title: History of Malaysia

text: The Japanese colonial government regarded the Malays from a pan-Asian point of view, and fostered a limited form of Malay nationalism, which gained them some degree of collaboration from the Malay civil service and intellectuals. (Most of the Sultans also collaborated with the Japanese, although they maintained later that they had done so unwillingly.) The Malay nationalist Kesatuan Melayu Muda, advocates of "Melayu Raya", collaborated with the Japanese, based on the understanding that Japan would unite the Dutch East Indies, Malaya and Borneo and grant them independence. The occupiers regarded the Chinese, however, as enemy aliens, and treated them with great harshness: during the so-called "sook ching" (purification through suffering), up to 80,000 Chinese in Malaya and Singapore were killed. Chinese businesses were expropriated and Chinese schools either closed or burned down. Not surprisingly the Chinese, led by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), became the backbone of the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), a force similar to the Soviet-supported Partisan rebel forces led by local Communist parties in the Eastern European theatre. With British assistance, the MPAJA became the most effective resistance force in the occupied Asian countries.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Although the Japanese argued that they supported Malay nationalism, they offended Malay nationalism by allowing their ally Thailand to re-annex the four northern states, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Terengganu that had been transferred to British Malaya in 1909. The loss of Malaya's export markets soon produced mass unemployment which affected all races and made the Japanese increasingly unpopular.


title: History of Malaysia

text: During occupation, ethnic tensions were raised and nationalism grew. The Malayans were thus on the whole glad to see the British back in 1945, but things could not remain as they were before the war, and a stronger desire for independence grew. Britain was bankrupt and the new Labour government was keen to withdraw its forces from the East as soon as possible. Colonial self-rule and eventual independence were now British policy. The tide of Asian nationalism sweeping through Asia soon reached Malaya. But most Malays were more concerned with defending themselves against the MCP which was mostly made up of Chinese, than with demanding independence from the British; indeed, their immediate concern was that the British not leave and abandon the Malays to the armed Communists of the MPAJA, which was the largest armed force in the country.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In 1944, the British drew up plans for a Malayan Union, which would turn the Federated and Unfederated Malay States, plus Penang and Malacca (but not Singapore), into a single Crown colony, with a view towards independence. The Bornean territories and Singapore were left out as it was thought this would make union more difficult to achieve. There was however strong opposition from the Malays, who opposed the weakening of the Malay rulers and the granting of citizenship to the ethnic Chinese and other minorities. The British had decided on legalised equality between all races as they perceived the Chinese and Indians as more loyal to the British during the war than the Malays. The Sultans, who had initially supported it, backed down and placed themselves at the head of the resistance.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In 1946, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was founded by Malay nationalists led by Dato Onn bin Jaafar, the Chief Minister of Johor. UMNO favoured independence for Malaya, but only if the new state was run exclusively by the Malays. Faced with implacable Malay opposition, the British dropped the plan for equal citizenship. The Malayan Union was thus established in 1946, and was dissolved in 1948 and replaced by the Federation of Malaya, which restored the autonomy of the rulers of the Malay states under British protection.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Meanwhile, the Communists were moving towards open insurrection. The MPAJA had been disbanded in December 1945, and the MCP organised as a legal political party, but the MPAJA's arms were carefully stored for future use. The MCP policy was for immediate independence with full equality for all races. The Party's strength was in the Chinese-dominated trade unions, particularly in Singapore, and in the Chinese schools, where the teachers, mostly born in China, saw the Chinese Communist Party as the leader of China's national revival. In March 1947, reflecting the international Communist movement's "turn to left" as the Cold War set in, the MCP leader Lai Tek was purged and replaced by the veteran MPAJA guerrilla leader Chin Peng, who turned the party increasingly to direct action. These rebels, under the leadership of the MCP, launched guerrilla operations designed to force the British out of Malaya. In July, following a string of assassinations of plantation managers, the colonial government struck back, declaring a State of emergency, banning the MCP and arresting hundreds of its militants. The Party retreated to the jungle and formed the Malayan Peoples' Liberation Army, with about 13,000 men under arms, mostly ethnic Chinese.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The war was precipitated by the new constitution desired by Britain, which condemned about 90 percent of ethnic Chinese to non-citizenship, and by the eviction of poor peasants to make way for plantations. But although the war was long portrayed in most analyses by British authorities as a struggle against communism in a Cold War context, the MNLA received very little support from either the Soviet or Chinese communists. Rather, the main concern of British governments was to protect their commercial interests in the colony.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The Malayan Emergency as it was known, lasted from 1948 to 1960 and involved a long anti-insurgency campaign by Commonwealth troops in Malaya. The British strategy, which proved ultimately successful, was to isolate the MCP from its support base by a combination of economic and political concessions to the Chinese and the resettlement of Chinese squatters into "New Villages", In reality concentration camps, in "white areas" free of MCP influence. From 1949 the MCP campaign lost momentum and the number of recruits fell sharply. Although the MCP succeeded in assassinating the British High Commissioner, Sir Henry Gurney, in October 1951, this turn to terrorist tactics alienated many moderate Chinese from the Party. The arrival of Lt.-Gen Sir Gerald Templer as British commander in 1952 was the beginning of the end of the Emergency. Templer helped create the modern techniques of Counter-insurgency warfare in Malaya and applied them against the MCP guerillas.The war was accompanied by abuses on both sides. The most notorious atrocity was committed in the village of Batang Kali, north of the capital Kuala Lumpur, in December 1948, when the British army massacred 24 Chinese before burning the village to the ground. Heavy bombers went to war, dropping thousands of 4,000-pound bombs on insurgent positions. Britain conducted 4,500 air strikes in the first five years of the conflict. Although the insurgency was defeated Commonwealth troops remained with the backdrop of the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Against this backdrop, independence for the Federation within the Commonwealth was granted on 31 August 1957, with Tunku Abdul Rahman as the first prime minister.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Chinese reaction against the MCP was shown by the formation of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) in 1949 as a vehicle for moderate Chinese political opinion. Its leader Tan Cheng Lock favoured a policy of collaboration with UMNO to win Malayan independence on a policy of equal citizenship, but with sufficient concessions to Malay sensitivities to ease nationalist fears. Tan formed a close collaboration with Tunku (Prince) Abdul Rahman, the Chief Minister of Kedah and from 1951 successor to Datuk Onn as leader of UMNO. Since the British had announced in 1949 that Malaya would soon become independent whether the Malayans liked it or not, both leaders were determined to forge an agreement their communities could live with as a basis for a stable independent state. The UMNO-MCA Alliance, which was later joined by the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC), won convincing victories in local and state elections in both Malay and Chinese areas between 1952 and 1955.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The introduction of elected local government was another important step in defeating the Communists. After Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, there was a split in the MCP leadership over the wisdom of continuing the armed struggle. Many MCP militants lost heart and went home, and by the time Templer left Malaya in 1954, the Emergency was over, although Chin Peng led a diehard group that lurked in the inaccessible country along the Thai border for many years.


title: History of Malaysia

text: During 1955 and 1956 UMNO, the MCA and the British hammered out a constitutional settlement for a principle of equal citizenship for all races. In exchange, the MCA agreed that Malaya's head of state would be drawn from the ranks of the Malay Sultans, that Malay would be the official language, and that Malay education and economic development would be promoted and subsidised. In effect, this meant that Malaya would be run by the Malays, particularly since they continued to dominate the civil service, the army and the police, but that the Chinese and Indians would have proportionate representation in the Cabinet and the parliament, would run those states where they were the majority, and would have their economic position protected. The difficult issue of who would control the Education system was deferred until after independence. This came on 31 August 1957, when Tunku Abdul Rahman became the first Prime Minister of independent Malaya.


