Popular Mechanics turns its attention to the Queen of the North sinking

Popular Mechanics magazine has done a feature length story on the ill fated journey of the Queen of the North in March of 2006. The publication uses the Transportation Safety Board report, as well as first person interviews with a number of those that went out to rescue the passengers on that night, trying to make some sense of the fourteen minutes of distraction that resulted in disaster.

Done in a time line fashion, the magazine outlines the key moments of the journey and the rescue plans put in place out of Hartley Bay and through the Canadian Coast Guard. Starting with the vessels 8 pm departure time out of Prince Rupert, the path of the vessel to its final resting place off of Gil Island is recounted, with incidents and observations recorded as the hours and minutes tick by.

While its an interesting review of the tragic night, it does come with a few flaws as outlined by no less an authority than the Commanding officer of the Coast Guard vessel Point Henry who leaves a commentary in the feedback section correcting a few of the errors in the publications presentation.

Still it's an interesting read and fairly detailed look at the last hours of the Queen of the North, the first vessel of the BC Ferries fleet to sink since the Ferry service took to the province's waters in 1960.

The full report will appear in the magazine's June 2008 edition and it's online version can be found on the magazines website, complete with a number of photos.

He asked once, he asked twice, but still the RCMP would not take his advice...

It’s pretty safe to assume that if you drove your car into a mailbox, building or another car, that one of the first things that might happen would be that you would be asked to take a breathalyzer test and/or be asked to provide a blood sample. It would be even more urgent to examine all possibilities, especially if your actions led to the death of innocent persons.

Yet when the Queen of the North plowed into Gil Island, resulting in the loss of two lives, there was no testing of those crew members involved with the operation of the ill fated ferry. That despite the fact that the President of BC Ferries asked a number of times for testing to be done by investigating RCMP officers, a refusal to do so which left the BC Ferries head David Hahn dumbfounded at the time.

In Tuesday’s Globe and Mail the embattled President of BC Ferries went on the record with his thoughts about those early days of the Queen of the North investigation. He outlined his interpretation of his company’s involvement in the process; once the notification was made that the Queen of the North had sunk off of Gil Island.

Hahn has been busy making his concerns known now, as part of his campaign to have the federal government make it clear that mandatory drug and alcohol testing should be required in safety sensitive roles on the ferries.

The RCMP has yet to provide any indication as to why they refused to conduct intoxication tests at the time of the incident, falling back on the cover that the incident is still under investigation. It will be interesting to learn why a key aspect of an investigation, did not take place at the most critical point of the process to find out what went wrong that night.

While the Ferries president's information is of interest to the public, the timing is rather curious. By going public now with his concerns, instead of when the incident took place, it could appear to some to be designed to be a form of damage control. Especially after the release of last weeks notice by the Transportation Safety Board that there was evidence of frequent drug use on the northern routes of the Ferry Corporation.

At the time of the sinking, Mr. Hahn kept his comments to himself, rather than going public with his thoughts, despite his concerns over possible impairment at the time of the accident and his unsuccessful urging of the RCMP to conduct impairment testing of the employees.

The union representatives for the Ferry workers continue to remain silent on the issue of drug and alcohol testing, declining as recently as Monday to offer a union comment or position on the issue.

It seems that from government to company to union, everyone wants to stay quiet on the problems at BC Ferries. It makes for a culture of silence there, one which doesn’t leave the public with a great sense of reassurance on the state of affairs on our coastal waters.

The passengers and customers might be inclined to wish that they would begin to lift the shroud of silence on the many safety issues in the transportation sector. There’s a need for all participants to become a little more engaged in the process of making their industry and our transportation system safer.


RCMP refused to test crew for drugs: ferry chief
BC Ferries president describes how his repeated requests were rebuffed
JUSTINE HUNTER
Globe and Mail Update
October 23, 2007 at 3:00 AM EDT

VICTORIA — David Hahn, president of BC Ferries, repeatedly asked to have the bridge crew of the Queen of the North tested for drug and alcohol in the hours after the ship crashed and sank, but RCMP investigators refused.

That revelation follows last week's findings that some members of the crew regularly consumed marijuana both on and off the ship, and the assertion that there was no evidence to show that any crew members on the doomed ship were impaired.

The Queen of the North sank in the early hours of March 22, 2006, after ramming into Gil Island at full speed. The ship had failed to make a crucial course correction, and a series of investigations are still under way into how that happened.

But Mr. Hahn said in an interview that he is still baffled that no tests were done to rule out drugs or alcohol.

From the moment BC Ferries' lawyers touched down in Prince Rupert four hours after the ship sank, Mr. Hahn was pressing to have the crew tested for evidence of intoxication.

“That's when I started saying, talk to the RCMP, I want drug and alcohol testing done on these people, if nothing else just to know that there wasn't anything like that involved,” Mr. Hahn recalled.

When Mr. Hahn, sitting at the company's operations centre in Victoria, was told the RCMP were not prepared to seek testing, he said he was in a state of disbelief.

“I said, ‘Go back into the room and tell them this is what we want to have done and that it's important to have it done.' It was again rebuffed, they felt there wasn't any indication, based on their interviews with the individuals, that there was any impairment.”

Mr. Hahn kept his concerns to himself at the time: Publicly, the ferry president said shortly after the crash that there was no evidence that alcohol played a role.

The RCMP refused comment Monday on the decision not to conduct intoxication tests after the ferry disaster, which claimed two lives. “The matter is still under investigation,” said Constable Annie Linteau, an RCMP spokesperson.

Last week, the Transportation Safety Board announced that it had uncovered evidence of drug use aboard the ship. But the TSB stressed that it was not linking the drug use to those in command on the night of the crash.

“The TSB learned that several crew members of the Queen of the North regularly smoked cannabis between shifts, both on board and off the vessel. The board stressed that there is no evidence that the crew members on the bridge at the time of the accident were impaired,” an Oct. 17 statement said.

John Cottreau, a spokesman for the TSB, said Monday the statement wasn't meant to clear the bridge crew, but to simply point out the lack of hard facts.

While it is in the TSB's power to ask for such testing, it did not request tests in this case and he could not say why. “It just wasn't done,” he said.

The TSB was set to release its final report on the sinking this fall, but new evidence – crew testimony suggesting no officer was on the bridge at the time of the crash – has sent investigators back to conduct more interviews. That second set of questioning led to the board's concerns about drug use.

The issue of testing for drugs and alcohol seemed obvious, Mr. Hahn said, particularly given the evidence that the captain of the Exxon Valdez was intoxicated while operating the oil tanker that crashed into an Alaskan reef in 1989.

Mr. Hahn wants the federal government to allow mandatory and random drug and alcohol tests of crew in safety-sensitive roles.

“There are times when public safety flat out trumps human rights,” he said. “I want to feel good when my kids go on the ferries. I don't want to worry about them.”

