View cases - Stewart McKelvey

10that “the buck stopped with me” and describing the OHS Coordinator as an “informationsource”. He confirmed that if Mr. Della Valle happened to see something untoward ona worksite he would go to one of the supervisors for corrective action, having no directauthority over the employees.[26] Mr. MacNeil says that the defendant told him to “notify his men”, and MacNeilclaims to have done this verbally at toolbox meetings where he advised the workers “notto disturb it”. He also faxed the Muggah letter off to Cyril Leudey, but did little else. Inthe months after October of 2005 it appears he put off inquiries from certain individualsabout possible asbestos contamination. When, in April, Mr. Gillis of Amblynn Electricasked him about the Muggah report MacNeil said he’d forgotten he had it. ApparentlyMr. Routledge had given the report to Mr. Gillis on March 31, 2006.[27] When questioned by investigators, Mr. Della Valle said “I never received anyissues pertaining to asbestos in vermiculite from either tool box talks, hazardassessment, worksite inspections or employee investigations all of which came to mefor review and filing” In the same statement he was asked “Did you . . . take anyindependent action regarding disseminating of the information relating to the presenceof the asbestos in the insulation, or to ensure that the measures recommended by Mr.Muggah . . . were actually carried out?” to which he replied “No I did not…I took it forgranted that action would be carried out” He then made a comparison with priorpractice with fire drill inspections whereby he would recommend action on deficienciesto supervisors and thereafter assume such recommendations were carried out.Risk / Endangerment[28] One document in the book of exhibits is a letter from Canada Mortgage andHousing Corporation to the Department of Community Services stating that CMHC hadrecently been advised by Health Canada of a “potential health due to asbestos in loosefill vermiculite insulation.” If Mr. Della Valle wished to have confirmation of thestatements made by David Muggah, such advisories were readily available to him.What constitutes risk or endangerment has been considered in other cases, but rarelycenters around medical evidence. No expert opinion is needed to show that falling off aplatform, or catching one’s arm in a machine, presents a risk to health. Here theconcept of risk is somewhat more distant from the event, both in time (any harm thatmaterializes will occur years from exposure) and in nature (it is impossible to measureactual exposure levels and predict effects on a particular individual).