title: History of Malaysia

text: This left the unfinished business of the other British-ruled territories in the region. After the Japanese surrender the Brooke family and the British North Borneo Company gave up their control of Sarawak and North Borneo respectively, and these became British Crown Colonies. They were much less economically developed than Malaya, and their local political leaderships were too weak to demand independence. Singapore, with its large Chinese majority, achieved autonomy in 1955, and in 1959 the young leader Lee Kuan Yew became Prime Minister. The Sultan of Brunei remained as a British client in his oil-rich enclave. Between 1959 and 1962 the British government orchestrated complex negotiations between these local leaders and the Malayan government.


title: History of Malaysia

text: On 24 April 1961, Lee Kuan Yew proposed the idea of forming Malaysia during a meeting to Tunku Abdul Rahman, after which Tunku invited Lee to prepare a paper elaborating on this idea. On 9 May, Lee sent the final version of the paper to Tunku and then deputy Malayan Prime Minister Abdul Razak. There were doubts about the practicality of the idea but Lee assured the Malayan government of continued Malay political dominance in the new federation. Razak supported the idea of the new federation and worked to convince Tunku to back it. On 27 May 1961, Abdul Rahman proposed the idea of forming "Malaysia", which would consist of Brunei, Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore, all except Malaya still under British rule. It was stated that this would allow the central government to better control and combat communist activities, especially in Singapore. It was also feared that if Singapore became independent, it would become a base for Chinese chauvinists to threaten Malayan sovereignty. The proposed inclusion of British territories besides Singapore was intended to keep the ethnic composition of the new nation similar to that of Malaya, with the Malay and indigenous populations of the other territories canceling out the Chinese majority in Singapore.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Although Lee Kuan Yew supported the proposal, his opponents from the Singaporean Socialist Front (Barisan Sosialis) resisted, arguing that this was a ploy for the British to continue controlling the region. Most political parties in Sarawak were also against the merger, and in North Borneo, where there were no political parties, community representatives also stated their opposition. Although the Sultan of Brunei supported the merger, the Parti Rakyat Brunei opposed it as well. At the Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference in 1961, Abdul Rahman explained his proposal further to its opponents. In October, he obtained agreement from the British government to the plan, provided that feedback be obtained from the communities involved in the merger.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The Cobbold Commission, named after its head, Lord Cobbold, conducted a study in the Borneo territories and approved a merger with North Borneo and Sarawak; however, it was found that a substantial number of Bruneians opposed merger. North Borneo drew up a list of points, referred to as the 20-point agreement, proposing terms for its inclusion in the new federation. Sarawak prepared a similar memorandum, known as the 18-point agreement. Some of the points in these agreements were incorporated into the eventual constitution, some were instead accepted orally. These memoranda are often cited by those who believe that Sarawak's and North Borneo's rights have been eroded over time. A referendum was conducted in Singapore to gauge opinion, and 70% supported merger with substantial autonomy given to the state government. The Sultanate of Brunei withdrew from the planned merger due to opposition from certain segments of its population as well as arguments over the payment of oil royalties and the status of the sultan in the planned merger. Additionally, the Bruneian Parti Rakyat Brunei staged an armed revolt, which, though it was put down, was viewed as potentially destabilising to the new nation.


title: History of Malaysia

text: After reviewing the Cobbold Commission's findings, the British government appointed the Landsdowne Commission to draft a constitution for Malaysia. The eventual constitution was essentially the same as the 1957 constitution, albeit with some rewording; for instance, giving recognition to the special position of the natives of the Borneo States. North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore were also granted some autonomy unavailable to the states of Malaya. After negotiations in July 1963, it was agreed that Malaysia would come into being on 31 August 1963, consisting of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore. The date was to coincide with the independence day of Malaya and the British giving self-rule to Sarawak and North Borneo. However, Indonesia and the Philippines strenuously objected to this development, with Indonesia claiming Malaysia represented a form of "neocolonialism" and the Philippines claiming North Borneo as its territory. The opposition from the Indonesian government led by Sukarno and attempts by the Sarawak United People's Party delayed the formation of Malaysia. Due to these factors, an eight-member UN team was formed to re-ascertain whether North Borneo and Sarawak truly wanted to join Malaysia. Malaysia formally came into being on 16 September 1963, consisting of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore. In 1963 the total population of Malaysia was about 10 million.


title: History of Malaysia

text: At the time of independence, Malaya had great economic advantages. It was among the world's leading producers of three valuable commodities; rubber, tin, and palm oil, and was also a significant iron ore producer. These export industries gave the Malayan government a healthy surplus to invest in industrial development and infrastructure projects. Like other developing nations in the 1950s and 1960s, Malaya (and later Malaysia) placed great stress on state planning, although UMNO was never a socialist party. The First and Second Malayan Plans (1956–1960 and 1961–1965 respectively) stimulated economic growth through state investment in industry and repairing infrastructure such as roads and ports, which had been damaged and neglected during the war and the Emergency. The government was keen to reduce Malaya's dependence on commodity exports, which put the country at the mercy of fluctuating prices. The government was also aware that demand for natural rubber was bound to fall as the production and use of synthetic rubber expanded. Since a third of the Malay workforce worked in the rubber industry it was important to develop alternative sources of employment. Competition for Malaya's rubber markets meant that the profitability of the rubber industry increasingly depended on keeping wages low, which perpetuated rural Malay poverty.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Both Indonesia and the Philippines withdrew their ambassadors from Malaya on 15 September 1963, the day before Malaysia's formation. In Jakarta the British and Malayan embassies were stoned, and the British consulate in Medan was ransacked with Malaya's consul taking refuge in the US consulate. Malaysia withdrew its ambassadors in response, and asked Thailand to represent Malaysia in both countries.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Indonesian President Sukarno, backed by the powerful Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), chose to regard Malaysia as a "neocolonialist" plot against his country, and backed a Communist insurgency in Sarawak, mainly involving elements of the local Chinese community. Indonesian irregular forces were infiltrated into Sarawak, where they were contained by Malaysian and Commonwealth of Nations forces. This period of "Konfrontasi", an economic, political, and military confrontation lasted until the downfall of Sukarno in 1966. The Philippines objected to the formation of the federation, claiming North Borneo was part of Sulu, and thus the Philippines. In 1966 the new president, Ferdinand Marcos, dropped the claim, although it has since been revived and is still a point of contention marring Philippine–Malaysian relations. There is massive migration of Chavacanos (Spanish Creole speaking Peruvian-Filipinos from the brief rebel-state of the Republic of Zamboanga), Tausugs, and Sama-Bajaus (Of the Sultanate of Sulu) from the Philippines to Sabah, Malaysia, especially at Semporna, due to them being refugees of the Moro conflict, a war in the Philippines which is primarily supported by the government of Malaysia. This war was waged to counteract reconquest attempts from the Philippine Sultanate of Sulu. Among the Philippine armed attempts include the 2013 Lahad Datu standoff.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The Depression of the 1930s, followed by the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, had the effect of ending Chinese emigration to Malaya. This stabilised the demographic situation and ended the prospect of the Malays becoming a minority in their own country. At the time of independence in 1957, Malays comprised 55% of the population, Chinese 35% and Indians 10%. This balance was altered by the inclusion of the majority-Chinese Singapore, upsetting many Malays. The federation increased the Chinese proportion to close to 40%. Both UMNO and the MCA were nervous about the possible appeal of Lee's People's Action Party (then seen as a radical socialist party) to voters in Malaya and tried to organise a party in Singapore to challenge Lee's position there. Lee in turn threatened to run PAP candidates in Malaya at the 1964 federal elections, despite an earlier agreement that he would not do so (see PAP–UMNO Relations). Racial tensions intensified as PAP created an opposition alliance aiming for equality between races. This provoked Tunku Abdul Rahman to demand that Singapore withdraw from Malaysia. While the Singaporean leaders attempted to keep Singapore as a part of the Federation, the Malaysian Parliament voted 126–0 on 9 August 1965 in favour of the expulsion of Singapore.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The most vexed issues of independent Malaysia were education and the disparity of economic power among the ethnic communities. The Malays felt unhappy with the wealth of the Chinese community, even after the expulsion of Singapore. Malay political movements emerged based around this. However, since there was no effective opposition party, these issues were contested mainly within the coalition government, which won all but one seat in the first post-independence Malayan Parliament. The two issues were related since the Chinese advantage in education played a large part in maintaining their control of the economy, which the UMNO leaders were determined to end. The MCA leaders were torn between the need to defend their own community's interests and the need to maintain good relations with UMNO. This produced a crisis in the MCA in 1959, in which a more assertive leadership under Lim Chong Eu defied UMNO over the education issue, only to be forced to back down when Tunku Abdul Rahman threatened to break up the coalition.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The Education Act of 1961 put UMNO's victory on the education issue into legislative form. Henceforward Malay and English would be the only teaching languages in secondary schools, and state primary schools would teach in Malay only. Although the Chinese and Indian communities could maintain their own Chinese and Tamil-language primary schools, all their students were required to learn Malay, and to study an agreed "Malayan curriculum". Most importantly, the entrance exam to the University of Malaya (which moved from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in 1963) would be conducted in Malay, even though most teachings at the university was in English until the 1970s. This had the effect of excluding many Chinese students. At the same time, Malay schools were heavily subsidised, and Malays were given preferential treatment. This obvious defeat for the MCA greatly weakened its support in the Chinese community.