Jackie Miller, president of the union representing the ship's crew, declined comment Monday.

Did the Quartermaster stand alone?

More details have been released about the ill fated trip of the Queen of the North in March of 2005. And with those details, there is even more intrigue about what really happened in the minutes prior to the sinking of the Queen of the North.

The latest revelation to be made public, was in the form of an addendum to the BC Ferries Divisional inquiry into the incident.

BC Ferries was quick to put out a press release explaining their understanding of the

The suggestion from Wednesday's release, was that contrary to her earlier testimony, the Quartermaster of the Queen of the North, a relatively new person at that particular job, was left alone on the bridge of the ferry as it made its fatal approach to rocks off of Gil Island.

The contradiction was made public after details from two BC Ferries employees stated that they have testified they overheard the ship's quartermaster say she was alone on the bridge at the time of the sinking.

If true, it would be a major violation of BC Ferry procedures and an unconscionable error in judgement by those working on the bridge on March 22nd. An error that led to a tragic loss of life and a near disaster of historical proportions.

It also highlights the need to have a full and public accounting of the events of that night, there are still far too many unanswered questions that the residents of British Columbia should receive answers for. Two years after the sinking, we still don't have a clear understanding of what happened, hopefully soon, there will be a definitive answer to the questions and a reassurance that something like this will never happen again.

Quartermaster alone on bridge of ill-fated ferry, inquiry told
2 employees testified officer said she was alone when Queen of the North sank
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 3, 2007 5:04 PM ET
CBC News

Two people told BC Ferries they overheard the quartermaster saying she was the only officer on the bridge of the Queen of the North when the ferry sank in 2006 — contradicting her earlier testimony that she was not alone.

The ferry struck Gil Island off the West Coast and sank on March 22, 2006, killing two people. The inquiry examining the sinking released a statement Wednesday morning saying it had published an addendum to its original report, released on March 26, 2007, because new information had come to light.

According to the statement, since the original report was published, two BC Ferries employees have testified they overheard the ship's quartermaster say she was alone on the bridge at the time of the sinking.

"I saw [the quartermaster] on the deck near the lifeboats where we were both assisting. Just prior to us both getting into one of the rafts [the quartermaster] said: 'It is not my fault, it was not my fault, I was left alone,'" one of the employees told the inquiry.

"When we watched the Queen of the North disappear under the water, I heard [the quartermaster] say again: 'It was not my fault' and repeat it."

The second employee testified: "Once our raft was away, it started to drift towards the stern of the vessel.… At that time, I heard [the quartermaster] say, 'It's not my fault, I was alone, I was alone.'"

The inquiry panel was reconvened as a result of the new information. The addendum concludes:

"The divisional inquiry panel (with one dissent) finds these declarations to be credible. The quartermaster has denied that she was left alone on the bridge and the fourth officer has refused to provide evidence to the divisional inquiry panel regarding the period of approximately 14 minutes prior to the grounding."

However, it stops short of concluding that the testimony proves the quartermaster was alone on the bridge at the time of the sinking.

The ferry corporation also said the new evidence does not change the inquiry's original finding that the deck watch on the Queen of the North failed to keep a proper lookout.

It’s not really our job!

Well, they didn’t quite say it like that, but the Canadian Coast Guard is making it perfectly clear that the responsibility of cleaning up any fuel problems from the wreck of the Queen of the North lies squarely with the BC Ferry Corporation.

Thursday’s Daily news featured a story about the latest incident of upwelling fuel over the weekend near Hartley Bay and the reaction of the Coast Guard to the reports, while the Coast Guard did investigate the situation; they were unable to confirm that the fuel had come from the wreck. But one thing that they seemed to stress more than a few times was that any clean up questions should be directed to B. C. Ferries.

Thursday’s article firmly bounces the issue of the fate of any clean up requirements back onto the decks of BC Ferries, who perhaps should begin a more definitive approach to the issue and share with all the stakeholders of the area what kind of plans they have and what is to be done the next time some fuel happens to come to the surface.

The folks in Hartley Bay might appreciate the heads up as to who they should address their calls and concerns to.

The latest bit of who has the answers, can be found in Thursday’s paper.

‘CLEANING FUEL LEAKS DOWN TO BC FERRIES’
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily news
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Page one

The Canadian Coast guard did not respond to help clean up the oil slick north of Hartley Bay last weekend because there was not a large enough slick for an effective clean up, says a Canadian Coast Guard representative.

And even if there was, the Canadian Coast Guard’s role is that of a federal observer and it is B. C. Ferries job to ensure there is an effective clean-up.

Dan Bate, communications officer for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said the Coast Guard vessel did respond to the report of the slick north of Hartley Bay last Friday; however they were unable to confirm whether the fuel came from the sunken wreck.

“B. C. Ferries Corporation notified the Canadian Coast Guard about 3 p. m the afternoon,” said Bate. “Two vessels, the HMCS Whitehorse and Pacific Pride a commercial tug, were in the area around 6 p. m.

“Based on their observations, they were unable to see any slick or pollution concerns in the area.”

Initial reports put the slick at 15 – metres wide and five miles long.

“It might have been a rainbow sheen on the water and it’s possible after two hours it had evaporated,” said Bate. “the other thing is it’s not conclusive it was from the Queen of the North. It might have been from a passing vessel. It’s hard to know what it was.

“Regardless, with a diesel sheen on the water, there’s no way to clean that up,” he said.

“It evaporates and cleans itself up, Sunlight and wave action work to break it up.”

Residents of Hartley Bay were unable to take any action to collect the fuel last Friday. B. C. Ferries has trained 10 community members and boom equipment in the community however village leaders and the North Coast MLA have complained they do not have enough training to respond if there is a significant upwelling from the vessel.

While Bate acknowledged there are concerns, he said it is not the role of the Coast Guard to clean up any fuel leaks from the sunken wreck.

If a slick is spotted, the report would go in to the Coast Guards’ emergency centre and vessels in the area would be asked to make an observation.

“It’s B. C. Ferries responsibility to then call the responder,” he said.

“Coast Guard’s role in that type of a situation is as a federal monitoring officer, we would oversee an operation that’s ongoing but material would come from another company or wherever B. C. Ferries has stockpiled its equipment.”

When the vessel went down last March, it was carrying 240,000 litres of fuel. While B. C. Ferries has said it will not try to remove any fuel left on the vessel, and points to data from the Canadian Coast Guard claiming it is unlikely there is any fuel left on board the vessel, village residents disagree with the assessment.

Oil and water a bad mix for B C Ferries

They may try to sail through the latest controversy over the Queen of the North, but it would appear that BC Ferries is in for a bit of a fight over its handling thus far of the wreck at the bottom of the waters off of Gil Island. The Ferry Corporation isn’t particularly inclined to remove any remaining fuel from the sunken ferry, nor it seems are they rushing to enact a plan of action that will be warmly received by those impacted the most, the people of Hartley Bay.

