Coastal GasLink says it is not liable for an alleged sexual assault at a do the job camp in northern B.C., and rather suggests any negligence is the fault of Civeo Quality Solutions, a pipeline contractor which also denies responsibility.
The two businesses also disagree about who used the individual alleged to have dedicated the sexual assault.
The denials from both of those businesses appear in created responses filed in B.C. Supreme Court docket to a lawsuit from a 30-calendar year outdated woman who CBC Information is figuring out by her initials.
In her lawsuit, J.M. claimed she suffered “sexual battery” by an “agent” of Coastal GasLink who embraced her at perform without her consent and “fondled, then forcibly grabbed” her buttocks, and “inappropriately” commented on her body.
The alleged incident took spot in J.M.’s private place of work in a do the job camp about 100 kilometres from Houston, B.C., west of Prince George, in December 2021, wherever she was used as an government chef for Coastal GasLink crews developing a pipeline.
The $6.6-billion Coastal GasLink pipeline will have normal fuel 670 kilometres from northeastern B.C. to a $40-billion LNG export challenge in Kitimat.
J.M. statements Coastal GasLink and Civeo failed to “monitor for suitability [their] agents, personnel and guests, primarily in gentle of the remote nature of the get the job done web site and prevalence of sexual violence at these types of remote get the job done web sites” and is suing both equally firms for negligence and damages.
None of the claims have been tested in court.
CGL claims get the job done camp contractor dependable for protection
In individual written responses submitted to the B.C. Supreme Court docket this thirty day period, both equally Coastal GasLink and Civeo ask that the case be dismissed.
Civeo stated that while J.M. had reported an alleged incident of sexual assault and asked for a online video camera to be mounted in her workplace, she did not in the beginning offer the title of her alleged assailant.
“Civeo was therefore … not able to examine even further,” according to the court docket filing.
When J.M. did later name her alleged assailant, the contractor explained it investigated “all allegations” and carried out “acceptable self-discipline … if inappropriate perform was located.”
Nevertheless, Civeo also explained it is really not liable for the steps of the alleged assailant because they were being an personnel of Coastal GasLink and “not below the control or direction of Civeo.”
In its filing, Coastal GasLink denies the alleged assailant worked for its corporation, and stated Civeo waited four months right before informing Coastal GasLink of the alleged incident.
Coastal GasLink states Civeo was only accountable for the security and management of the pipeline operate camps, and for implementing anti-harassment insurance policies and the camps’ code of carry out.
Wet’suwet’en blockades ‘unexpected’, says CGL
Coastal GasLink also denied obligation for failing to notify J.M. and other workers of an “imminent protester’s blockade” in November 2021, which left staff members in the camp minimize off from materials for various times.
The incident occurred when the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en country told Coastal GasLink it would implement an “eviction” of pipeline workers from its common territories.
8 hrs later, protesters designed blockades on the street to pipeline camps housing 500 employees.
J.M.’s lawsuit accuses the firms of creating unhygienic and unsafe performing disorders by limiting h2o and materials for the duration of the blockade.
Civeo claimed that drinking water rationing was essential “offered uncertainty about the length of the blockades.”
Coastal GasLink reported it could not give advance warning simply because the blockades have been “unforeseen” and caused by “third get-togethers” without “significant advance recognize”, that it was Civeo’s duty to regulate camp provides, and that Civeo should really have educated stranded employees that they could depart at any time by helicopter.
All the incidents alleged in the lawsuit took area on land claimed as conventional territory by quite a few Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, the site of ongoing pipeline protests in opposition to Coastal GasLink.