title: History of Malaysia

text: As in education, the UMNO government's unspoken agenda in the field of economic development aimed to shift economic power away from the Chinese and towards the Malays. The two Malayan Plans and the First Malaysian Plan (1966–1970) directed resources heavily into developments that would benefit the rural Malay community, such as village schools, rural roads, clinics, and irrigation projects. Several agencies were set up to enable Malay smallholders to upgrade their production and to increase their incomes. The Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) helped many Malays to buy farms or to upgrade ones they already owned. The state also provided a range of incentives and low-interest loans to help Malays start businesses, and government tendering systematically favoured Malay companies, leading many Chinese-owned businesses to "Malayanise" their management. All this certainly tended to reduce the gap between Chinese and Malay standards of living, although some argued that this would have happened anyway as Malaysia's trade and general prosperity increased.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The collaboration of the MCA and the MIC in these policies weakened their hold on the Chinese and Indian electorates. At the same time, the effects of the government's affirmative action policies of the 1950s and 1960s had been to create a discontented class of educated but underemployed Malays. This was a dangerous combination and led to the formation of a new party, the Malaysian People's Movement (Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia) in 1968. Gerakan was a deliberately non-communal party, bringing in Malay trade unionists and intellectuals as well as Chinese and Indian leaders. At the same time, an Islamist party, the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) and a Democratic socialist party, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), gained increasing support, at the expense of UMNO and the MCA respectively.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Following the end of the Malayan Emergency in 1960, the predominantly ethnic Chinese Malayan National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Malayan Communist Party, had retreated to the Malaysian-Thailand border where it had regrouped and retrained for future offensives against the Malaysian government. The insurgency officially began when the MCP ambushed security forces in Kroh–Betong, in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia, on 17 June 1968. Instead of declaring a "state of emergency" as the British had done previously, the Malaysian government responded to the insurgency by introducing several policy initiatives including the Security and Development Program (KESBAN), "Rukun Tetangga" (Neighbourhood Watch), and the RELA Corps (People's Volunteer Group).


title: History of Malaysia

text: At the May 1969 federal elections, the UMNO-MCA-MIC Alliance polled only 48% of the vote, although it retained a majority in the legislature. The MCA lost most of the Chinese-majority seats to Gerakan or DAP candidates. The victorious opposition celebrated by holding a motorcade on the main streets of Kuala Lumpur with supporters holding up brooms as a signal of its intention to make sweeping changes. Fear of what the changes might mean for them (as much of the country's businesses were Chinese-owned), a Malay backlash resulted, leading rapidly to riots and inter-communal violence in which about 6,000 Chinese homes and businesses were burned and at least 184 people were killed, although Western diplomatic sources at the time suggested a toll of close to 600, with most of the victims are Chinese. The government declared a state of emergency, and a National Operations Council, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak, took power from the government of Tunku Abdul Rahman, who, in September 1970, was forced to retire in favour of Abdul Razak. It consisted of nine members, mostly Malay, and wielded full political and military power.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Using the Emergency-era Internal Security Act (ISA), the new government suspended Parliament and political parties, imposed press censorship and placed severe restrictions on political activity. The ISA gave the government power to intern any person indefinitely without trial. These powers were widely used to silence the government's critics, and have never been repealed. The Constitution was changed to make illegal any criticism, even in Parliament, of the Malaysian monarchy, the special position of Malays in the country, or the status of Malay as the national language.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In 1971, the Parliament reconvened, and a new government coalition, the Barisan Nasional, was formed in 1973 to replace the Alliance party. The coalition consisted of UMNO, the MCA, the MIC, Gerakan, PPP, and regional parties in Sabah and Sarawak. The PAS also joined the Front but was expelled in 1977. The DAP was left outside as the only significant opposition party. Abdul Razak held office until he passed away in 1976. He was succeeded by Datuk Hussein Onn, the son of UMNO's founder Onn Jaafar, and then by Tun Mahathir Mohamad, who had been Education Minister since 1981, and who held power for 22 years.


title: History of Malaysia

text: During these years policies were put in place which led to the rapid transformation of Malaysia's economy and society, such as the controversial New Economic Policy, which was intended to increase proportionally the share of the economic "pie" of the bumiputras as compared to other ethnic groups—was launched by Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. Malaysia has since maintained a delicate ethno-political balance, with a system of government that has attempted to combine overall economic development with political and economic policies that promote equitable participation of all races.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In 1970 three-quarters of Malaysians living below the poverty line were Malays, the majority of Malays were still rural workers, and Malays were still largely excluded from the modern economy. The government's response was the New Economic Policy of 1971, which was to be implemented through a series of four five-year plans from 1971 to 1990. The plan had two objectives: the elimination of poverty, particularly rural poverty, and the elimination of the identification between race and prosperity. This latter policy was understood to mean a decisive shift in economic power from the Chinese to the Malays, who until then made up only 5% of the professional class.


