Eastway owner loses bid to argue his rights were violated

The owner of the company involved in a workplace explosion that killed six of its employees three years ago has lost his bid to argue that his Charter rights have been violated by the ongoing police investigation, court heard Wednesday.

But Neil Greene of Eastway Tank, Pump and Meter and his defence team can go for it down the road if charges are laid and the case gets to trial, or if the criminal investigation ends up taking too much longer.

In her decision, Superior Court Justice Anne London-Weinstein said she appreciates that the investigation and possibility of criminal charges has been "hanging like the sword of Damocles over their heads for several years."

However, she ruled that Greene and his defence did not provide enough evidence that Eastway's reputation has been damaged with its customers, or that it's had any effect on day-to-day business and profits.

Dropped bid to have seized items returned, quash warrants

Greene's lawyers, the firm of Bayne Sellar Ertel Macrae, initially wanted search warrants and production orders for insurance documents, and the Ministry of Labour's investigative report, quashed, and everything police seized in their investigation returned.

But after Toronto-based Crown counsel Jason Wakely and Ottawa assistant Crown attorney Shakiba Azimi filed their counterarguments ahead of the motion, Mark Ertel and Kirstin Macrae changed course and asked instead only for a declaration that Greene's rights had been violated.

London-Weinstein declined, writing that it's best left to a trial judge to hear.

Greene's defence declined to comment Thursday.

It's been more than three years since the blast on Merivale Road on Jan. 13, 2022, killed employees Rick Bastien, Etienne Mabiala, Danny Beale, Kayla Ferguson, Russell McLellan and Matt Kearney. 

The criminal investigation began a year later, just days before the Ministry of Labour laid regulatory charges against Greene and Eastway. Officers executed search warrants and made a number of seizures six months after that, in the summer of 2023.

Analysis of seized documents ongoing

Since then, police mistakes with the seizures and defence team manoeuvres have brought the criminal investigation to a grinding halt, according to court documents obtained by CBC News after it successfully argued in court that they should be public.

A court-ordered process to sift through the seized material for information protected by solicitor-client privilege is well underway but not yet complete.

Greene has not been charged with any crime. He and Eastway pleaded guilty in April to regulatory provincial offences for failing to ensure that diesel used for testing trucks wasn't contaminated with gasoline or other flammable liquids.

Eastway also pleaded guilty for failing to adequately inform, instruct and supervise workers about safe fuel storage and handling to protect them from contaminated diesel.