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LEGAL REPORT: LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT employee safety is a major priority in Canada." —MARTIN CAUCHON, FORMER FEDERAL JUSTICE MINISTER More than four years later, in the wake of the first crimi- nal conviction and sentence of a Canadian company under the law, Cauchon is still convinced that's the case. "I think the judge understood very well the law's provisions for sentenc- ing [and] considered and analyzed and linked them with the factors of the case," says the former minister, who is now back practising law at Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP in Montreal. "I think the ruling sends a clear message to the marketplace that employee safety is a major priority in Canada." But some labour lawyers aren't so sure. They think the sen- tence imposed in the case, a $100,000 fine, calls into question the pertinence of amending the Criminal Code to hold em- sends a clear message to the marketplace that "I think the ruling ployers criminally liable for negligent actions — or inactions — that result in injuries and/or death to their employees in the workplace. "The purpose of C-45 was to put people in jail," said Marie-France Veilleux, a veteran labour lawyer with the Teamsters Canada union in Montreal, to which the deceased worker at the heart of the precedent-setting case belonged. "What's the point of [C-45] if employers can plead guilty or plea bargain and pay a fine and avoid going to jail?" The case, which has been the subject of much conversation in labour circles across Canada, involved Quebec paving stone manufacturer Transpavé Inc. It began Oct. 11, 2005, when Syl- vain L'Écuyer, a new employee who had just completed his pro- bationary period, was grabbed and crushed by an automatic pallitizer used to stack concrete stabs and blocks at the com- pany's manufacturing plant in Saint-Eustache. Investigations into the 23-year-old's death by both Quebec's Health and Safety Board (CSST) and provincial police found that a motion-detection safety mechanism with optical beams, which controlled access to a stacking station where the palli- tizer automatically grabs cement blocks, had been purposely unplugged at the time of the accident. While no one was found or admitted to having deactivated the system, the investigation revealed that veteran company employees knew how to unplug the system — and often did so, despite the evident danger, to make it easier and faster to take away excess cement blocks — and that management officials at the family-owned business You are a corporate counsel, a lawyer who does not practice em ployment and labour law, or a member of a firm which has been conflicted out or does not have an office in Ontario. You have an important matter which requires representation you will be confident with. Kuretzky Vassos Henderson LLP is widely recognized as one of Canada's leading employment and labour law boutiques. We practise at the cutting edge assisting a wide spectrum of clients ranging from major corporate employers through to individual plaintiffs. Our practice includes employment contracts, wrongful dismissal, collective bargaining, labour board applications, arbitrations, adjudications, employment standards, health & safety, human rights and ADR. To discuss what we can do for you or your client, call Kuretzky Vassos Henderson LLP at (416) 865-0504. Kuretzky Vassos Henderson LLP Suite 1404, Yonge Richmond Centre, 151 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 2W7 Telephone (416) 865-0504 Facsimile (416) 865-9567 www.kuretzkyvassos.com www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JUNE 2008 35