(Quebec) The National Assembly commemorated Friday the 10th anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster which killed 47 people on the night of July 5 to 6, 2013.
The MNA for Mégantic, François Jacques, tabled a motion in memory of the victims, in the presence of former mayor Colette Roy-Laroche, in the galleries of the Assembly.
He was visibly very moved and trembled throughout his speech.
“I would like to tell you that time fixes things, that you get used to mourning, pain and sadness,” he said. I personally knew 43 of the victims. In fact, 10 years later, I see open wounds around me every day. »
He said he often gets asked what the state of mind is in the municipality 10 years later.
“We would like to rebuild as it was before, to be what we were, but it will never be as before. »
For her part, the QS deputy for Sherbrooke, Christine Labrie, underlined that “the force of the explosion marked the spirits throughout the world”.
She said she still saw “the distress” in the faces of loved ones who have lost family.
She did not fail to recall the whole debate around rail safety and the responsibility of the company, Montreal Maine and Atlantic (MMA).
“It’s the result of a company’s negligence,” she concluded.
The elected officials then observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims.
On July 6, 2013, the entire downtown Lac-Mégantic was razed by this terrible disaster.
A Montreal Maine and Atlantic 72-car convoy carrying crude oil was parked in nearby Nantes when its brake system failed after a locomotive fire. The runaway train started hurtling down the long slope all by itself in the middle of the night. It derailed in the heart of downtown Lac-Mégantic, near restaurants and bars, and killed 47 people.
The flow of burning oil escaping from the wagons devastated everything in its path.
Three MMA employees were found not guilty in 2018 of 47 charges of criminal negligence causing death.
Train conductor Thomas Harding, who pleaded guilty to a criminal charge for failing to activate all the brakes sufficiently to secure the train, served a six-month sentence in house arrest.
In 2016, $450 million was raised to settle civil lawsuits against MMA under the Creditors Arrangement Act.