in deciding whether or not a public inquiry should be called."
For more information public inquiries in Canada, click here:
http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/public-inquiries-canada
Gainey dismisses report into
====
death of
daughter as 'coverup'
Tuesday, November
27, 2007 9:44
PM ET
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/11/27/gainey-ship.html
Hockey great Bob Gainey is slamming an investigation that concluded his daughter Laura, who was swept overboard a tall ship nearly a year ago, was the "unlucky victim" of an accident.
"Like any lie or coverup it's to try to take something that's happened and change the results," Gainey told the CBC's The Fifth Estate, in his first television interview about the incident since his daughter's death.
Laura Gainey, 25, was sailing on the Lunenburg, N.S.-based Picton Castle when a rogue wave washed over the ship off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., on Dec. 8, 2006.
An initial probe into the incident by officials in the Cook Islands, where the Picton Castle had been registered, raised a number of safety concerns. But a final
investigation determined the accident was unavoidable — a conclusion Gainey dismissed.
"It's so simple for most people to see that if you're in the middle of the ocean in a bad storm that perhaps lifejackets would be wise, perhaps harnesses would be wise," said Gainey, who is the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, a team he played his entire career with.
"There's information that they could hear my daughter for hours but they couldn't find her," Gainey said….
…The Cook Islands wrote a new report exonerating the Picton Castle and concluded Laura Gainey was simply an "unlucky victim."
"No silver bullet was identified whereby if any one thing or things had been done differently it would have certainly saved Laura Gainey's life," concluded the July 13 report, according to the Canadian Press.
"Laura Gainey was an unlucky victim of the risk that she took by electing to go to sea."
It concluded Laura's fatigue couldn't be proven as a factor in the accident; the crew worked "regular" shifts; staffing levels weren't an issue, and the crew was "well trained" in man-overboard procedures.
But after lobbying by the Gainey family, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada announced last week it will do its own inquiry into how Laura Gainey was swept off the tall ship.
Maritime Missy
posted by John Allore @ 11/29/2007 01:24:00 AM
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