On that horrible night over a year ago, it was the quick response of the people of Hartley Bay that helped to avert a greater tragedy, to think that they’ve been left in the dark over such an important issue in their own waters is something that must be addressed promptly. Why the provincial government hasn’t taken on a more pro active role on behalf of the residents is a rather puzzling question.

The local MLA Gary Coons has been quick to take up the cause of the village, suggesting that the Ferry Corporation needs to be more involved in the community and with its concerns over the potentially ecological problem sitting on the village’s doorstep. He has frequently been bringing up the matter to the attention of the Ferry Corporation as well as the provincial government, keeping the issue front and centre when it seems that far too many would like it to just go away.

His efforts took on a more urgent tone this past weekend as reports of upwelling of fuel from the wreck began to cause much consternation in the community, as traditional food supplies could be at risk due to the toxic film that is spreading across the waters in the area.

Considering the amount of money (61.3 million dollars) the Ferry Corporation received in an insurance settlement earlier this year described as an extraordinary gain, there surely could be much more to be done for the people of Hartley Bay, who outside of the those passengers, victims families and crew of the vessel from the Queen of the North have suffered the most.

Of that 6o some million, 20 million was supposed to be ear marked for local initiatives in the Hartley Bay area to facilitate a proper clean up and salvage at the site of the sinking. Judging by the current climate from Hartley Bay’s officials, it would seem that the Ferry Corporation isn’t making much of a dent in that account.

There is no reliable summary of expenditures made public yet regarding that clean up, BC Ferries which has been identified by the Coast Guard as the sole body responsible for the marine accident, has a duty to provide frequent updates to Hartley Bay including one would think a financial statement that provides details on their efforts. An action plan needs to be formulated as well as a more open and public review of the incident from an environmental point of view should be priorities from both the provincial government and the Ferry Corporation.

There seems to have been a bit of friction between BC Ferries and the Coast Guard over the issue, judging by the tone of a column from Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun last week, in which Palmer reviews an exchange of letters between the two organizations. In the end, a suggestion of working towards an environmental monitoring process seems to be the common ground they have found, after dismissing the topic of a fuel recovery program, which has apparently been dismissed as an unworkable project it seems.

So with the idea of fuel recovery apparently a non starter, the need for quick action on the environmental protection front is clear. It is something that should be done in consultation with officials in Hartley Bay, who after all have to live in the unfortunate spot that the ferry sunk.

There have been a number of recommendations made about the impact that the sinking might have on the area, such things as:

Designing and putting into place a long-term environmental monitoring program, one that will examine the effects of further contamination by fuel oil from the ferry.

In addition to that there was the recommendation that officials look into relocating aquaculture sites in the area, as well as providing for a dedicated supply of pollution response equipment for Hartley Bay.

There is probably a lot more that could and should be done on this file, but at least those three recommendations address the immediate need. They are three relatively simple solutions, which would provide for a little good faith from a corporation that seems to need to be spurred to action from time to time.

The Daily News has been looking into the issue over the last couple of days, and provided an indication of the frustrations brewing in Hartley Bay in their headline story in Wednesday’s paper.

Village demands answers as ferry fuel worries rise
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Page one

The community of Hartley Bay is not willing to wait until a significant upwelling of fuel comes out of the Queen of the North to find out there was fuel on board.

Bob Hill, chief councillor, said they are negotiating with B.C. Ferries to get more training for their people and will continue to push for an independent review of the amount of fuel left on the wreck.

"We are very concerned, no one knows when the next upwelling or burp will happen," said Hill.
The ferry sunk in March 2006 next to Gil Island, near the First Nations community, and it has been discharging fuel into the waters around Hartley Bay ever since.

When it went down, it was carrying more than 240,000 litres of fuel and oil.

On Friday, a large fuel slick 15 metres wide and five miles long was spotted just north of Hartley Bay, raising concerns about the community's inability to respond, especially during the middle of the traditional harvest season. The Gitga'at rely on traditional food sources such as shellfish and seaweed.

Hill said when Burrard Clean was first sent out after the sinking to try to prevent the oil from impacting the environment; they laid the booms at the wrong sites because they had no traditional knowledge of the sensitive areas around Hartley Bay. Nor do the villagers want to sit by and wait 24 hours for Burrard Clean to arrive on the scene before they take action.

"We are pushing for the local expertise to do that and it is crucial we do that. We are concerned and we are still pressuring B.C. Ferries as a corporation," said Hill.

B.C. Ferries has trained 10 people in the village to deploy booms in case of a fuel upwelling, but Hill said the village wants more expertise.

In addition, they do not agree with the assessment provided to the Canadian Coast Guard that implies most of the fuel in the vessel's tanks would have been forced out into the environment following the impact of the sinking and is already gone.

Hill said they are striving for an independent review.

"We completely disagree with all that. We have three trained individuals that are divers within the community. We have another six that are going to be coming on stream and we have a fair idea of what happens to any container at certain depths. One of the principles of science is that you cannot compress a liquid in a confined container, at any depth," said Hill.

B.C. Ferries has pointed to the report prepared for the Canadian Coast Guard as a reason not to pursue removing any remaining fuel. It was exactly what leadership in Hartley Bay hoped would not happen.

North Coast MLA Gary Coons is also calling on B.C. Ferries to do more to ensure the people of Hartley Bay can protect their traditional food sources.

"The company is not moving quick enough to ensure that an upwelling of fuel can be dealt with as quickly as possible," said Coons. "The residents of Hartley Bay still haven't been given all the equipment and training they need to alleviate environmental damage that would be caused by a large upwelling of fuel."

The Coast Guard made several recommendations to B.C. Ferries on how to deal with the sinking in the absence of fuel recovery. One of those recommendations was for the company to establish "a cache of pollution response equipment in the area of Hartley Bay as a contingency should any recoverable fuel be released from the Queen of the North."

They also said that "the establishment of such an equipment cache would necessitate training for a portion of the Hartley Bay community."

However, B.C. Ferries has said in its response to the Coast Guard suggestion that "since professional pollution response capability already exists in British Columbia, the benefit of training and maintaining a local response capability beyond the equipment already established at Hartley Bay is unclear, making it unlikely that this option will be pursued".

Hartley Bay looks for some answers over Queen of the North wreck

With an up welling of fuel over the weekend raising alarm bells at Hartley Bay, the northwest community is looking for a few answers from both the coast guard and BC Ferries over the status of the wreck of the Queen of the North.

.

The situation over the wreck has become the largest issue around for the officials of Hartley Bay who would like to know where it stands with the Ferry Corporation over the leaking fuel and what the next steps may be in solving a problem that was left on their doorstep.

The Daily news featured the concerns of the villagers in their Tuesday edition.