title: History of Malaysia

text: To find jobs for all these new Malay graduates, the government created several agencies for intervention in the economy. The most important of these were PERNAS (National Corporation Ltd.), PETRONAS (National Petroleum Ltd.), and HICOM (Heavy Industry Corporation of Malaysia), which not only directly employed many Malays but also invested in growing areas of the economy to create new technical and administrative jobs which were preferentially allocated to Malays. As a result, the share of Malay equity in the economy rose from 1.5% in 1969 to 20.3% in 1990, and the percentage of businesses of all kinds owned by Malays rose from 39 percent to 68 percent. This latter figure was deceptive because many businesses that appeared to be Malay-owned were still indirectly controlled by Chinese, but there is no doubt that the Malay share of the economy considerably increased. The Chinese remained disproportionately powerful in Malaysian economic life, but by 2000 the distinction between Chinese and Malay business was fading as many new corporations, particularly in growth sectors such as information technology, were owned and managed by people from both ethnic groups.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as prime minister on 16 July 1981, at the age of 56. One of his first acts was to release 21 detainees held under the Internal Security Act, including journalist Samad Ismail and a former deputy minister in Hussein's government, Abdullah Ahmad, who had been suspected of being an underground communist. He appointed his close ally, Musa Hitam, as deputy prime minister.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The expiry of the Malaysian New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1990 allowed Mahathir to outline his economic vision for Malaysia. In 1991, he announced Vision 2020, under which Malaysia would aim to become a fully developed country within 30 years. The target would require average economic growth of approximately seven per cent of the gross domestic product per annum. One of Vision 2020's features would be to gradually break down ethnic barriers. Vision 2020 was accompanied by the NEP's replacement, the National Development Policy (NDP), under which some government programs designed to benefit the Bumiputera exclusively were opened up to other ethnicities. The NDP achieved success in one of its main aims, poverty reduction. By 1995, less than nine per cent of Malaysians lived in poverty, and income inequality had narrowed. Mahathir's government cut corporate taxes and liberalised financial regulations to attract foreign investment. The economy grew by over nine per cent per annum until 1997, prompting other developing countries to emulate Mahathir's policies. Much of the credit for Malaysia's economic development in the 1990s went to Anwar Ibrahim, appointed by Mahathir as finance minister in 1991. The government rode the economic wave and won the 1995 election with an increased majority.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Mahathir initiated a series of major infrastructure projects in the 1990s. One of the largest was the Multimedia Super Corridor, an area south of Kuala Lumpur, in the mould of Silicon Valley, designed to cater for the information technology industry. However, the project failed to generate the investment anticipated. Other Mahathir's projects included the development of Putrajaya as the home of Malaysia's public service and bringing a Formula One Grand Prix to Sepang. One of the most controversial developments was the Bakun Dam in Sarawak. The ambitious hydroelectric project was intended to carry electricity across the South China Sea to satisfy electricity demand in peninsular Malaysia. Work on the dam was eventually suspended due to the Asian financial crisis.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In 1997, the Asian financial crisis, which began in Thailand in July 1997, threatened to devastate Malaysia. The value of the ringgit plummeted due to currency speculation, foreign investment fled, and the main stock exchange index fell by over 75 per cent. At the urging of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government cut government spending. It raised interest rates, which only served to exacerbate the economic situation. In 1998, in a controversial approach, Mahathir reversed this policy course in defiance of the IMF and his own deputy, Anwar. He increased government spending and fixed the ringgit to the US dollar. The result confounded his international critics and the IMF. Malaysia recovered from the crisis faster than its Southeast Asian neighbours.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In the domestic sphere, it was a political triumph. Amidst the economic events of 1998, Mahathir dismissed Anwar as finance minister and deputy prime minister. He could now claim to have rescued the economy despite Anwar's policies. Shortly after Anwar was dismissed by Mahathir, Anwar and his supporters initiated the "Reformasi" movement. It consisted of several mass demonstrations and rallies against the long-standing Barisan Nasional coalition government. He was jailed in April 1999 after a trial for sodomy that was criticised by human rights groups and several foreign governments.


title: History of Malaysia

text: At UMNO's general assembly in 2002, Mahathir announced that he would resign as prime minister, only for supporters to rush to the stage and convince him tearfully to remain. He subsequently fixed his retirement for October 2003, giving him time to ensure an orderly and uncontroversial transition to his anointed successor, Abdullah Badawi. Having spent over 22 years in office, Mahathir was the world's longest-serving elected leader when he retired.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi promised to combat corruption when he became the fifth Prime Minister, thus empowering anti-corruption agencies and providing more avenues for the public to expose corrupt practices. He advocated an interpretation of Islam known as Islam Hadhari, which advocates the intercompatibility between Islam and economic and technological development. His administration also placed a strong emphasis on reviving Malaysia's agriculture industry.


title: History of Malaysia

text: At the 2004 general election, the Barisan Nasional led by Abdullah Badawi had a massive victory, virtually wiping out the PAS and KEADILAN, although the DAP recovered the seats it had lost in 1999. This victory was seen as the result mainly of Abdullah's personal popularity and the strong recovery of Malaysia's economy, which has lifted the living standards of many Malaysians to almost first-world standards, coupled with an ineffective opposition.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, upon his release from prison in September 2004, publicly credited Abdullah Badawi for not interfering with the court's overturning of his sodomy conviction.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In November 2007, Malaysia saw two anti-government rallies. The 2007 Bersih Rally which was attended by around 40,000 people was held in Kuala Lumpur on 10 November 2007, to campaign for electoral reform. It was precipitated by allegations of corruption and discrepancies in the Malaysian election system that heavily favour the ruling political party, Barisan Nasional, which has been in power since Malaysia achieved its independence in 1957.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Another rally was held in the same month, on 25 November 2007, in Kuala Lumpur led by Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF). HINDRAF had called the protest over alleged discriminatory policies favouring ethnic Malays. The crowd was estimated to be between 5,000 and 30,000. In both cases, the government and police tried to prevent the gatherings from taking place. On 15 October 2008, HINDRAF was banned when the government labelled the organisation as a threat to national security.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Abdullah Badawi was re-elected as prime minister in the 2008 general election, which took place in March 2008, with a reduced majority. In the election, Barisan Nasional won a slim majority of seats but lost its two-thirds majority and five states to Opposition Pact. Although his party, Barisan Nasional, suffered a significant setback, Abdullah Badawi vowed to fulfil the promises in his manifesto amid calls from Mahathir, the opposition and even among UMNO members for him to resign. However, his Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, and others in his party voiced unreserved support for his leadership. It took a while before open dissent started brewing at grassroots levels, with petitions and campaigns being launched to ask for his resignation.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Abdullah came under growing criticism, primarily because of his failure to curtail corruption and poor performance in the 2008 Malaysian general election. Hence, in October 2008, he announced his intention to resign the following March. Abdullah was succeeded in office by his deputy, Najib Razak (son of Abdul Razak), in April 2009.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In January 2012, the 2008 charges against Anwar Ibrahim, which Anwar had always maintained that they were part of a political smear campaign, were dismissed after a two-year trial, but an appeals court subsequently overturned this acquittal in 2014, and he was sentenced to five years in prison. In 2015, he was sent to Sungai Buloh Prison, Selangor, to serve the sentence.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In early February of 2013, there was an incursion in Lahad Datu, a military conflict that began when hundreds of militants, some of whom were armed, arrived by boats in Lahad Datu District, Sabah, Malaysia from Simunul Island, Tawi-Tawi, in the southern Philippines. The group, calling themselves the "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo", was sent by Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimants to the throne of the Sultanate of Sulu. In response to the incursion, Malaysian security forces launched a major operation to repel the militants, resulting in a decisive Malaysian victory which ended the conflict in late March 2013.


title: History of Malaysia

text: On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The 239 passengers and crew on board were presumed dead. Just four months later, 298 people were killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while flying over territory controlled by Russian-backed militants in Eastern Ukraine.


title: History of Malaysia

text: On 1 April 2015, Najib passed a controversial 6 percent tax on goods and services. Later that year his administration was engulfed in scandal when Najib and other officials were implicated in a multibillion-dollar embezzlement and money-laundering scheme involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state-owned investment fund masterminded by Low Taek Jho, triggering widespread calls from most Malaysians including the opposition parties for Najib's resignation. He has also been criticised for the extravagant life of his wife Rosmah Mansor.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Mahathir Mohamad, who left UMNO in 2016 and formed his own political party, the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) which teamed up with three other political parties to form Pakatan Harapan, was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Malaysia after winning the election on 10 May 2018. He defeated Najib Razak who led Barisan Nasional, the political party that had previously ruled Malaysia for 61 years since 1957. The ongoing 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, the 6% Goods and Services Tax, and the high cost of living were all factors in Najib's loss.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Following his appointment as prime minister, Mahathir promised to "restore the rule of law", and make elaborate and transparent investigations into the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. Mahathir told the press that Najib Razak would face consequences if found guilty of wrongdoing. Mahathir instructed the Department of Immigration to bar Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor from leaving the country after they attempted to fly to Indonesia.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Anwar Ibrahim was given a full royal pardon and was released from prison on 16 May 2018. He was designated to take over the reins from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as planned and agreed by the coalition before GE14.


