Friday, October 20, 2006

Rough seas ahead for Admiral Hahn

Capt Darin Bowland appeared on the Bill Good show this morning (available at the CKNW Audio Vault from 8:30-9 am), but didn’t seem to give much information on his side of the story regarding the recent withdrawal of his lawsuit against B C Ferries. He did touch on safety issues, all be it from his brief period of time as the safety investigator.

He didn’t’ answer many of the question posed by Good about his abandoned law suit, nor did he answer comments made by BC Ferries head David Hahn yesterday, who seemed to paint the lawsuit as a quest for money more than safety.

What he did talk about was safety at the Ferry Corporation, all be it from his brief six week period of time as the head of the Health and Safety department. He didn’t really offer much that hadn’t been heard before, the fleet is aging some of the equipment has seen better days, but there wasn’t really any smoking gun so to speak of that will send them reeling at the Ferry Corp. head office. He basically expanded on the observations that he made in a 22 page affidavit that was part of the dropped legal matter.

However, while that legal matter seems to be over, the situation at the Ferry Corporation does continue to dominate the headlines in the wake of the sinking of the queen of the North back in March of this year. The latest of developments have resulted in a call, for a judicial inquiry into the incident by the ferry workers union.

The union brought up the subject of repeated rumors that a relationship among two of the ships workers was a possible cause of the accident, suggesting that it is being used as a smokescreen to deflect the real safety issues with the fleet.

It goes to show the still suspicious state of the relations between the management of the Ferry Corporation and its employees and how that could impact on any in house or governmental investigation of the sinking.

Which perhaps is why it may be best to bring a judicial inquiry into the process, an independent and detached investigation is required to learn just what happened on that night off the rocks of Gil Island. A judicial inquiry with the powers that would go along with it, could be the much needed adjudicator into what has deteriorated into more of a labour management issue than one of safety of the fleet.

The level of mistrust between the union and management needs to be overcome and it may be that a judicial inquiry is the best vehicle to accomplish that.

The credibility of a much respected and much needed service is at stake, the President of BC Ferries, the management and its union should not be afraid of the truth about what happened that night.

It’s something that the people of British Columbia not only need to learn, but deserve to learn.

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