Earlier today, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach held a press conference regarding the existence of private corporate rail police in Canada.
Namely, the conference involved him criticizing the country’s decision to allow rail companies to use their own private investigators to look into the circumstances of rail incidents, which he called an egregious conflict of interest.
Bachrach was joined by fellow NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice as well as Lori Desrochers and Pamela Fraser, two women who saw their family members perish in separate incidents while working for CN Rail, and the lawyer representing both families.
The speakers banded together to call for the abolishment of private corporate railway police since the investigations conducted by the railways have reportedly not yielded any kind of gratification for the victim’s families nor any kind of punishment or safety improvements from CN Rail.
Bacharch’s suggested solution is to replace private railway police with a public rail police body, funded by the rail corporations and held accountable by a civilian oversight body, which would allow for impartial investigations and to hopefully deliver justice to families.
This demand comes after a report done in the spring where the Transport Committee looked at rail safety in Canada and recommended that the conflict of interest created by the private police be dealt with by removing the police.
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