FUEL SPEWING FROM SUNKEN FERRY CONCERNS VILLAGERS
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Page One

An up-welling of fuel from the sunken Queen of the North ferry threatened the traditional food sources of the people of Hartley Bay this weekend but the residents had no ability to respond.

Twice during the weekend, fuel bleached up from the wreck, leaving a sheen on the water’s surface near sunken vessel.

On Friday, Marven Robinson spotted a patch about 15 metres wide and by about five-miles long, located around five kilometers north of Hartley Bay.

Then, on Saturday, B. C. Ferries representatives spotted a second sheen during a fly-over of the wreck site.

Chris Picard, a marine biologist, said there was a substantial sized slick visible on Friday but the community did not have the capacity to go out and clean it up.

“We reported it to both B. C. Ferries and the Coast Guard and I know the Coast Guard did not deploy anyone to go clean it up,” said Picard.

Bob Hill, chief councilor of the Gitga’at council, said that while they do have boom material that could be used to contain a fuel leak, the tiny community does not currently have the large vessel needed on stand-by to deploy the booms.

It’s something they are trying to address with either Burrard Clean or a local seiner.

“We are right at the peak of harvesting our food, exercising our aboriginal rights and ensuring we have enough traditional foods that we have always harvested,” said Bob Hill, chief councilor of Gitga’at band council.

While they have harvested seaweed without problems, they will be staying away from all shellfish, he said.

“We are concerned at the end of the day we may end with some contaminated traditional foods. We do not know the amount, all we know is the size of the upwelling… and it was drifting towards Muddy Point, one of the traditional areas we use for harvesting and fishing.”

B. C. Ferries responded to the reports of a sighting by sending up its director of environment and a representative from Burrard Clean, an oil spill response company.

But by Saturday, much of the first slick had dispersed.

“It (the fuel) didn’t have any rainbow colours in it, which would indicate it would be a very light concentration,” said Deborah Marshall. B. C. Ferries spokesperson. “It was too light of a concentration to sample.”

The wreck has been leaking one quarter to one half a litre of fuel a day.

“That’s been happening for quite some time,” she said.

The company is not planning to take any further action because it does not expect the fuel to hit any shorelines.

Marshall said B. C. Ferries has trained 10 of the community members to deploy boom equipment if there is an upwelling. Following boom deployment, Burrard Clean is brought in to continue the clean-up.

“What we are going to do this summer is arrange for refresher training. We are also going to do an oil spill exercise with the representatives from Hartley Bay,” she said.
The 180 member Gitga’at community has been lobbying for removal of any remaining fuel from the ferry which sank in March 2006 after hitting Gil Island.

The ferry, which was heading south from Prince Rupert at the time, held 220,000 litres of diesel, 20,000 litres of light oil and 220 litres of hydraulic oil when it was fully loaded.

There were also 16 vehicles aboard when it sank.

It is unknown how much of the liquids remain in the wreck. Conservative estimates suggest there could be 150,000 litres left in the vessel – although the figure is the subject of debate.

The company has no plans to try and remove any remaining fuel from the sunken vessel.

Oil slick appearance concerns Hartley Bay residents

An oil slick feared to be coming from the sunken Queen of the North has the residents of Hartley Bay concerned for their local resources and health. A slick about 10 metres wide and more than a kilometre and a half long was seen near the site of the wreck Friday and it has renewed calls from the areas residents for BC Ferries to take more action regarding the wreck off of Gil Island.

The Vancouver Province had the story in its Sunday edition.

Slick worries villagers
Oil believed to be from sunken B.C. ferry
Matthew Little and Christina Montgomery
The Province
Sunday, July 08, 2007

A large patch of diesel spotted on the water's surface near Hartley Bay this week has residents of the tiny village worried that the sunken Queen of the North still threatens their food supply.
The 180-member Gitga'at community has been lobbying for removal of any remaining fuel from the ferry, which sank in March 2006 after hitting Gil Island.

The ferry, which was heading south from Prince Rupert, held 220,000 litres of diesel, 20,000 litres of light oil and 220 litres of hydraulic oil when fully loaded.

There were also 16 vehicles aboard when it sank.

It is unknown how much of the liquids remain in the wreck. Conservative estimates suggest there could be 150,000 litres left in the vessel -- although the figure is the subject of debate.
Residents, who depend heavily on the ocean for their food supply, stepped up their demands for a cleanup yesterday after a slick about 10 metres wide and more than a kilometre and a half long was seen near the site of the wreck Friday.

"The people here are very concerned that there is a lot of fuel on the ferry that could come up at any time and contaminate the resources that the community relies on," marine biologist Chris Picard told The Province.

Marven Robinson spotted the patch while out on a whale survey.

Robinson said that the community harvested only seaweed -- shunning their traditional shellfish -- for a full year after the sinking.

But eating any of the food has been hard, he said.

"In the back of your mind, [you're] wondering 'Is it OK to be consuming the foods we need?'" he said.

Health authorities have told the community the contamination risk had passed but, with Friday's sighting, Robinson said he's not so sure.

"We got to worry about where we're going to be harvesting for the next few years," he said.

A Canadian Coast Guard report concluded the ferry's rapid descent to 400 metres would have imploded the fuel tanks and dispersed fuel throughout the vessel. It said it would be difficult at that depth to determine how much fuel remained aboard and called a successful recovery "unlikely."

B.C. Ferries announced in late April it would not attempt recovery of remaining fuel and has made no response to coast guard recommendations that it stash pollution equipment at Hartley Bay and train villagers to use it.

The decision prompted anger in the community.

Picard said the community has asked for the data the company used to make its decision. He said the village wanted a third party to examine it.

The request was made three months ago, Picard said. The company initially agreed to provide the data but hasn't done so, he added.

Band chief Bob Hill has said the village is contemplating legal action.
mlittle@png.canwest.com

Queen of the North Fuel concerns still on the front burner

Gary Coons, the local MLA for the North Coast is not letting the issue of possible fuel still aboard the sunken Queen of the North disappear from public view.

With BC Ferries claiming that they have done all that they can to clean up the fuel issue, Coons is still pressing with his concerns hoping to get someone to pay attention to the needs of the residents of Hartley Bay.

The MLA suggests that if BC Ferries has no plans to remove the fuel, they should at least be making plans to assist the small community to deal with any fuel that might begin to contaminate their waters.

The Daily News featured all of the MLA's concerns in Friday's paper.

Fuel may be on sunken ferry: MLA
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, June 29, 2007
Pages one and five

Despite claims by B.C. Ferries that it has done all it can to clean up fuel on the sunken Queen of the North, new documents show there could still be fuel on board and suggest B.C. Ferries is ignoring recommendations from the Canadian Coast Guard to protect the community of Hartley Bay.