title: History of Malaysia

text: The unpopular tax was reduced to 0% on 1 June 2018. The government of Malaysia under Mahathir tabled the first reading Bill to repeal GST in Parliament on 31 July 2018 (Dewan Rakyat). GST was successfully replaced with Sales Tax and Service Tax starting 1 September 2018.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Mahathir's administration promised to review all Belt and Road Initiative projects in Malaysia that were initiated by the previous government. He characterised these as "unequal treaties", and said some were linked to misappropriated funds from the 1MDB scandal. The government suspended work on the East Coast Rail Link and continued it after terms had been renegotiated. Mahathir cancelled approximately $2.8 billion worth of deals with China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau altogether, saying Malaysia would not be able to repay its obligations to China.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Mahathir was supportive of the 2018–19 Korean peace process. He said, "the world should not treat North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with scepticism and instead learn from his new attitude towards bringing about peace". In a joint press conference in Tokyo with Japan after the 2018 US-North Korea summit, Mahathir said, "we hoped for a successful outcome from the historic meeting", adding that "Malaysia will reopen their embassy in North Korea as an end to the diplomatic row over the assassination of Kim Jong-nam last year".


title: History of Malaysia

text: On 28 September 2018, Mahathir addressed the United Nations General Assembly that his government would promise to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). However, after weeks of receiving racially and religiously charged demonstrations against the convention, particularly from Bumiputras, the Pakatan Harapan government chose not to accede to the ICERD on November 23, 2018.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Mahathir announced the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 in October 2019, which set out to increase the incomes of all ethnic groups, to increase focus on the technology sector and for Malaysia to become a high-income country by 2030. In the announcement, he vowed to move past what he called the "abuse of power" and "corruption" of the previous administration to achieve this.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Malaysia's freedom of the press improved slightly under Mahathir's tenure, and the country's rank rose in the Press Freedom Index.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Political infightings within the Pakatan Harapan coalition, as well as the uncertainty of the date of the transition of power to his designated successor, Anwar Ibrahim, soon culminated in a political crisis known as Sheraton Move in February 2020.


title: History of Malaysia

text: On 1 March 2020, a week after the country was thrown into a political crisis, Muhyiddin Yassin was appointed as the eighth Prime Minister by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, following the abrupt resignation of Mahathir Mohamad six days before which brought down Pakatan Harapan. The fallen government was replaced by the new Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition government, constituting BERSATU, BN, PAS, GPS & GBS, alongside several Pakatan Harapan MPs who defected, led by BERSATU leader Muhyiddin himself. He is the first person appointed to the position of Prime Minister of Malaysia while holding both a parliamentary and state seat at the same time. During his administration, COVID-19, which had originated in Wuhan, China, spread throughout the nation. In response, Muhyiddin implemented the Malaysian movement control order (MCO) on 18 March 2020 to prevent the disease from spreading throughout Malaysia.


title: History of Malaysia

text: On 28 July 2020, the High Court convicted former Prime Minister Najib Razak on all seven counts of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust, becoming the first Prime Minister of Malaysia to be convicted of corruption, and was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and fined RM210 million.


title: History of Malaysia

text: In mid-January 2021, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong declared a national state of emergency until at least 1 August in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the political infighting within Prime Minister Muhyiddin's Perikatan Nasional government. Under this state of emergency, parliament and elections were suspended while the Malaysian government was empowered to introduce laws without approval.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Muhyiddin commenced the country's vaccination programme against COVID-19 in late February 2021, and he became the first individual in Malaysia to receive the approved Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine when it was broadcast live nationwide.


title: History of Malaysia

text: On 19 March 2021, North Korea announced the severance of diplomatic ties with Malaysia, after the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected North Korean businessman Mun Chol Myong’s appeal from extradition to the United States, on money laundering charges, which his lawyers maintained were related mainly to his activities in Singapore. Malaysia later expelled the North Korean ambassador, shut down the North Korean embassy in the country and effectively closed its own embassy in Pyongyang. Malaysia has not dispatched any diplomats to the North Korean capital since.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Muhyiddin officially resigned as Prime Minister on August 16, 2021, after losing majority support due to the country's political crisis, as well as calls for his resignation due to economic stagnation and the government's failure to prevent a record rise in COVID-19 infections and deaths in late 2020 and 2021. He was afterwards appointed back as caretaker Prime Minister by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong until a replacement can be selected.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Former Deputy Prime Minister to Muhyiddin Yassin, Ismail Sabri Yaakob was sworn in as the ninth Prime Minister at the Istana Negara on August 21, 2021. During his inaugural speech as prime minister on 22 August 2021, Ismail Sabri introduced the "Keluarga Malaysia" idea. The idea was officially launched on 23 October 2021 in Kuching, Sarawak. This idea, among others, called on Malaysians to set aside differences in rehabilitating the country to mobilize energy in the challenge of facing the COVID-19 pandemic and realizing the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030.


title: History of Malaysia

text: A leadership crisis within UMNO of Barisan Nasional, between the Prime Minister and his party president, Zahid Hamidi, triggered an earlier general election, which resulted in the first hung parliament in the nation's history.


