(Source: CBC News, May 13, 2014)
MONTREAL — The Crown announced late Monday that the Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway (MM&A) and three of its former employees — Jean Demaitre (manager of train operations), Richard Labrie (railway traffic controller) and engineer Tom Harding — would each face 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death, one count for each person who died in the Lac-Megantic tragedy in 2013.
Accused locomotive engineer Tom Harding is a member of the United Steelworkers Union, and the leadership there is outraged at his arrest. Harding’s attorney, Thomas Walsh, told CBC News: “Basically Mr. Harding was at home in the backyard, working on his boat with his son and a friend … when the SWAT squad showed up, heavily armed … and told everybody to get down on the ground and there was sirens wailing all over the place. They came in like gangbusters … all dressed in camouflage outfits, faces hidden and their guns drawn.”
Full story: CBC News