"The Canadian Coast Guard made a number of important recommendations which would help mitigate the environmental impacts of the sinking, but B.C. Ferries continues to drag their feet on implementing them," said Gary Coons, the MLA for North Coast.

"The people of Hartley Bay depend on a clean environment, and it's the responsibility of B.C. Ferries to look after the effects of the sinking. The only tangible thing they've done thus far is to put in a small park."

In documents obtained by the Daily News, the Canadian Coast Guard made numerous suggestions to B.C. Ferries based on a report by the London Offshore Consulting report.
In a letter to B.C. Ferries dated April 16, 2007, the Coast Guard recommends designing and implementing a long-term environmental monitoring program, to examine the effects of further contamination by fuel oil from the ferry, investigating the possibility of relocating aquaculture sites and establishing a cache of pollution response equipment at Hartley Bay.

B.C. Ferries has already stated it will not take any further action to remove any remaining oil from the vessel despite earlier promises by B.C. Ferries CEO David Hahn that all the remaining fuel would be removed.

B.C. Ferries has pointed to one report, called the Queen of the North Environmental Monitoring Review, claiming it is likely most of the diesel fuel dispersed in the days that followed the accident.

However, the London Consulting Group report submitted to the Canadian Coast Guard states it is likely the impact of sinking forced fuel throughout the vessel and the amount of fuel onboard "remains unknown." It is just as likely that the diesel remains on board as it is that it was dispersed.

While a fuel recovery effort might not be successful, the report does recommend mitigation plans, in case further fuel should surface.

Given there is a 50/50 shot fuel could remain onboard the vessel, Coons questions why B.C. Ferries is not helping the community of Hartley Bay prepare for any additional fuel release as suggested by the Canadian Coast Guard.

There was an estimated 200,000 litres of diesel fuel on board the vessel that now sits at the bottom of the ocean near Gil Island, at a depth of 427 metres.

"The first choice of the people of Hartley Bay is to have all the fuel removed from the Queen of the North; unfortunately B.C. Ferries has already ruled that out," said Coons.

"But they should take some steps to ensure there will be no long-term environmental damage as a result of the sinking."

B.C. Ferries has been pointing the finger at the Canadian Coast Guard for its decision not to pursue any further oil recovery efforts, however the Coast Guard is clearly not comfortable with suggestions that all the oil is gone.

In a letter to B.C. Ferries dated May 1, 2007, David Snider, acting assistant commissioner for the Canadian Coast Guard Pacific Region, tells B.C. Ferries to stop telling people the Coast Guard's conclusions are the reason B.C. Ferries is not undertaking an oil recovery operation.
Snider expresses concern that these statements could be misinterpreted and make the Coast Guard liable for any future damage that could occur.

"For the record, we respectfully remind you that according to the Marine Liability Act, B.C. Ferries Services is solely responsible for this incident and is liable for any damage that could occur," writes Snider.

B.C. Ferries received $67.9 million in insurance compensation for the sinking of the Queen of the North. Of that compensation $20 million was earmarked for salvage and clean-up operations.

BC Ferries to reopen inquiry into Queen of the North sinking

BC Ferries citing newly discovered information is going to reopen its inquiry into the events that led up to the sinking of the Queen of the North in March of 2006. A move that could delay the release of the Federal Transportation Safety Board's report that was due out this summer.

It's reported that the heart of the reopened investigation will be the status of fourth officer Karl Lilgert, who was originally reported to be on the bridge when the ferry sank. Media reports suggest that it's believed that the Ferry Corporation is planning on challenging that belief, owing to the recently discovered information.

The story has found a number of reports across Canada, some of which we provide below.

June 20-Times-Colonist-Ferries reopens investigation into sinking
June 20-Globe and Mail-B.C. Ferries reopens sinking inquiry
June 20-Toronto Star-B.C. Ferries reopens sunken ship probe
June 20-News 1130-BC Ferries to do a second investigation into fatal ferry incident

BC Ferries to head to court over Queen of the North hard drive

The latest twist in the torturous path towards closure on the Queen of the North tragedy will be played out in a court room. CKNW radio in Vancouver was the first to report that the Ferry Corporation is taking the Transportation Safety Board to court in order to gain access to a computer hard drive from the vessels chart system, which was recovered by the TSB last year.

The ferry corporation claims that it requires the information from that hard drive so that it can provide a response to the board’s draft report on the tragedy. The confidential draft has been making the rounds of the various stakeholders, who all have the right of response, but according to a Canadian Press story today; the Ferry Corporation claims that the Transportation Safety Board has refused to provide the computer drive for examination by the Ferry Corporation.

The court action could lead to a delay in the release of the final draft, originally the plan was to have a final determination released to the public by this summer, but now with more acrimony on the horizon between the participants in the investigation it could be longer before we get a definitive word on what took place off of Gil Island that night in March.

B.C. Ferries sues TSB over ferry-sinking report
Canadian Press
May 24, 2007 at 10:07 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — B.C. Ferries is taking the federal Transportation Safety Board to court over access to a key piece of hardware from its sunken Queen of the North, radio station CKNW reports.

The legal tussle could delay the release of the board's final report into the sinking of the northern ferry last year, which claimed two lives.

According to documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the Crown-owned ferry company wants the agency to turn over the computer hard drive from the ship's electronic chart system, which was recovered from the wreck last June.

The system recorded the final movements of the vessel and is key to determining whether or not the bridge crew made any effort to alter course before the ferry ran aground on March 22, 2006.

The ship with 101 passengers and crew struck Gil Island in Wright Sound a few hours after leaving the north-coast port of Prince Rupert.

It sank in less than two hours and two passengers remain missing and presumed drowned.

In its court filing, B.C. Ferries says it needs to analyze the data from the system in order to respond to the board's draft report into the accident.

The confidential draft has been circulating among the interested parties for several weeks and the final report was expected to be made public this summer.

The ferry company says in its filing that the safety board refuses to co-operate with its request.
It is asking the court to order the hard drive returned and to order the agency not to release its final report until then.

A spokeswoman for B.C. Ferries refused to comment on the court action Thursday, saying only chief executive officer David Hahn could discuss it and he was unavailable.

After completing its own investigation, B.C. Ferries earlier this month fired the three bridge crew members who on watch the night the ship ran aground.

Their union said it will challenge the dismissals.

The crew members and the ferry company are also named in lawsuits filed by the relatives of the two missing passengers and in a class action by other passengers who lost vehicles and belongings in the sinking.

Queen of the North report delayed

The Transportation Safety Boards much anticipated report into the sinking of the Queen of the North, will be anticipated a little bit longer.

The federal agency has delayed the release of its report after one of the reviewers on an undisclosed list submitted a number of questions about the findings. As is the procedure those questions must be addressed in written form before the report can be made public.

