Lit_Match

TTC union calls marijuana report 'slander'
Allegation worker who died in subway mishap was high on pot just an attempt to shift blame, Kinnear says
06-06-08|Globe and Mai|JEFF GRAY

The leader of the TTC's largest union lashed out at the transit agency yesterday, calling allegations that a maintenance worker killed in a subway accident had used marijuana an "outrageous slander" and an attempt to shift blame for the accident.

A senior TTC official told The Globe and Mail on the condition of anonymity that an unreleased report on the April, 2007, fatal crash of a subway work car will reveal that the driver was high on marijuana - information that has added to calls for drug and alcohol testing after an unrelated incident this week in which a bus driver was charged with drunk driving.

The TTC has already pleaded guilty to Ministry of Labour charges in the subway accident case and has been hit with $250,000 in fines.

In a written statement yesterday, Bob Kinnear, president of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, called the leak of the report's contents "shameful" and warned it would poison labour relations.

He said there was no evidence the dead worker, 38-year-old Tony Almeida, was responsible for the accident, since he was driving the work car - carrying equipment used to remove asbestos - at normal speed and had been given clearance to proceed.

Mr. Kinnear condemned the claim that Mr. Almeida was impaired at the time of the crash as "speculative," on the grounds that marijuana can be detected in the bloodstream even weeks after use.

"On behalf of Tony's widow and children, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the TTC's outrageous slander against a man who is not alive to defend himself," Mr. Kinnear said, going on to accuse the TTC of trying to "taint his name and burden his children with a public image of their father as someone who caused his own death through the use of marijuana."

But Mr. Kinnear's statement yesterday appeared to back away from his previous blanket opposition to drug and alcohol testing, and he refused to comment on the issue until a proposal comes forward.

Adam Giambrone, the city councillor who chairs the TTC, would not discuss details of the police and coroner's investigations into the crash, which happened when a piece of improperly stowed equipment on a work car snagged a tunnel wall. He said the report would be released later this month in advance of a commission meeting.

Mr. Giambrone said he had discussed drug and alcohol testing with Mayor David Miller, who opposed the idea for TTC employees when it last came up in 1998, and, more recently, for police officers. Mr. Giambrone said the mayor asked the TTC to take a cautious approach.

Anneli LeGault, a lawyer with Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Toronto, has represented employers seeking to screen employees for drugs and alcohol. She said the legal ground in Canada appears to be shifting, with recent court rulings constraining the ability of human rights tribunals to oppose drug and alcohol testing as a form of discrimination against those with addictions, which were considered disabilities in past cases.

"None of my clients think people who are addicted are disabled; they just want to make sure they are showing up safely at work," Ms. LeGault said.

While testing is prevalent in riskier workplaces like mines and in Alberta's oil patch, Ms. LeGault said the practice remains much less common in Canada than in the United States, where testing for bus drivers is mandated by federal law.

Mr. Giambrone said that in Canada, only Transit Windsor, which operates a service that goes across the U.S. border, currently tests drivers.

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