Imperial Metals escapes charges from Mount Polley tailings breach

For anyone in need of an expert tailings dam engineer, check me out on LinkedIn. I’m available. MRC

disgusting to say the least, cozy arrangement between a major contributor to the Liberal government, jail time is required here for the corporate criminals and government officials who are involved in this decision.

BS. The original engineers of the pond signed off on responsibility after the mine owners started raising the berms and over-filling the pond.

http://www.mining.com/canadas-mount-polley-disaster-experts-warned-tailings-pond-getting-large/

The BC Liberal government began raising suspicion about its integrity almost immediately upon being elected: after losing the previous election because leader Gordon Campbell had promised to sell publicly-owned BC Rail, he reversed his position and promised to NOT sell it. He finally won, but soon broke his promise and sold BC Rail, in what we now know was a corrupt process, after cooking the books to make it look like it was losing money (it actually turned a surplus every year). The Opposition increased its seats ten-fold in the following election, but it still wasn’t enough to turn out the BC Liberals. By the next election, the RCMP had raided the Legislature, seizing documents relating to the sale of BC Rail, leading to a trial which itself was terminated under suspicious circumstances just before BC Liberal government ministers were about to be called to testify. Two BC Liberal staff had suddenly switched their plea to guilty in return for their legal bills being covered by taxpayers—to this day considered a breach of law by many legal observers—and on the condition they hush up about anything else they know about the tainted sale.

By this time Campbell was making the campaign promise not to impose a Harmonized Sales Tax, which he subsequently did impose soon after being re-elected to a third term. Though BC Rail was a huge scandal (which probably isn’t over) that cost the province about a billion dollars in lost assets and revenue, many other policies had also raised suspicion, including the dys-management of BC Ferries, and the parasitizing of BC Hydro, both venerable Crown Corps; the HST lie was the straw that broke the camel’s back, forcing Campbell to resign.

His successor was able to resurrect the disgraced party only because the NDP Opposition ran a ridiculously stupid campaign. Though probably no different in ethical terms, the re-elected caucus, now minus about half its previous members (who’d resigned expecting the party would get thrashed) and its micro-managing neo-right policy wonk of a Premier, was fundamentally riven into at least two antagonistic camps, Christy Clark’s Premier’s Office and the rump of residual Campbellites, who’ve raised suspicion even higher by running the most secretive government ever—in fact, the Premier is currently simmering in increasingly hot water for allowing staff to delete all government emails under the tutelage of two former Ontario government staffers who have just been charged with criminal offences in that regard (i.e., in Ontario—one, who was hired as Christy’s Chief of Staff when these allegations were know publicly, has resigned a few days ago to meet these charges).

Nobody expected Christy to redeem the disgraced BC Liberals, and nobody expected her to exemplify a higher ethical standard. The last election was never about ethics—the BC Liberals’ reputation cannot be expunged—but, rather, it was about the NDP (under the previous leader) not deserving to take the reins. Thus things like Mount Polley happen, people are outraged, but not surprised. Personally, I think BC Liberals imagine the rather dull uproar over their litany of transgressions means they have more licence than they really do; but the citizens of BC are fast tiring of the absurdist responses from their government: the sight of the Mines Minister standing by the devastated creek downstream from the tailings-pond breach proclaiming “Catastrophe? What catastrophe? Everything’s just fine,” doesn’t warrant any cogent response from voters except at the ballot-box.

Meanwhile, the central problem of a weak NDP party seems to have been remedied with a new and much more energetic leader who has been raising his profile steadily for months, and will doubtlessly be getting serious consideration in 17 months. His name is John Horgan.

There is definitely a difference between meeting the minimum regulations and good practice. That is why insurance costs are so high for your stamp!
Management. .. ignore engineering at your own peril.

Weak practices… Did not contravene existing legislation… resulting in a large debris field…
Can we water down the narrative any more?
NOTHING from the proceedings and from the response, acknowledges serious harm and wrong-doing occurred here that needs to be (1) owned, (2) prevented from reoccurring.