{"id":1820,"date":"2024-04-28T21:59:56","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T02:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/?p=1820"},"modified":"2024-04-28T22:05:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T03:05:08","slug":"criminal-charge-in-young-workers-death-sends-strong-message-labour-group-says-police-add-criminal-charge-to-supervisor-alleged-to-have-broken-provincial-safety-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/?p=1820","title":{"rendered":"Criminal charge in young worker&#8217;s death sends strong message, labour group says.  Police add criminal charge to supervisor alleged to have broken provincial safety law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nicholas Chenier, who died on the job while working for Best Green Hedges in 2023, was saving up to get his own place, a courtroom heard last week. He was 20. (Photo submitted by Jennifer Chenier).<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"authorText\" data-cy=\"author-text\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/author\/guy-quenneville-1.3950762\">Guy Quenneville<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"bullet\">\u00b7 <\/span>CBC News <span class=\"bullet\">\u00b7 <\/span><time class=\"timeStamp\" datetime=\"2024-04-28T08:00:00.231Z\">Posted: Apr 28, 2024 4:00 AM ED<\/time><\/p>\n<p>A criminal charge laid against a supervisor in the death of a young worker in Ottawa marks\u00a0a rare but important step toward preventing future workplace fatalities, the local labour council says.<\/p>\n<p>Last week,\u00a0the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) announced it had charged a manager at Best Green Hedges\u00a0\u2014 a small company with up to 18 employees\u00a0\u2014 with one count of criminal negligence causing death.<\/p>\n<p>The charge stemmed from the May\u00a02023\u00a0death of 20-year-old Nicholas Chenier, who was killed when\u00a0his\u00a0battery-powered trimming attachment touched a 16,000-volt power line while he was landscaping\u00a0bushes between two homes in\u00a0Manotick.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/manotick-workplace-death-nick-chenier-1.6836479\">Worker electrocuted while trimming a hedge in Manotick<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a separate, non-criminal court proceeding on Thursday, Best Green Hedges&#8217; director, Sheldon Bestgreen, pleaded guilty for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/hedge-trimming-company-director-pleads-guilty-in-death-of-young-worker-1.7184863\">failing to ensure his company complied with Ontario&#8217;s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[I] believed my company was doing what was necessary to keep our workers safe.\u00a0I realize it was not,&#8221; Bestgreen said in a statement shared with CBC after he was handed\u00a0a $45,000 fine\u00a0plus a victim impact surcharge.<\/p>\n<p>Supervisor Steven Deans was also charged under the OHSA\u00a0for allegedly failing to take every reasonable precaution to protect Chenier.<\/p>\n<p>But at the request of his lawyer, Fabienne Lajoie, Deans&#8217; OHSA matter was adjourned to May 30. His criminal charge was announced only hours before Bestgreen&#8217;s sentencing hearing began, and Lajoie said Deans needed time to consider his options.<\/p>\n<p>According to the agreed statement of facts filed for the OHSA matter, on the day Chenier died, it was just him and another worker \u2014 not Deans \u2014 at the site.<\/p>\n<p>Lajoie declined to comment to CBC about Deans&#8217; criminal charge. Deans will be back in court on May 29.<\/p>\n<h2>Mom taking part in Sunday ceremony<\/h2>\n<p>While Chenier&#8217;s mother Jennifer described\u00a0Bestgreen&#8217;s fine on Thursday as &#8220;a slap on the wrist,&#8221; she was &#8220;extremely happy&#8221; to hear about the criminal charge against Deans, calling it &#8220;a little bit of hope after the disappointment today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa and District Labour Council, said his group believes it&#8217;s the first time someone&#8217;s been\u00a0charged with\u00a0criminal negligence causing death in an Ottawa workplace fatality.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since the so-called Westray law came into effect\u00a0two decades ago, the labour council has been calling on police forces to take a stronger role in the investigation of job site deaths.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/nova-scotia\/nova-scotia-prosecutor-defends-westray-law-1.6448182#:~:text=Alex%20Keaveny%20said%20the%20%22true,serious%20injury%20or%20death%20cases.\">Westray disaster changed attitudes about workplace safety, says prosecutor<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The federal\u00a0legislation was enacted in 2004 after a methane explosion ripped through the Westray coal mine in Nova Scotia in 1992, killing 26 miners. It&#8217;s\u00a0intended to hold companies and individuals criminally responsible for workplace deaths.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;If there [were]\u00a0no workplace fatalities, there&#8217;d be no need to see those kinds of charges laid. But in that regards, we&#8217;re pleased,&#8221; McKenny said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The hope is that it sends a message to other employers, to the community, that they have to pay attention to health and safety or what will happen is charges like this, in addition &#8230; to the Ministry of Labour charges.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Both the OPS and Ontario&#8217;s\u00a0Ministry of the Attorney General declined to say if\u00a0the charge against Deans represents such a local precedent, with the ministry saying it would be inappropriate to do so while his case is before the court.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, that sort of charge in Ottawa is &#8220;extremely rare,&#8221; said\u00a0Steven Bittle,\u00a0an associate criminology professor at the University of Ottawa.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/usw.ca\/resources\/westray-legal-brief\/#:~:text=As%20of%20early%202022%2C%20there,Sentences%20have%20been%20relatively%20minor.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the United Steelworkers union<\/a>, between 2004 and 2022, the Westray amendments have been used\u00a0in approximately 23 incidents to bring criminal negligence charges in cases of serious worker injury and death.<\/p>\n<p>As of early 2022, there have been only nine successful prosecutions,\u00a0according to the union: four in Quebec, four in Ontario and one in British Columbia.<\/p>\n<p>Both the labour council and Jennifer Chenier said they&#8217;d be taking part Sunday in the annual\u00a0National Day of Mourning Ceremony for Workers Killed or Injured on the Job.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday&#8217;s commemoration in Vincent Massey Park comes just one week shy of the anniversary of her son&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a long, hard year,&#8221; she said.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nicholas Chenier, who died on the job while working for Best Green Hedges in 2023, was saving up to get<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1820"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamaw103.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}