The $600,000 report, which is now over a year in the making has been the one piece of the puzzle that all of the participants into the investigation have been patiently waiting for. It is hoped that it will help to clear up some of the questions as to what happened off Gil Island that night.

It is hoped that the report will be made public by the end of June.

While we wait for the report, the inevitable leaks are starting to come out from it, the CBC, quoting a lawyer representing one of the recently fired workers, is reporting that a major system error on the ferry was identified as a major cause as well.

Both stories can be found below.

Federal report on sinking of B.C. ferry Queen of the North delayed
Canadian Press
Monday, May 07, 2007

VICTORIA (CP) - A federal report into the sinking of B.C. Ferries' Queen of the North last year has been delayed.

The Transportation Safety Board spent more than $600,000 investigating the loss of the 37-year-old ferry, which left two people missing after striking an island south of Prince Rupert. The board investigators sent a draft of their findings to an undisclosed list of reviewers several weeks ago.

TSB spokesman John Cottreau says one of those parties has been granted a 30-day extension to respond to facts in the draft.

Cottreau can not say when the final Queen of the North report will be released to the public.

The board must reply to each of the draft reviewer's comments in writing, those comments and responses will then be assessed by staff and a redrafted report will go to the board for approval.

It's now likely the final report will not be released before the end of June.

© The Canadian Press 2007

Equipment also a factor in ferry sinking: lawyer
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 8, 2007 11:48 AM PT
CBC News

A federal report shows the Queen of the North's crew members were not solely at fault for the ferry's sinking in March 2006, says the Vancouver lawyer representing one of the workers fired last month.

A recent BC Ferries report on the sinking, which claimed two lives, blamed the tragedy on human error. But Glenn Orris says the upcoming Transportation Safety Board report on the sinking said a system failure was a major cause.

"I don't think anybody doubts that there was human error, but it was in combination with other things that were happening at the same time. It wasn't completely as the ferry corporation said —human error," he says.

"There were other problems within the ferry itself, within the equipment and the system that the ferry used."

Three crew members who were on bridge duty when the ferry struck Gil Island were terminated two weeks ago as a direct result of the corporation's internal inquiry, officials said.
The report concluded the three, on duty the night of the sinking, had failed to follow proper operating procedures.

Two of the three refused to answer ferry corporation questions about the accident and the 14-minute period immediately before the ship hit the rocks.

However, they did answer the investigation by the Transportation Safety Board. And their union says BC Ferries should at least have waited until that report was completed before taking any action.

The B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers Union has vowed to fight the firings.

Ferry corporation said to have fired Queen of the North crew members

The Globe and Mail, CBC and other media sites in Canada are reporting this weekend, that three of the crew members on duty the night that the Queen of the North sunk have been terminated from their employment with the Ferry Corporation.

The move comes after an internal BC Ferries report into the sinking found that the three, second officer Keven Hilton, fourth officer Karl Lilgert and quartermaster Karen Bricker, failed to follow the normal operating procedures. The BC Ferry Workers and Marine Workers Union has the right to appeal the firings, but has given no indication yet as to what they plan to do in response to the terminations.

The next significant development in the sinking could be the RCMP report into the events of that night, a report that is expected to provide some of the details and hopefully some of the answers as to what caused the Queen of the North to run into Gil Island and sink to the bottom of the waters of Wright sound.

Fuel removal deemed far too risky

It's not the result that the residents of Hartley Bay wanted to hear, the fuel from the sunken Queen of the North has been deemed to be too unstable to risk removal, leaving what many suggest may be a ticking environmental time bomb on the bottom of the passageway near Gil Island.

Of concern to the people of Hartley Bay is the impact that the fuel could have on their traditional fisheries in that area, there is some dispute as to how much of the potential 220,000 litres of fuel on board the Queen of the North could still be in the tanks and how much escaped as the vessel sank to the bottom of Wright Sound.

No decision has been made yet, the review process is now underway at BC Ferries who will study the findings of a coast guard report into the fuel situation before coming up with a final decision and statement on the issue.

Still to be heard is also the next move from Hartley Bay, who suggest that legal action may be the next required stage to solve a problem they say is of great concern to their community.

The Victoria Times Colonist had a story on the situation posted to their website today:


'Far too risky' to remove fuel from ferry
Coast guard advises leaving wreck alone, B.C. Ferries reveals; another report says not much diesel remains
Cindy E. Harnett and Terri Theodore
Times Colonist; The Canadian Press
Monday, April 23, 2007

B.C. Ferries is reviewing a report that says it's too dangerous to extract the diesel fuel from the sunken Queen of the North.

"The coast guard report is fairly clear in that it's probably far too risky to attempt any major salvage operation or an attempt to extricate the contents of the fuel; that's clear," B.C. Ferries spokesman Mark Stefanson said in a phone interview yesterday, offering the first hint about the contents of the Canadian Coast Guard report sent to B.C. Ferries last week.

"No decisions have been made yet," Stefanson said. "We're reviewing the options for next steps ... for what may or may not occur."

The coast guard recommendations have been hotly anticipated, since the ferry company is expected to use them to make a decision regarding the ferry that sank on March 22, 2006, in Wright Sound after running aground on Gil Island as it travelled from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy. The coast guard used documents compiled by B.C. Ferries, which outlined several options the ferry company was considering, to come to its conclusions.

It's unclear how much fuel might remain trapped 400 metres underwater, although the ferry's tanks could carry about 220,000 litres of diesel.

According to a consultant's report obtained by The Canadian Press under the Freedom of Information Act, it's likely most of the fuel on board spilled as the hull was torn on the rocks of Gil Island before the ferry sank.

"First responders comment that the entire surface of Wright Sound was covered with sheen and that all debris [e.g., life jackets] was soaked in diesel fuel," the report states. The total area of visible fuel sheen on the water after the spill was in the range of 340 square kilometres, three times the size of the City of Vancouver.

In the year since the sinking, trace amounts of diesel have been seen rising to the surface.
The report, called Queen of the North Environmental Monitoring Review, was prepared last November for B.C. Ferries by Coastal & Ocean Resources Inc., a consulting service in geological and environmental sciences.

Aboriginal leaders worry B.C. Ferries might use the consultant's report as support for leaving the remaining fuel on the sunken vessel. If so, the company could face a lawsuit from the First Nations near the site of the sinking.

"We've inquired about legal action," said Hartley Bay chief councillor Bob Hill, who doesn't agree with the review's conclusions.

"When you go through all the figures ... I really think that there's at least 50 per cent of the fuel left, that's very conservative, more likely between 120,000 and 150,000 litres are still there."
Hill said Ferries CEO David Hahn has already made promises he hasn't kept. "He said publicly in Hartley Bay that he would remove every litre of fuel off that vessel by the late fall of 2006," Hill fumed.

Coast guard spokesman Dan Bate said B.C. Ferries is aware one possibility is that much of the fuel may have spilled when the ferry hit ground.