title: History of Malaysia

text: Anwar Ibrahim, the chairman of Pakatan Harapan, was appointed and sworn in as the 10th Prime Minister on 24 November 2022 by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as Anwar has obtained support from PH, BN, GPS, Warisan, MUDA, PBM and independent MPs.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The Lac-Mégantic rail disaster occurred in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada, on July 6, 2013, at approximately 01:15 EDT, when an unattended 73-car Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2% grade from Nantes and derailed downtown, resulting in the explosion and fire of multiple tank cars. Forty-seven people were killed. More than thirty buildings in Lac-Mégantic's town centre, roughly half of the downtown area, were destroyed, and all but three of the thirty-nine remaining buildings had to be demolished due to petroleum contamination of the townsite. Initial newspaper reports described a blast radius.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The Safety Board identified multiple causes for the accident, principally leaving a train unattended on a main line, failure to set enough handbrakes, and lack of a backup safety mechanism.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The death toll of 47 makes this the fourth-deadliest rail accident in Canadian history, and the deadliest involving a non-passenger train. It is also the deadliest rail accident since Canada's confederation in 1867. The last Canadian rail accident to have a higher death toll was the St-Hilaire train disaster in 1864, which killed 99.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The railway passing through Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, was owned by the United States-based Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA). The MMA has owned and operated a former Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) main line since January 2003, between Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, in the west and Brownville Junction, Maine, in the east.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The rail line through Lac-Mégantic and across Maine was built in the late 1880s as part of the final link in CPR's transcontinental system between Montreal and Saint John, New Brunswick, with the section east of Lac-Mégantic known as the International Railway of Maine. Until December 1994 the line hosted VIA Rail's "Atlantic" passenger train as well as CPR freight service. A 1970s proposal to reroute the line to bypass downtown Lac-Mégantic was never implemented because of cost. The rail line was owned by CPR until sold in segments in January 1995.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: VIA Rail discontinued passenger service on the route in December 1994 owing to the pending change in ownership, as VIA regulations then prohibited its passenger trains from operating on tracks that were not owned by either of Canada's two national railway companies. The eastern half of the line between Brownville Junction and Saint John was sold to the industrial conglomerate J. D. Irving, which established two subsidiaries: the Eastern Maine Railway and New Brunswick Southern Railway (NBSR). The western half of the line between Brownville Junction toward Montreal was sold to Iron Road Railways (IRR), a U.S.-based company, which established a subsidiary called Canadian American Railroad.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: IRR filed for bankruptcy for its subsidiary company in fall 2002. The former CPR main line from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu to Brownville Junction was sold to Rail World Inc. in January 2003. Rail World formed the MMA as a subsidiary and engaged in aggressive cost cutting for freight train operations and continued to defer maintenance on the tracks to the point where much of the track is now in marginal condition.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Transport Canada permits a railway to remain in service with as few as five solid ties and fourteen damaged ties in a section of track, provided trains are limited to on straight flat track. MMA failed to take advantage of millions of dollars of available federal/provincial 2:1 matching infrastructure grants under a 2007 program as track conditions on the MMA line in Quebec continued to deteriorate. By 2013, speed reductions were required on 23 portions of the line, including a limit at Sherbrooke yard and on an stretch east of Magog.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The oil, shipped by World Fuel Services subsidiary Dakota Plains Holdings, Inc., from New Town, North Dakota, originated from the Bakken Formation. The destination was the Irving Oil Refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick. Shipment of the oil was contracted to CPR, which transported it on CPR tracks from North Dakota to the CPR yard in Côte-Saint-Luc, a Montreal suburb. CPR sub-contracted MMA to transport the oil from the CPR yard in Côte-Saint-Luc to the MMA yard in Brownville Junction. CPR also sub-contracted NBSR to transport it from the MMA yard in Brownville Junction to the final destination at the Saint John refinery. Ministry of Transport senior inspector Marc Grignon opined, “When the shipper is based outside Canada, the importer becomes the shipper.” Irving Oil Commercial G.P. was the shipper in this case. 3,830 rail cars of Bakken crude were shipped by 67 trains in the nine-month period preceding the derailment.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: In 2009, in the United States, 69% of the tank car fleet were DOT-111 cars. In Canada, the same car (under the designation CTC-111A) represents close to 80% of the fleet. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) noted that the cars "have a high incidence of tank failures during accidents", citing in 2009 their "inadequate design" as a factor in a fatal rail collision outside Rockford, Illinois. Even before the Lac-Mégantic accident, attempts were made to require redesign or replacement of existing cars in the U.S.; these were delayed amidst fierce lobbying from rail and petroleum industry groups concerned about the cost. Since 2011, the Canadian government has required tank cars with a thicker shell, though older models are still allowed to operate.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Freight trains operated by MMA were allowed (not "permitted", see below) by regulators in Canada (Transport Canada) and the United States (Federal Railroad Administration, or FRA) to have Single Person Train Operation (SPTO, alternately OPTO) status (one operator). The "permit" process, which requires public input, was not followed. Transport Canada and the MMA entered into a negotiation process at the culmination of which, sometime before the second week of July 2012, the government allowed MMA to reduce their manpower to SPTO. An average of eighty tank cars per train was carried on the Lac-Mégantic route under the supervision of one person only. The Maine regulator had already allowed SPTO status before the first week of April 2012. The use of SPTO for MMA freight trains was a cost-cutting move for which the railroad has received much criticism.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: In May 2010, former MMA engineer Jarod Briggs of Millinocket, Maine, explained to the "Bangor Daily News" that "so much could happen in a twelve-hour shift on one of these trains, such as a washed-out track, downed trees or mechanical failure. What if the engineer onboard were to encounter a medical problem? Who is going to know about it? If there is a fire engine or an ambulance needing to get by a train or a crossing when that happens, it could take hours." Briggs left MMA to work for another railway in 2007; while he described the lone crew member involved in the Lac-Mégantic derailment as "a very good engineer, one of the better on the property", he has long expressed safety concerns about MMA's overall train operations because "if you have two people watching you can catch a mistake. It was all about cutting, cutting, cutting."


