Convicted: Delsan – A.I.M. Environmental Services Inc., 7825 Henri-Bourassa Boulevard East, Montreal, Quebec
Location: 874-876 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto (Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit project)
Description of Offence: Workers were directing pedestrian traffic while a wall on the project site was being demolished. While a worker was escorting pedestrians underneath an overhead protection, the wall under demolition collapsed, injuring one worker and a number of pedestrians.
Date of Offence: April 18, 2016
Date of Conviction: November 9, 2017. Conviction under Section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Penalty Imposed
- Delsan – A.I.M. Environmental Services Inc. was fined $60,000 in Toronto court by Justice of the Peace Ruby Wong.
- The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
Background
- Delsan – A.I.M. Environmental Services Inc. was sub-contracted to demolish the existing buildings on the future site of the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit. That day, the front façade wall of a building facing Eglinton Avenue West was being demolished.
- Two workers were assigned control of pedestrian traffic that was passing underneath an overhead protection. The workers would use a hand signal to alert the machine operator demolishing the wall to stop work, then would escort pedestrians to the other side.
- That afternoon, one worker signalled and believed that there had been a signal back indicating that demolition had stopped. However, while pedestrians were being escorted, the wall collapsed due to a latent defect in the wall and fell onto one of the signalling workers as well as pedestrians, with injuries sustained.
- The defendant failed to take the reasonable precaution of having an adequate procedure for the protection of workers and pedestrians adjacent to the wall, as required under the law.
– Ministry of Labour