The scheduling of a trial date for New Brunswick Southern Railway which is facing two dozen charges related to the transport of oil has been pushed back a month.
The subsidiary of J.D. Irving Ltd. plead not guilty in April to all 24 charges of violating the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act. The charges stem from a Transport Canada investigation launched following the deadly Lac-Megantic rail disaster.
12 counts have to do with not having all of the required shipping documents for crude oil and the other 12 have to do with unqualified personnel handling the oil shipments.
Transport Canada says these violations occurred between November of 2012 and July of 2013.
The matter was briefly back in provincial court today where the Crown, Guylaine Basque, and defence lawyer representing N.B. Southern Railway, Catherine Lahey, jointly asked for a month-long adjournment as there are still ‘substantial’ issues that need to be addressed before setting the date.
It’s now been set over to July 4.
In October of last year, Irving Oil had to pay $4-million after the company plead guilty to 34 charges under the same act relating to the misclassification of certain rail shipments of crude oil and the training of employees.
