Jeremy Daniel Schwartz

A municipality contracted with a constructor to repair a water main and dispatched quality control inspectors to the project site.

A pedestrian was fatally struck by construction equipment at an intersection where required safety measures — a fence and signallers — were absent.

The municipality was charged as an employer under the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to ensure that prescribed regulatory measures were carried out in the workplace.

On equal division, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal, with the majority holding that proof of control over workers or the workplace is not required to establish the actus reus of the employer's duty under s. 25(1)(c); control is relevant only to the due diligence defence.

The dissent would have either remitted the matter or restored the acquittals on the basis that regulatory measures apply only to work within the employer's sphere of control.

K-Line Maintenance and Construction Limited appealed four convictions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, stemming from a workplace accident that severely injured an employee.

The primary ground of appeal was that the Justice of the Peace failed to provide adequate reasons for the decision, thereby denying K-Line a meaningful right to appeal.

The court found the reasons provided by the Justice of the Peace to be factually and legally insufficient, making it impossible to understand the basis of the findings or the legal analysis.

Consequently, the appeal was allowed, the convictions were set aside, and a new trial was ordered.