Former Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway Ltd. employees Tom Harding, right, Jean Demaitre, centre, and Richard Labrie are escorted by police to appear in court in Lac-Megantic, Que., on Tuesday, May 13, 2014.

Former Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway Ltd. employees Tom Harding, right, Jean Demaitre, centre, and Richard Labrie are escorted by police to appear in court in Lac-Megantic, Que., on Tuesday, May 13, 2014.
Photo Credit: PC / Ryan Remiorz

‘No sympathy or prejudice’ judge instructs jurors for Lac-Mégantic train disaster

As they deliberate the fate of three men charged in one of the worst train disasters in Canadian history, they must make their judgement without sympathy or prejudice or regard for public opinion, Quebec Superior Court Justice Gaétan Dumas told 12 jurors Wednesday in his final instructions.

Former railway operations manager with Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Jean Demaître, 53, locomotive engineer Thomas Harding, 56, and traffic controller Richard Labrie, 59, are on trial in Sherbrooke, Quebec for criminal negligence causing the death of 47 people.

The three men were charged after a runaway train carrying volatile Bakken crude oil barrelled into the town of Lac-Mégantic on July 6, 2013, killing 47 people and destroying the town’s core.

All three have pleaded not guilty.

Harding, Labrie and Demaître also waived their right to testify in their own defence.

The trial heard from more than 30 witnesses.

Dumas said the jury is charged with rendering three separate, unanimous verdicts based solely on evidence presented during the trial.

The trial judge added that neither the now-defunct Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway that owned the derailed train, nor its administrators were on trial.

The trial involved only the three employees accused of being individually and independently criminally negligent for their actions leading to the derailment between July 4-6, 2013, he said.

With files from The Canadian Press

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