I’d be angry.

Water is a resource. And if your train derails and spills cancer causing agents into a lake people use, then you have a responsibility, CN.

Eight days ago a CN freight train derailed in Alberta. 45 tanker cars were involved and about 8 hundred thousand litres of oil wound up in Lake Wabamun.
Most of it was bunker oil. But that wasn’t all that went into the lake.

Alberta environment officials are uncertain about how much toxic ‘pole oil’ was spilled. And people have been exposed to it. And CN chose not to tell them.

CN had initially said that it was not specifically told that the tanker was carrying pole-treating oil, saying the shipper, Imperial Oil Ltd., said only that it contained “lube oil.”

I’d be angry.

Hello CN. There is absolutely no excuse for waiting - when. you. knew. - to tell residents in the area what was in the tankers that leaked into the ground and into the water.

Hello CN.
I hope are nailed on every violation possible.
I hope you are nailed federally and provincially and if the municipality can, I hope they nail you too.
And I hope this is a corporate lesson you never forget.
You move hazardous goods every day, you’ve accepted that responsibility.

Tests are under way to determine how much of the pole-treating oil flowed into the lake. Those tests will determine the concentration and toxicity of the chemicals, and how great a health risk they pose.

Prolonged or repeated exposure to pole-treating oil can cause a skin rash, and more seriously, lung cancer and other types of cancer. A more immediate and catastrophic health risk is a pulmonary edema — water on the lungs — if even a small amount of the liquid is inhaled into the lungs.

Eight days after the derailment, it isn’t going to matter what amount was spilled.
The damage is done.

I’d be angry.

“What I’m saying, there is a disconnect,” CN spokesman Jim Feeny said.

I think after the public meeting, CN is learning ‘there is a disconnect’ is not going to make things right.
No excuse, no passing the buck, no honest admission is going to absolve CN or Imperial Oil for violating public trust.
Most people in Canada watch trains pass every day.
Tankers and containers are labelled hazardous.
I do give it a second thought, I’ve covered spills and derailments.
I’ve been in public meetings where anger at corporations, groups or government for failing to disclose is a fearful thing. Those of us that cover er, communication failure encounters, learn to sit or stand close to the nearest exit.