Cross examination of First Nickel employees shows 'great disagreement of facts'

Court heard contradictory statements on Thursday as Mark Aubry was cross-examined during the trial against First Nickel and Taurus Drilling in Sudbury, Ont.

Aubry was the operations manager at First Nickel's Lockerby site when Norm Bisaillon and Marc Methe were killed in 2014.

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The two companies are facing a total of 12 charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act — the Crown dropped one of the charges against Taurus at the beginning of the trial.

Manager denies accumulated water

Earlier this week, court heard that a problem with the mine's pump system led to a large accumulation of water directly above Bisaillon and Methe's work site, and that workers had safety issues about this water.

While Aubry agreed the mine was very wet, he denied the fact that there was any pooled water in the area above the miners the night of the fatality.

"There's a great deal of disagreements of the facts in this case between various witnesses," Dave McCaskill, the lawyer representing the Ministry of Labour, told CBC News.

"The disagreements seems to be split along management and worker lines."

Ministry of Labour no stranger to site

Aubry started as a superintendent at the Lockerby mine in 2012. Court heard that in January 2013, the Ministry of Labour issued 43 orders to First Nickel, many of which were attributed to supervisors neglecting responsibility.

"There were a number of housekeeping, road maintenance and dust control issues in the mine that took a back seat to production," Aubry told the court.

"Some sites have a high tolerance for airborne dust. First Nickel was one of these. It became something that was accepted."

Aubry told the court that the responsible supervisors were reprimanded, that "a strip was taken off each one," and that he created a "front-line supervisor training program." That program included things like training with ground control and meetings with health and safety representatives.

Supervisors responsible to ask for more information

Earlier this week, a former supervisor told the court that he didn't understand seismic activity charts, that he wasn't aware of any water issues in the mine and that he didn't know about a Ministry of Labour visit just weeks before the deadly incident.

McCaskill brought this up, asking Aubry if he would consider someone with these deficiencies to be competent or properly instructed.

"I'm not going to say if he was improperly instructed," Aubry replied after a long pause.

"But...if there's something he's unsure about, it's his duty to ask."