"You ask the million-dollar question, right: Why go down, why do that kind of stuff if there's nothing else there?"

Stefanson says B.C. Ferries plans to review the coast guard recommendations in detail before making a final decision. "I don't want to comment further until we've done that."

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007

Calls for Queen of North clean up become louder

With the Queen of the North laying at the bottom of the ocean near Hartley Bay, concerns over leaking fuel and the impact it will have on the ecosystem in that area are becoming more frequent and expressed with more conviction.

The leaking fuel is said to be contaminating key shellfish areas in Wright Sound and important part of the traditions and economy of the residents of Hartley Bay and the area.

It's an issue that has been raised prominently by the local MLA Gary Coons who is asking for immediate action on the problem. His call and further details on the situation were found in Wednesday's Daily News.

CLEAN UP SUNKEN FERRY'S FUEL LEAK RIGHT NOW: MLA
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Page one

An internal B.C. government document says hydrocarbons were found in food sources near Hartley Bay as early as a week after the Queen of the North sank.

Yet nothing has been done to remove the fuel from the sunken vessel, which continues to leak into the surrounding environment.

The briefing note obtained by The Canadian Press under the Freedom of Information Act was prepared for Environment Minister Barry Penner.

It says hydrocarbons were found in shellfish at five of 13 sensitive locations affected by the fuel leaking out of the sunken B.C. ferry in Wright Sound.

The residents of nearby Hartley Bay say fuel continues to bubble up and they have not harvested in the area for a year.

They are angry that nothing has yet been done about the situation, despite the authorities’ awareness of the water’s contamination.

North Coast MLA Gary Coons said immediate action needs to be taken.
“Waiting over a year is unacceptable,” said Coons. “There have been no concrete actions taken by the minister responsible.”

The leaking fuel is spreading into the area of traditional harvest by members of the Gitga’at First Nation, who live in the community of Hartley Bay.

Coons noted that if nothing is done, there will be young people who are denied the opportunity to experience their traditional culture and foods.

He related a story written by the young grand daughter of the spouse of a hereditary chief from that village.

“Today, my teacher asked us how many of us had tasted abalone. I know that abalone was an animal that lived on the rocks in the water and that the shells were a beautiful rainbow colour. But I’ve never tasted one,” she said.

“My grandmother told me that long ago they used to be able to get abalone by the sackful, and they were delicious. But I’ve never tasted one. She said they were good raw, but if you’re going to fry them that you had to pound them and then fry them and eat them with rice. But I’ve never tasted one.”

“I don’t know what happened to them all. I just know there aren’t any anymore, and I’ve never tasted one,” said the young woman.

The student then wondered what will happen in 2010 if her teacher asks her how many of the students have tasted clams?

“I wonder what I will say. I hope that it won’t be that I have never tasted one,” she said.
Coons noted that while immediate action needs to be taken, he was informed in a letter from the Canadian Coast Guard that they are “monitoring” the situation and have found it stable.

“Once their ‘technical review’ is completed they will discuss the options with B.C. Ferries and enter into ‘consultations with First Nations,” said Coons.

It’s no wonder the residents feel that all levels of government are stalling, he noted.
“We must ensure a timely response for those who put their lives at risk on that fateful night last March,” he said.

With files from Canadian Press

North coast issues examined on BC’s most listened to talk show.

The Northwest was high on the agenda of the Bill Good show on Friday morning, as two issues currently in the news in our part of the province were discussed at length on the popular Cutting Edge of the Leg segment.

Keith Baldrey and Vaughn Palmer joined with Good as they do every Friday, to examine the state of the Queen of the North sinking investigations.

All were confused, if not a tad angry about the situation that they say has Gary Coons, the MLA for Prince Rupert appearing to be the only person in BC not demanding that those crew members currently holding their silence on the issue be forced to speak out. They noted that he has been rather effective in his criticism of the Ferry Corporation regarding the tragedy but hasn’t proceeded with the same zeal when it comes to the unionized workers who have refused to talk thus far.

With pressure building from all corners of the debate, many it find it incomprehensible that the two members of the crew on board the ship that night with the most knowledge as to what happened, are allowed to keep their silence. They discussed how the Northwest’s MLA was caught up in a scrum in Victoria last week and could offer no answers, nor any explanations why he as ferry critic wasn’t demanding that the two speak out as well.

A telling point about the MLA’s interaction with the press was made as it was revealed that it was the first political scrum in a long time where an opposition member had to be rescued by a member of his or her staff, so as not to face the heat any longer on a controversial issue.

When that topic was exhausted, the trio turned their attention to the decision yesterday by the Supreme Court of BC to back Alcan in it’s battle with the District of Kitimat, a decision that outlines that the basis of Kitimat’s fight, the subject of power sales was never considered part of the original deal between Alcan and the government.

As the three read the judgment, in effect the court has said that Alcan had the right to do what it wishes with their surplus power and that the issue is not tied in with the state of the smelter in the city. And as if to reinforce the point, they stated that Alcan was awarded court charges, meaning that Kitimat must reimburse the aluminum company for the time and trouble of having to take the issue to court.

All seemed to agree that instead of weakening Alcan, the decision to go to court and then to lose, only strengthened the hand of the company leaving Kitimat with fewer and fewer options to turn to now.

You can examine the issues yourself by checking out the CKNW Audio Vault, select the Friday March 30 broadcast and the 10am-11am hour to get an interesting perspective on how our issues are being handled on a province wide basis!

BC Ferries promises release of internal review findings within a week

The CBC website is reporting that David Hahn, CEO of BC Ferries knows what caused the Queen of the North to run into Gil Island and sink on March 22 of 2006.

Hahn, who ordered an internal report into the events of that tragic night believes that upon its release the report will help to renew confidence in the Ferry Corporation and provide some of the answers that many have been waiting on for a year now.

It's expected that the report will be issued by the end of the week or no later than next Monday.


BC Ferries completes internal report on Queen of the North sinking
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 9:00 AM PT
CBC News

BC Ferries president and CEO David Hahn says he now knows why the Queen of the North ran into an island and sank off B.C.'s North Coast south of Prince Rupert last March with 101 passengers and crew aboard.

Ninety-nine people managed to get to safety when the ferry started to sink. Two people are still missing, but have yet to be declared legally dead.

BC Ferries has conducted its own investigation into the sinking, and Hahn said he plans to go public with its findings within a week.

When two crew members refused to participate, they were suspended without pay. But even without their co-operation, Hahn said the internal report has met its goals.

"We're comfortable with what we're going to report. There's some gaps out there, with a lack of communication back to us from specific members. But, all in all, I think we know what happened."

Hahn said he believes releasing the report will enhance public confidence in the ferry corporation.

"We've taken the approach from the beginning that the more the public knows, the higher confidence level they'll have in the system. I think we'll probably be as hard or harder on ourselves than TSB [Transportation Safety Board]."

