One person dead, three injured after construction site collapse in Quebec
One person dead, three injured after construction site collapse in Quebec
CTV News' Kelly Greig reports from the scene of a deadly construction site collapse in Blainville, Que.
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CBC
32 minutes ago
- CBC
3 plead guilty in network of temp agencies that hid asylum seeker's work accident
Three people accused of running fraudulent temp agencies that exploited asylum seekers — and who attempted to conceal a work accident later uncovered by a 2018 CBC investigation — have pleaded guilty. Quebec's Labour Ministry has called the scheme the "largest fraud ever committed" against it and has estimated government losses at about $635,000 as a result of the operation. Hector Hair Rodriguez Contreras, 56, Hector Lopez Ramos, 51, and Beatriz Adriana Guerrero Munoz, 45, were all initially charged with fraud of more than $5,000 against the Quebec and Canadian governments and conspiracy to commit fraud of more than $5,000. Rodriguez Contreras pleaded guilty to those charges in April, roughly three weeks before his trial in Quebec Court was set to begin. The trio, led by Rodriguez Contreras, ran a number of temp agencies that hired asylum seekers without work permits and paid them below minimum wage in cash or cheques addressed to false identities they assigned to them. Court documents filed after the guilty pleas state that Quebec's Labour Ministry launched probes into the temp agencies following CBC's investigation. Asylum seeker still in pain The story had revealed an asylum seeker was severely injured on the job after being recruited at a Montreal Metro station by a shadowy network of temp agencies. He was given a former worker's name and social security number to work under the table at a meat processing plant outside the city. Prosecutor Geneviève Bélanger said part of the group's operations were legitimate, making it difficult for the government to detect the fraud. "That was part of the scheme. For part of their business, if you will, they would do things in order, while for another part, they wouldn't — which also allowed them to fly under the radar," Bélanger said in an interview last week. The asylum seeker testified at the trial of Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz in May before Quebec Court Judge Rose-Mélanie Drivod. The top of his hand was sliced off by a meat slicer, that, he told CBC at the time, he had not been properly shown how to use. In an emergency surgery, doctors performed a skin graft taken from his thigh to reconstruct his hand. He told the court that years later, he's still in pain. The temp agency that hired him did not declare the accident to Quebec's workplace health and safety board, until the latter intervened following CBC's story and forced the company to compensate him. The man, who is now 39 years old, said in court he'd planned to work in construction in Quebec, when he came to Canada in August 2017 and would have made a good wage that way, but instead has been working as a commercial security guard for more than five years. He and his wife have three children with them in Montreal. 2 pleaded guilty to reduced charges Three days into the trial and soon after the worker's testimony, Lopez Ramos and Guerrero Munoz pleaded guilty to reduced charges of using forged documents, including tax statements, against the Quebec government. Bélanger said the worker's testimony was emotional and powerful. "It clearly demonstrated the risk this type of thing poses when agencies don't respect [work] standards," she said. The statements of facts filed in court say that the Labour Ministry's probe, dubbed TARMAC, revealed that more than 400 of the companies' workers had also been claiming some form of unemployment benefits — many of them new immigrants who had little knowledge of Quebec's work standards and protections. "The leaders of the network took advantage of the vulnerability of some of the workers," the facts read. Martin Subak, Lopez Ramos's lawyer, says pleading guilty after a trial has begun "is commonly done to kind of test a little bit the evidence." He said part of the reason his client and co-accused ended up being handed lesser charges was because "their roles were subservient" to Rodriguez Contreras. The charges against them could lead to a maximum of two years in jail, while the fraud charges against Rodriguez Contreras carry a 14-year maximum imprisonment.
