Media Advisory - WESTRAY + 20: Two-Day Symposium to Examine Lack of Corporate Criminal Prosecutions

OTTAWA, Oct. 22, 2012 /CNW/ - Politicians, regulators, victims, labour and management from across Canada, along with international experts, will come together at the University of Ottawa on Oct. 24-25 to examine why amendments to corporate criminal negligence law have not led to more criminal prosecutions.

WHAT: Westray + 20 Symposium

WHEN: Oct. 24-25, 2012

WHERE: Tabaret Hall, Room 112, University of Ottawa, 550 Cumberland St.

WHO: Politicians, regulators, victims, labour, management, international experts.

The Westray + 20 Symposium is organized through the Canada Research Chair on Occupational Health and Safety Law at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. Panels will address the lack of prosecutions despite thousands of workplace fatalities since 2003-2004, when parliament unanimously passed what became known as the "Westray Bill."

The bill amended the Criminal Code of Canada to hold corporations, their directors and executives criminally accountable for willfully endangering workers' lives.

The symposium marks 20 years and five months since the explosion of the Westray Mine in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, where 11 bodies remain buried at the site that killed an entire shift of 26 miners on May 9, 1992.

For details on the two-day event, visit www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca/westrayplus20.

Admission is free and open to media but space is limited.

SOURCE: Westray + 20 Symposium

Caroline Couillard, 613-562-5800 ext. 3640, [email protected]