The TSB report isn't expected to be released for two months.

Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the sinking.

Transportation Board says still many months before final report on the Queen of the North is released

The first draft has been completed, but the final report with its much anticipated answers and recommendations regarding the Queen of the North tragedy won’t be ready for a while yet. A decision that is sure to register a fair amount of disappointment along the North Coast for those hoping for a final bit of closure on the sinking.

Before the public will get a chance to see the final product, the Transportation Board will present copies to confidential list of "designated reviewers", who will have a chance to look over the findings and offer up their final comments on the deliberations. It's expected that BC Ferries, and members of the vessels crew will be on that list of designated reviewers.

For those that were hoping for the definitive word on the tragedy of almost a year ago, the wait will go on, a lingering air of suspicion and concern over current safety procedures, based one of the worst nights in Northwestern BC marine history.

First draft of ferry sinking report being reviewed
Public release still months away
The Canadian Press
Monday, February 12, 2007

The Transportation Safety Board has received the first draft of the investigation into last year’s sinking of Queen of the North, but it will be several months before a final report is made public.

Queen of the North slammed into an island about 150 kilometres south of Prince Rupert in the early hours of March 22, 2006. It was travelling to Port Hardy.

Ninety-nine passengers and crew scrambled to safety before the ferry sank, but a B.C. couple disappeared and the man and woman are presumed to have drowned.

Safety board spokesman John Cottreau said the board has seen the initial draft and made some comments, which staff are now including in the document.

The board will review the revised draft before the document is sent on to a confidential list of “designated reviewers,” which will likely include B.C. Ferries and members of the ferry crew.

The reviewers will have 30 days to respond with comments, additions or omissions that may then become part of the final report.Cottreau said a final, public report could still be three to six months away.Meantime, Cottreau said to date, the investigation into the sinking has cost about $630,000.

Two dives have been made to the hulk of sunken ferry, which lies upright on the bottom of Wright Sound more than 400 metres below the surface.

A heartfelt plea from the families of the victims of the Queen of the North sinking

The Vancouver Sun has published a letter from Lana Foisy, the mother of the two girls who lost their father on March 22nd when the Queen of the North sank off of Gil Island. In her letter, Foisy asks for the two crew members on the bridge that night to come forward and explain what happened that night to cause the vessel to go off course and eventually sink in the waters off of Gil Island.

In a bid for closure for her two daughters she explains the pain the family has gone through in the months since the sinking and how they wish to learn more of the events that led to the sinking of the ship.

Gerald Foisy and his partner Shirley Rosette were the only two passengers on the Queen of the North who were not accounted for when the vessel was evacuated and the passengers recovered by the people of Hartley Bay. Their bodies were never recovered.

CKNW examined the letter and the circumstances around the silence over the issue over the last few months. You can listen in to the coverage of the letter by going to the audio vault on Friday, at 7:50 am, the letter was given prominent coverage as part of the Philip Till program on Friday morning.

The Vancouver Sun story is provided below.

Ferry victim's family pleads for answers
They ask two crew members to help them get closure
Wency Leung
Vancouver Sun; With file from CanWest News Service
Friday, December 22, 2006


The mother of two girls who lost their father in the Queen of the North ferry sinking this year is pleading for the ship's crew members to come forward so her daughters can have some closure for Christmas.

In an emotional letter sent to The Vancouver Sun, Lana Foisy said she was making "a plea for help from the two people that were at the helm of the ship that night."

"Please step forward and reveal what happened to cause the Queen of the North to go off course and ultimately meet its demise," she wrote.

In her letter, she recalled watching as Morgan, 13, and Brittni, 16, tried to deal with the loss of their father, Gerald Foisy, one of two passengers lost in the sinking.

"It was excruciatingly painful to watch as my daughters walked into their father's apartment, sat down and started to weep while clutching their dad's pillow off his bed. They knew he would never return to his home or to them," she wrote.

Lana, who lives in Penticton with her daughters, said they have lost the opportunity to share their most important occasions with their father, who is her ex-husband.

"Gerald will not be there when Brittni and Morgan have birthdays, nor will he be there to watch them graduate from high school and university. He also won't be there to walk his daughters down an aisle when they marry or watch his grandchildren grow up," she wrote.

"It is Christmastime and the only present I wish to give my daughters is some form of closure on their father's death."

Gerald Foisy and his partner Shirley Rosette were the only two passengers on the Queen of the North who didn't make it safely to shore after the ship rammed Gil Island and sank in March. Their bodies have not been recovered.

Lana Foisy said her daughters have not yet received any explanation from BC Ferries about why the crash occurred.

And since no death certificates have been issued, the girls have not been able to settle any of their father's assets, Lana said by telephone Thursday.

"It's an issue for all of us right now," she said.

Although BC Ferries sent the girls a cheque as a gift for Christmas, Lana said her daughters have received no compensation. She did not disclose the value of the cheque.

The biggest issue, however, is that the girls deserve an explanation and acknowledgement in the form of an apology, Lana said.

"When I ask my daughters what they would like most to help give them closure on this tragic accident, they tell me 'I just want to know what happened, mom'," Lana wrote.

"Sounds simple, yet [this] is the one thing that I cannot give them. . . . In this situation, I feel completely helpless to ease my children's pain."

BC Ferries is urging the crew members to come forward as well, ferries' spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said by phone late Thursday.

"They haven't cooperated with our internal investigation either," she said, reiterating earlier comments by BC Ferries president and CEO David Hahn.

However, B.C. Ferry Workers Union president Jackie Miller earlier this month disputed Hahn's claims that the two -- now suspended -- have refused to participate in a company investigation.
Miller said the workers gave about eight hours of initial testimony to company insurance lawyers immediately after the sinking and have since answered all questions put to them by the Transportation Safety Board and the RCMP.

She said they also offered to assist at the company investigation, but wanted assurance their information would remain confidential, a request the company rejected.

Marshall said one of the two crew members has not answered any of BC Ferries' questions, while the other has only responded to some of them.

Brittni and Morgan Foisy have filed a lawsuit against B.C. Ferry Services Inc. Lana said that lawsuit is still pending and could not comment on it.

Although Lana and Gerald Foisy had been divorced for about eight years, the two remained friends, and Lana said Gerald was very involved in their daughters' lives.

Lana said Morgan and Brittni are also close to Shirley Rosette's two teenage sons, Brent and Brandon, and the children have helped each other cope with the loss of their parents.
"The kids have been really good support for each other. They talk to each other every two or three weeks," Lana said.

It is a particularly difficult time for the family, as Morgan's 13th birthday was on Tuesday, and Gerald's birthday is Christmas Day.

"The kids have walked through each milestone; Father's Day was the same. You cope with it the best you can," Lana said.

wleung@png.canwest.com

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.