Crime Scene

Back in the formerly quiet town of Lac-Mégantic, thousands turned out for a mass and memorial service Saturday both inside and outside the church.

Photographs here of the victims.




MMA is still refusing to pay for the clean-up costs, saying that the insurance company should shoulder the responsibility.  Meanwhile costs are continuing to rise dramatically, now projected by some experts to climb into hundreds of millions, even a billion dollars.  Quebec law professor Daniel Gardner says he doubts MMA has the coverage to absorb their financial liability, and that he thinks the derailment could have "more financial consequences than any other land disaster in North American history."  He expects that the government will eventually shoulder the burden.

 

United Steelworkers reports that MMA has laid off 1/3rd of its workforce since the derailment.

Other U.S. companies are implicated in legal actions started in Illinois, with at least one, World Fuel Services from Miami, also refusing to contribute to the clean up.  World Petroleum is another defendant.

 

Global Research describes the catastrophe as a social and ecological tragedy driven by a growing Canadian petro state with the three main political parties solidly hooked on oil logic (e.g. "see, pipelines are much safer") and when the disaster could instead be raising a sane alternative, i.e. energy transition.

Martin Lukacs at The Guardian compares Lac-Mégantic to a corporate crime scene, the incinerated town center a "human sacrifice zone," rooted in events rising out of deregulation and "an energy rush driving companies to take ever greater risks." 

Below, TommyT in Fear (Lac-Mégantic):

 

Photo credits/via Montreal Gazette - top, photographer: Alan McGinnis, Lac-Mégantic residents in shock and grief at the Saturday memorial; bottom, photographer: Paul Chiasson, Musician Massillon LaPorte plays the trumpet to mourners outside the church on Saturday. Via Global Research, middle, Derailed oil trains in Lac-Mégantic disaster.