CN Railways is being sued by the Mattagami First Nation over damages from derailments and oil spills in the latter’s territory during two separate incidents in 2015.
The First Nation is seeking monetary damages for “the harms caused to their aboriginal and treaty rights to harvest, hunt, fish and share knowledge out on the land,” it said in a statement.
On February 14 that year, 29 tank cars derailed after a crude oil train applied emergency brakes at Gladwick, near Gogama, Ontario. According to the Transportation Safety Board (TSB), 19 of the tank cars were breached, and about 1.7 million litres of petroleum crude oil were released to either the atmosphere or the surface. The released product ignited, and the fires burned for five days. About 900 feet of mainline track was destroyed.
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Less than a month later, 39 tank cars of another crude oil train derailed near Gogama during another emergency braking incident. The March 07 accident led to the release of about 2.6 million litres of petroleum crude oil into the atmosphere, water, or land. The spilled oil ignited and caused explosions, and some of it entered the nearby Makami River, the TSB said.
There were no evacuations or injuries in both incidents. But the First Nation said the impact of both has been “catastrophic.”
“This is our homeland. Harvesting, hunting and fishing here have always been central to our livelihood and central to who we are. Because of the oil spills, many of our people don’t go out on the land anymore. We can’t gather the food we need. We can’t share our knowledge with our young people. It’s devastating,” said Chief Chad Boissoneau.
According to the TSB, CN Railway failed to detect rail cracks that lead to the February 14 incident, “despite numerous inspections.” In a separate report on the March 15 incident, it found that a portion of the track was repaired three days before the derailment, but an employee did not perform a proper test as required by the company’s “Engineering Track Standards.”
“We want justice for our land and for our people,” said Boissoneau, “It’s not right that CN Railway should be allowed to ignore safety measures and dump oil into our homeland. We’re
the ones who have to live with the damage.”
Related stories:
Companies backing pipelines have spilled tens of thousands of barrels: Report
Clean-up continues after derailed CN freight train spills 76,000 litres of oil
