In 1992, an underground explosion at the Westray Mine in Plymouth,
Nova Scotia, killed twenty-six miners. Although the owners of the mine
were charged criminally, no one was convicted, largely because it was
deemed too difficult to determine legal responsibility. More than a
decade after the Westray disaster, the federal government introduced
revisions to the Criminal Code aimed at strengthening corporate
criminal liability. Bill C-45, dubbed the Westray bill, requires
employers to ensure a safe workplace and attributes criminal liability
to organizations for seriously injuring or killing workers and/or the
public. Yet, while the federal government declared the Westray bill an
important step, the law has thus far failed to produce a crackdown on
corporate crime. In Still Dying for a Living, Steven Bittle turns a
critical eye on Canada’s corporate criminal liability law. Drawing
theoretical inspiration from Foucauldian and neo-Marxist literatures
and interweaving in-depth interviews and parliamentary transcripts,
Bittle reveals how legal, economic, and cultural discourses
surrounding the Westray bill downplayed the seriousness of workplace
injury and death, effectively characterizing these crimes as
regrettable but largely unavoidable accidents. As long as the primary
causes of workplace injury and death are not properly scrutinized,
Bittle argues, workers will continue to die in the pursuit of earning
a living.
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Corporate Criminal Liability after the Westray Mine Disaster
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780774823616
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
University of British Columbia Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter