Mr. Speaker, if a drunk driver kills a pedestrian he is not only charged under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, he is charged with manslaughter under the Criminal Code of Canada. Yet if people kill 26 employees due to gross negligence and a wilful blindness to workplace safety, as in the case of Westray Mine, they walk away scot-free.
Justice Peter Richard, the chair of the Westray inquiry, directed parliament to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to make directors of business truly accountable for the working conditions in any enterprise under their direction.
The House of Commons concurred with Justice Richard's recommendation when it passed Motion No. 79 by an overwhelming majority.
The Canadian people want parliament to amend the Criminal Code of Canada so that when corporate greed leads to corporate murder there will be corresponding corporate accountability and corporate responsibility.
The government should implement the recommendations of the Westray inquiry, and it should do it in this session of this parliament without delay.