CBC
33 minutes ago
- CBC
Inconclusive end to Robert Miller's sex crimes trial denies plaintiffs closure
Social Sharing For the alleged victims of billionaire Robert Miller, the feeling of betrayal began to sink in Monday when the Crown and Miller's defence team both agreed the 81-year-old was too sick to stand trial. The final blow came on Tuesday, when Quebec Superior Court Justice Lyne Décarie ordered a stay of proceedings, effectively ending the criminal trial. Miller no longer faces the 24 charges against him related to sex crimes spanning over two decades against 11 women, most of whom were underage at the time of the alleged events. "The decision to shield him from justice is not only an injustice to each of us, it's an insult to our suffering and a betrayal by a system that is supposed to protect us," one of the women who participated in the police investigation told Radio-Canada Monday. Another woman who accused Miller in Radio-Canada's Enquête investigation, which brought the allegations to light in 2023, said she worries the proceedings were all for nothing. "It was more than brave, not far from crazy, actually, to say, 'listen, we're going to make ourselves heard. We're going to speak out and be believed, without feeling threatened,'" she said. "The last two years have been really difficult." Miller wasn't acquitted and the charges against him weren't dropped. He has denied all allegations against him. Under different circumstances, the Crown could file the charges again or appeal the stay of proceedings, but that won't happen in this case, with Crown attorney Delphine Mauger saying Miller "will not get better" and calling a trial "simply impossible." Miller, who has late-stage Parkinson's disease, is bedridden, incontinent and needs medication and oxygen periodically, would not have been able to fully engage in the trial, let alone attend court daily, chief prosecutor Dominique Potvin had explained. When asked why Miller couldn't participate via videoconference, Mauger said they explored every possible avenue and arrived at the same conclusion, adding that an accused has a right to be present at their trial in a significant way. No conviction doesn't mean no crime, counsellor says Décarie's ruling in Miller's case was "cold and rational" and was best for the court based on its ability to administer justice, said UQAM political science and law professor Rachel Chagnon. "The chance for the victim to see that man being punished, going to jail and going through a sentence were almost [non-existent]," she said. "It was just not possible to expect a true justice in the full sense of the word." But the way the judicial system works in cases like this are completely at odds with what victims need, added Chagnon. WATCH | Judge rules Robert Miller too sick to stand trial: Montreal billionaire accused of sex crimes too sick to stand trial, judge rules 1 day ago Duration 1:31 Psychosocial counsellor Sarah Amina Nday-Yenga, who works with victims of sexual assault at the West Island CALACS, says that part of the process of supporting victims through the judicial system is preparing them for disappointment. But, regardless of how prepared they may be, it's always hard when a conviction doesn't materialize. "A lot of people tend to think that because someone was not convicted, that means that it did not happen and the victims were just lying, which is absolutely not the case," she said. "I've seen a lot of judges talk about the fact that, 'I believe the victim, it's just that I don't have enough to convict the abuser.'" Chagnon said while the outcome of Miller's case might dissuade others from accusing their abusers, it gave the plaintiffs a chance to receive moral and social support they might not have had otherwise. More avenues to heal are needed Nday-Yenga says there needs to be more alternative ways for victims to get justice in these cases, with financial compensation being one of those avenues. Notably, in Robert Miller's case, there are still two ongoing civil lawsuits, including a class action involving almost five times the number of victims in the criminal trial. Others, who might need to hear some kind of explanation for the abuse they experienced, might begin to find closure through restorative justice, a process that emphasizes accountability and healing over punishment. "The healing process is very unique to every single individual, but to be able to have different processes, more of them, around Montreal and around Quebec in general could be helpful." In its annual review released earlier this week, Montreal police said the number of reported sexual assaults had increased by 12.6 per cent compared to the five-year average, demonstrating, in part, growing trust between victims and the judicial system, according to them. Nday-Yenga said though that might be true, she says more often than not, the people she works with choose not to report their abuser. She said a lot of the guilt and shame that victims feel when speaking up is due to a lack of openness from society, and while progress has been made, there's still a lot of work to do. Chagnon agrees. She points to Miller, who was first charged in 2024 — 15 years after Montreal police first began investigating him. The first police investigation into him was opened in 2009 and closed a year later. "We have to admit that mistakes were made, that maybe there were people that were not taken as seriously as they should have been," she said.