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) looked at whether SPTO played a role in the accident. After looking at the circumstances of the night of the derailment, the investigation was not able to conclude whether having another crew member would have prevented the accident.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Air brakes on the train are supplied with air from a compressor on each locomotive. When a locomotive is shut off, the compressor no longer supplies the brake system with air. An air brake pipe connects to each car and locomotive on the train. When air leaks from the various components, the air pressure drops. If the system is not recharged with air, the locomotive air brakes will become ineffective and provide no braking force. When the air brake control valves sense a drop in pressure in the brake pipe, they are designed to activate the brakes on each car. However, if the rate of leakage is slow and steady, the automatic brakes may not be applied as in the case of the Lac-Mégantic accident. However, it is the usual practice for an engineer parking a train, once the train is stopped, to apply the brakes on the cars in the train by releasing air from the train line, and allowing the air in the cars' reservoirs to apply the cars' brakes. Therefore, it would not matter if the automatic brakes applied themselves or not, as the car brakes would already be in the applied position. The train had locomotives that could automatically restart the air-brake system in the event of a brake failure, provided that these locomotives were not shut down, as they would be in this incident. Also, the TSB found that the "reset safety control" on the lead locomotive was not wired to set the entire train's brakes in the event of an engine failure.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: In addition to air brake systems, all locomotives and rail cars are equipped with at least one hand brake. This is a mechanical device that applies brake shoes to the wheels to prevent them from moving. The effectiveness of hand brakes depends on several factors, including their age, their maintained condition, their application in conjunction with air brakes, and the force exerted by the person applying the brake, which can vary widely. The TSB estimated that somewhere between 17 and 26 hand brakes would have been needed to secure the train. Had there been a two-man crew, they would have been able to perform a stabilization test, by releasing all air brakes and ensuring just the hand brakes would hold the train. Since there was only a one-man crew this test was not possible.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: In October 2012, the lead locomotive, a GE C30-7 designated #5017, was sent to MMA's repair shop following an engine failure. Because of the time and cost for a standard repair and the pressure to return the locomotive to service, the engine was repaired with an epoxy-like material that lacked the required strength and durability. This material failed in service, leading to engine surges and excessive black and white smoke. Eventually, oil began to accumulate in the body of the turbocharger, where it overheated and caught fire on the night of the derailment.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The freight train "MMA 2" departed the CPR yard in Côte-Saint-Luc early in the day of July 5 and changed crews at the MMA yard in Farnham, Quebec. After departing Farnham, it stopped at about 23:00 at the designated MMA crew change point in Nantes, which is west of Lac-Mégantic.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The engineer, Tom Harding, parked the train on the main line by setting the brakes and followed standard procedure by shutting down four of the five locomotives. Harding, who was the lone crew member under the MMA's work rules, which had been discussed with Transport Canada, could not park the train on the adjacent siding because MMA used it routinely to store empty boxcars for Tafisa, a particleboard factory in Lac-Mégantic's industrial park. The Nantes siding has a derail that could have stopped the train from accidentally departing. According to Transport Canada, it is unusual to leave an unattended train parked on a main line, but there were no regulations against it.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Harding left the lead locomotive No. 5017 running to keep air pressure supplied to the train's air brakes and also applied a number of hand brakes. Yves Bourdon, a member of MMA's board of directors, stated that the air brakes of all locomotives and freight cars had been activated, as well as hand brakes on 5 locomotives and 10 of the 72 freight cars. However, the TSB agrees with a July 6 statement to police by Harding that he set hand brakes on just the five locomotive engines, a buffer car, and a car housing the remote control apparatus. Harding also attempted a brake test but incorrectly left the locomotive air brakes on; this gave the false impression that the hand brakes alone would hold the train.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Harding contacted the rail traffic controller in Farnham to advise them that the train was secure. Next, he contacted the rail traffic controller in Bangor, Maine, to report that the lead locomotive had experienced mechanical difficulties throughout the trip and that excessive black and white smoke was coming from its smoke stack. Expecting the smoke to settle, they agreed to deal with the situation the following morning.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Section 112 of the Canadian Rail Operating Rules states "when equipment is left at any point a sufficient number of hand brakes must be applied to prevent it from moving" and "the effectiveness of the hand brakes must be tested” before relying on their retarding force. The engineer tests the hand brakes by seeing if the train budges when trying to push and pull the train with locomotive power. If a train is left on an incline, the number of handbrakes needed to hold the train increases. It takes 2–3 minutes per car to set the hand brakes. The track from Nantes to Lac-Mégantic is downhill on a 1.2% grade. Nantes is above sea level, Lac Mégantic is lower at . The MMA claimed that its braking policy required the activation of hand brakes on the five locomotives and 11 freight cars, or 20.5% of the total train. However, the TSB confirmed evidence in the criminal charges citing MMA procedures requiring nine brakes to hold a 70–79 car train. The TSB concluded that a minimum of 17 and possibly as many as 26 hand brakes would have been needed to secure the train, depending on the amount of force with which they had been applied. Transport Canada does not validate the special instructions of a railway company or give any specific guidance on how many brakes must be applied for parked freight trains. While Transport Canada had repeatedly reprimanded MMA from 2004 to 2009 and in 2011 and 2012 for violations of CROR Section 112 handbrake requirements on parked trains in Nantes, no fines had been issued for the infractions.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The TSB found that MMA's operating plan was to leave the train parked on the main line, unattended, with an unlocked locomotive cab, alongside a public highway where it was accessible to the general public, with no additional protection. However, there were no rules against leaving a train unlocked, running and unattended, even if it contained dangerous materials and was stopped on the main line, on a slope, in the vicinity of a residential area.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: After finishing his work, Harding departed by taxi for a local hotel, l'Eau Berge in downtown Lac-Mégantic, for the night. En route, the engineer told the taxi driver that he felt unsafe leaving a locomotive running while it was spitting oil and thick, black smoke. He said he wanted to call the U.S. office of MMA (in Hermon, Maine) as they would be able to give him other directives. Taxi driver André Turcotte described the engineer as covered in droplets of oil, which also covered the taxi's windscreen.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Witnesses recall seeing the train seemingly unattended and in distress around 22:45 that night. People driving on the road that parallels the rail line near Nantes recall seeing the train and having to slow down as they passed the locomotives where there was a thick dark blue cloud of diesel smoke being emitted as well as sparks coming out of a locomotive's exhaust, due to a broken piston in its diesel engine. According to the TSB, the MMA's rail traffic controller was warned of the train having technical difficulties while the train was still in Nantes on the evening of Friday, July 5.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: After the engineer had departed, the Nantes Fire Department as well as a police officer from the Sûreté du Québec's Lac-Mégantic detachment responded to a 911 call from a citizen at 23:50 who reported a fire on the first locomotive; according to Nantes Fire Chief Patrick Lambert, "We shut down the engine before fighting the fire. Our protocol calls for us to shut down an engine because it is the only way to stop the fuel from circulating into the fire." The fire department extinguished the blaze and notified the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway's rail traffic controller in Farnham. MMA did not grant permission to the engineer to return to the scene, instead summoning a track maintenance foreman unfamiliar with the operation of railway air brakes. By 00:13 two MMA track maintenance employees had arrived from Lac-Mégantic; the Nantes firefighters left the scene as the MMA employees confirmed to the police officer and to the Farnham rail traffic controller that the train was safe.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The MMA has alleged that the lead locomotive was tampered with after Harding had left; that the diesel engine was shut down, thereby disabling the compressor powering the air brakes, which allowed the train to roll downhill from Nantes into Lac-Mégantic once the air pressure dropped in the reservoirs on the cars. Teamsters Canada Rail Conference vice-president Doug Finnson disputed this theory, stating that the key braking system on a stopped, unsupervised train are the hand brakes, which are completely independent from the motor-powered compressor that feeds the air brakes.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: With all the locomotives shut down, the air compressor no longer supplied air to the air brake system. As air leaked from the brake system, the main air reservoirs were slowly depleted, gradually reducing the effectiveness of the locomotive air brakes. At 00:56, the air pressure had dropped to a point at which the combination of locomotive air brakes and hand brakes could no longer hold the train, and it began to roll downhill toward Lac-Mégantic, just over away. A witness recalled watching the train moving slowly toward Lac-Mégantic without the locomotive lights on. The track was not equipped with track circuits to alert the rail traffic controller to the presence of a runaway train. About ten minutes before the derailment occurred, firefighter Jean-Luc Montminy who was heading home after helping put out the fire on the original locomotive of the train, was stopped at a railway crossing located on Quebec Route 161, located just south-east of where the train began to roll. He stated that the crossing had activated and was warning of an oncoming train, but after waiting for some time, he heard no horn or any signal that a train was approaching. Thinking that the crossing was malfunctioning, he proceeded over the intersection when just as he had finished crossing, a train without its headlights or horn passed through at a very fast speed. Montminy recognized that it was the same train he had responded to hours earlier, and quickly returned to Nantes to inform other firefighters about what he had just witnessed. Gathering momentum on the long downhill slope, the train entered the town of Lac-Mégantic at high speed. The TSB's final report concluded that the train was travelling at , more than six times the typical speed for that location. The rail line in this area is on a curve and has a speed limit for trains of as it is located at the west end of the Mégantic rail yard.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Just before the derailment, witnesses recalled observing the train passing through the crossing at an excessive speed with no locomotive lights, "infernal" noise and sparks being emitted from the wheels. It was also stated by witnesses that since the train was going so fast, the flashing lights or bells on the crossing signals did not activate. Gilles Fluet, a Musi-Café patron who was leaving the site just before the derailment, said the wheels were emitting much white smoke. The runaway train passed behind him moving at highway speed. Travelling with no signals, the train jumped the track, sending a river of burning oil into the lake. "It was moving at a hellish speed ... no lights, no signals, nothing at all. There was no warning. It was a black blob that came out of nowhere. I realized they were oil tankers and they were going to blow up, so I yelled that to my friends and I got out of there. If we had stayed where we were, we would have been roasted."


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The unmanned train derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic at 01:14, in an area near the level crossing where the rail line crosses Frontenac Street, the town's main street. This location is approximately northwest of the railway bridge over the Chaudière River and is also immediately north of the town's central business district.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: People on the terrace at Musi-Café—a bar located next to the centre of the explosions—saw the tank cars leave the track and fled as a blanket of oil generated a ball of fire three times the height of the downtown buildings. Between four and six explosions were reported initially as tank cars ruptured and crude oil escaped along the train's trajectory. Heat from the fires was felt as far as away. People jumped from the third floor of buildings in the central business district to escape the fire. As the blazing oil flowed over the ground, it entered the town's storm sewer and emerged as huge fires towering from other storm sewer drains, manholes, and even chimneys and basements of buildings in the area.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The Musi-Café tavern owner says that some employees and patrons felt the tremors of the train and thought it was an earthquake. They went out and started running. Other patrons and employees told some survivors that the tremors were an earthquake and that it would be better to stay under a table. Of those who went out, not all survived. Some were not able to outrun a "tsunami of fire".


