43rd Parliament291Not answered before dissolutionAugust 15, 2021e-3235e-3235 (Transportation)TavengwaRunyowaNikiAshtonChurchill—Keewatinook AskiNDPMBMarch 4, 2021, at 4:27 p.m. (EDT)June 2, 2021, at 4:27 p.m. (EDT)June 21, 2021June 2, 2021Petition to the <Addressee type="3" affiliationId="" mp-riding-display="1">Government of Canada</Addressee>Whereas:Sections 44 and 44.1 of the Railway Safety Act effectively authorize Canada’s private railway corporations to own and control police forces that exercise full criminal law enforcement powers;These railway corporations’ police officers are both public servants and private corporate employees who report and answer to company management in operational matters and criminal investigations;Apart from one ad hoc criminal investigation that the RCMP launched in December 2020, private railway police forces have invariably asserted exclusive criminal jurisdiction over railway disasters, including cases where the railway police forces’ corporate owners were implicated;In a democratic Canada, criminal investigations of fatalities and serious injuries must be entrusted to independent police forces, not the private corporations that may be responsible;Systematically enabling private corporations to criminally investigate themselves violates the rule of law, police independence, and the integrity of Canada’s criminal justice system;The Government of Canada has the duty to determine why, for over a century, and despite the primacy of police independence, the RCMP and Canada’s public police forces have invariably allowed private railway corporations to criminally investigate themselves through their company police forces; andPrivate railway companies’ self-investigation model has deprived thousands of Canadians of their right to independent and accountable criminal investigations of railway tragedies.We, the undersigned, Canadian citizens, call upon the Government of Canada to establish a national inquiry under the Inquiries Act to determine the causes and consequences of Canada’s private railway self-investigation model on the criminal investigation of thousands of railway fatalities, serious injuries, explosions, and environmental disasters.Inquiries and public inquiriesRail transport safetySecurity services43rd Parliament229Not certifiedJune 15, 2020e-2287e-2287 (Transportation)BrianDiasAlexandreBoulericeRosemont—La Petite-PatrieNDPQCFebruary 14, 2020, at 10:33 a.m. (EDT)June 13, 2020, at 10:33 a.m. (EDT)June 15, 2020Petition to the <Addressee type="3" affiliationId="" mp-riding-display="1">Government of Canada</Addressee>Whereas:Canadians, who live along rail corridors, assume serious risks associated with the transport of crude oil and other dangerous goods by rail;Railway cars, carrying petroleum and other hazardous cargo, pass through urban areas, by residences, schools and hospitals;We value the lives of our first responders, and recognize the need to provide them with reliable real-time information regarding the transportation of dangerous goods by rail; andRail corporations, with profit seeking mandates, in the event of an incident involving the accidental release of dangerous cargo into the environment, cannot be expected to conduct themselves strictly in the interests of the public or the affected environment.We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to: 1. Require all railway corporations, by legislation, to provide a copy of its train consists to Transport Canada prior to departure when transporting dangerous goods, in order to ensure that this information is immediately available to First Responders so that, in the event of a serious incident, they may protect themselves, and the affected community, with the appropriate safety equipment and containment methods;2. Conduct an Environmental Assessment at the site of all incidents involving the release of dangerous cargo, in order to properly assess damages to the environment, mitigate the damages, and oversee environmental restoration to the affected area.Environmental assessmentFreight transportationHazardous substances and hazardous productsRail transport safety