CBC
33 minutes ago
- CBC
City outlines next steps on driver cameras and other bus crash inquest recommendations
The City of Ottawa says it will examine the potential installation of driver-facing cameras on OC Transpo buses, following a recommendation from a recent coroner's inquest into a fatal 2019 bus crash. The nearly month-long inquest in April delved into the circumstances of a packed double-decker bus slamming into a Transitway shelter on Jan. 11, 2019. Three passengers — Judy Booth, Bruce Thomlinson and Anja Van Beek — died in the crash and many others were injured. While the city accepted civil responsibility, the driver, Aissatou Diallo, was charged with 38 counts of dangerous driving causing death or bodily harm. She was acquitted of all charges in a judge-only trial in 2021. Diallo did not testify at either the inquest or her trial, but an OC Transpo official told the inquest that if a driver-facing camera had been on board Diallo's bus, more would be known about her actions in the lead-up to the crash. The jurors ultimately issued 60 non-binding recommendations, two-thirds of which were directed at the city. They included a call for Ottawa to "install operator-facing cameras on all OC Transpo buses to be used for safety purposes." "This data should be regularly tracked by an accountable member of the governance team," the jurors added. Adjusting current cameras The city has now provided its initial response to the recommendations, with "a comprehensive status update and action plan" to follow later this year. City staff agree with the idea of operator-facing cameras on all OC Transpo buses, adding that "a robust policy/program will be developed" similar to the one that already exists for cameras on OC Transpo's federally regulated LRT line. But installing cameras could bring "significant budgetary pressures," the city warned councillors ahead of the next meeting of Ottawa's transit committee on Thursday. "In order to develop a response to this recommendation, research will need to be completed, a robust policy must be drafted, all relevant stakeholders and unions must be consulted, and a technical analysis ... will need to be undertaken. Once all of these steps have been completed, the costs can be presented for consideration through the budget process," the city said. One option, according to the city's initial response to the recommendations, could involve adjusting existing CCTV cameras on all buses purchased since 2016 so that they offer a wide-angle view that would include the driver. Just over 350 of the buses in OC Transpo's fleet currently have CCTV cameras, the city clarified with CBC via email, while the remaining 382 buses do not have onboard cameras. "Staff are currently assessing the feasibility of utilizing the current CCTV camera system to address the inquest recommendation or determine if a new camera system is required," according to the city's email. Union concerns Cost aside, the notion of driver-facing cameras on buses has sparked privacy concerns with the local union representing OC Transpo drivers. When lawyers made their final pitches to the inquest jury, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 279 was the only group to oppose driver-facing cameras on buses. However, in an interview with Ottawa Morning the day after the jury issued its recommendations, ATU Local 279 President Noah Vineberg clarified the union's position. "Privacy always becomes an issue, but that does not trump safety," Vineberg said. "As long as [the use of camera footage is] properly monitored, as long as there's an agreement in place on how those systems are going to be used, and if it's in the lens of safety ... then ATU 279 doesn't stand in the way." The city said its plan "will ensure appropriate protections for employees' privacy." Consultations on LRT cameras took several years, the union's lawyer told the inquest. Negotiations on a new contract for OC Transpo drivers have begun and have involved discussion of video footage, Vineberg said via email. More days of retraining The inquest jury also recommended that a portion of OC Transpo's bus fleet be dedicated to training drivers. City staff said they support this idea in principle but that given the current shortage of buses, the recommendation can't reasonably be implemented without significant impacts to service. "It is expected that a stable, reliable fleet will not be fully available until Q4 2027," according to the city's response to the recommendations. The inquest heard that after she was involved in a preventable and serious collision in December 2018, Diallo received only one day of refresher training before being put back on the road. Within a week, she was involved in the fatal Transitway crash. "How quickly after a previous incident she was back behind the wheel — that was really kind of astonishing to me," said Laura Shantz, a member of the advocacy group Ottawa Transit Riders. The jury recommended the city establish a separate evaluation procedure for probationary operators involved in serious preventable collisions, and that before the driver returns to service they receive a minimum of five days of retraining. Aspects of this recommendation are currently in place, according to the city, but staff will review the recommendation and report back to the transit committee later this year. The committee will meet Thursday to discuss the city's initial inquest response and other agenda items starting at 9:30 a.m.