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The 5 locomotives and the VB car were found intact, separated from the rest of the train, outside the central part of town, still on track, but far from the crash scene. The 6-car lead group had apparently decoupled from the rest of the train, continued rolling down the track, crossed the river bridge, traveled through a sharp right bend, and came to rest about southwest of the derailment site (). The equipment that derailed included 63 of the 72 tank cars as well as the buffer car. Nine tank cars at the rear of the train remained on the track and did not explode; emergency responders took them away from the derailment site while the fire was still burning. Almost all of the derailed tank cars were damaged, many having large breaches. About six million litres of petroleum crude oil were quickly released; the fire began almost immediately.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Around 150 firefighters were deployed to the scene, described as looking like a "war zone". Some were called in from as far away as the city of Sherbrooke, Quebec, and as many as eight trucks carrying 30 firefighters were dispatched from Franklin County, Maine, United States (Chesterville, Eustis, Farmington, New Vineyard, Phillips, Rangeley and Strong). The fire was contained and prevented from spreading further in the early afternoon.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The local hospital went to Code Orange, anticipating a high number of casualties and requesting reinforcements from other medical centres, but they received no seriously injured patients. A Canadian Red Cross volunteer said there were "no wounded. They're all dead". One off-duty Musi-Café cook, Bernard Théberge, was on the terrace at the time of the derailment and was treated for second-degree burns to one arm. The hospital was later used to shelter dozens of seniors who had been evacuated. Approximately 1,000 people were evacuated initially after the derailment, explosions, and fires. Another 1,000 people were evacuated later during the day because of toxic fumes. Some took refuge in an emergency shelter established by the Red Cross in a local high school.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: According to initial claims made by the railway, the engineer who left the train unattended went to the explosion zone and uncoupled the last 9 undamaged tank cars that were still on the tracks at the end of the derailment. After uncoupling the tank cars, he used a rail car mover to pull them away from the derailment site. This version of events has been disputed by Lac-Mégantic's fire chief, who indicated that a volunteer firefighter had used a rail car mover borrowed from a local factory to remove these cars from danger. It was later revealed that two employees of Tafisa (Serge Morin, Sylvain Grégoire), a firefighter (Benoît Héon), the MMA engineer (Tom Harding) and a member of the family-owned excavation company Lafontaine and Son (Pascal Lafontaine) had worked to move 9 tank cars away from the fire. Tafisa, a local particleboard industry that moves much of its product by rail, has a rail car mover which has the capability to deactivate the brakes on the cars it tows. Morin, aided by his colleague Grégoire, used the rail car mover to move the first 5 tank cars away from the fire. When they could not find a level crossing to move the rail car mover back to the disaster site, they used a loader to remove another 4 tank cars, 2 at a time. Because the loader lacked equipment to deactivate railcar brakes, Harding told the men to use the loader to break the air lines on cars to release the air brakes on each of these four cars. Lafontaine's workers hauled gravel to the site, created firebreaks and blocked manholes as burning oil spread into the town's storm sewer system.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: After 20 hours, the centre of the fire was still inaccessible to firefighters and five pools of fuel were still burning. A special fire-retardant foam was brought from an Ultramar refinery in Lévis, aiding progress by firefighters on the Saturday night. Five of the unexploded cars were doused with high-pressure water to prevent further explosions, and two were still burning and at risk of exploding 36 hours later. The train's event recorder was recovered at around 15:00 the next day and the fire was finally extinguished in the evening, after burning for nearly two days.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: A red zone was declared in which evacuees could not return to their homes because of the ongoing investigation.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Forty-two bodies were found and transported to Montreal to be identified. Thirty-nine of those were identified by investigators by late August 2013 and the 40th in April 2014. Identification of additional victims became increasingly difficult after the August 1 end of the on-site search and family members were asked to provide DNA samples of those missing, as well as dental records. The bodies of five presumed victims were never found. It is possible that some of the missing people were vaporized by the explosions. As two of the three local notary offices were destroyed by fire (and only one of the document vaults survived the blaze), the last will and testament of some victims of the disaster were lost.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: At least 30 buildings were destroyed in the centre of town, including the town's library, a historic former bank, and other businesses and houses. In total 115 businesses were destroyed, displaced, or rendered inaccessible. The Musi-Café was destroyed and three of its employees are among the dead or missing. While the town intends to build new infrastructure and commercial space, many of the historic buildings lost are irreplaceable.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: A number of businesses had to operate from temporary locations outside the downtown, with reduced facilities until new buildings could be constructed elsewhere, as cleanup efforts were expected to take a year or more. The municipal water supply for Lac-Mégantic was shut down on the evening of the explosion because of a leak inside the blast zone, requiring trucks carrying drinking water, though the leak was repaired overnight and a precautionary boil-water advisory issued. The industrial park lost access to rail service in both directions as the line remained severed until December 2013. Claims to local insurers were estimated at $25 million for Intact Financial, $18 million for and $7 million for Desjardins Group.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: All but 800 of the evacuated residents were allowed to return to their homes in the afternoon of the third day; all but 200 were able to return by the sixth day. At least twenty had no home to which to return. Some homes had reportedly been broken into during their vacancies, although police deny that homes were looted.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Rail World's president and CEO Edward Burkhardt visited the town on July 10, 2013, and was heckled by residents. After the accident, the railway's safety record was called into question: over the previous decade the firm recorded a higher accident rate than the rest of the U.S. rail fleet, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration. In the previous year, the railroad had 36.1 accidents per million miles travelled, in comparison to a national average of 14.6 accidents. Burkhardt's historical involvement with a 1996 derailment on the Wisconsin Central in which hazardous materials burned for over two weeks also drew renewed scrutiny. While the actual cause of the disaster was still under provincial (Sûreté du Québec) and federal (Transportation Safety Board) investigation, Burkhardt announced the railway had suspended the engineer for allegedly improperly setting the handbrakes on the rail cars. The engineer was made unavailable at the suggestion of his lawyer and MMA instructed its employees not to answer questions from police without first consulting the company's lawyers. A former colleague established an Albany-based legal defence fund for the engineer. The Sûreté du Québec raided MMA offices in Farnham on July 25 as part of a criminal investigation into the Lac-Mégantic fatalities; the Transportation Safety Board conducted its own search backed by RCMP on August 1.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Raymond Lafontaine, a local contractor who lost a son, two daughters-in-law and an employee, raised concerns about the poor condition of MMA-owned track and about the increasing quantity of dangerous goods being transported through downtown areas by rail, not only in Lac-Mégantic but in cities such as Sherbrooke. He asked that the tracks be repaired and rerouted to bypass the town's core.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Lac-Mégantic mayor Colette Roy-Laroche sought assistance from federal and provincial governments to move the trains away from the downtown, a proposal opposed by the railway due to cost, and asked tourists not to abandon the region. MMA announced that it intends to make future crew changes in Sherbrooke so that trains are no longer left unattended; that city's mayor Bernard Sévigny expressed concern that this merely shifts the hazard into the centre of Quebec's sixth-largest city.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The two major Class I Canadian railways, Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway, indicated that they would not be leaving unattended locomotives unlocked outside a terminal or yard, and that CPR tank car trains containing regulated commodities would no longer be left unattended on a main line.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: On August 6, 2013, Burkhardt stated that MMA has no further plans to carry oil by rail. On August 7, 2013, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in both the Quebec Superior Court in Montreal (under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act) and the United States Bankruptcy Court in Bangor, Maine, (under Chapter 11).


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: On August 13, 2013, the Canadian Transportation Agency suspended the railway's Certificate of Fitness effective August 20 because of its failure to obtain adequate insurance coverage, shutting down the line. It later extended this deadline to conditionally allow operation until October 18. While the amount of liability insurance is not listed on the federal Certificate of Fitness for reasons unknown, MMA's bankruptcy petition disclosed an insurance policy valued at $25 million and an estimated cleanup cost, which excludes damages in tort, of $200 million. MMA's Certificate of Fitness was last modified in 2005, to reflect the use of the line by Orford Express (an independently owned passenger service between Magog and Sherbrooke). It is unclear whether notice was given of the oil-by-rail shipments which began in 2012 despite a requirement to "notify the Agency in writing without delay if ... the ... operation has changed so that the liability insurance coverage may no longer be adequate."


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: In Maine, state transportation authorities have contacted all rival freight operators in-state to establish a contingency plan; if MMA ceases operation, U.S. federal law requires a trustee keep the line operating until a buyer is found because of the MMA's status as a monopoly in many communities. The U.S. has no requirement that privately owned railways carry liability insurance.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: On August 22, 2013, the Canadian Transportation Agency ordered CPR to reinstate delivery to MMA, a move CPR (as one of multiple firms ordered by Quebec's government to pay for the costly cleanup of oil spilled by MMA at Lac-Mégantic) considered an unacceptable safety risk. Canadian Pacific chief executive officer Hunter Harrison stated that, "While we disagree with this order, we have taken immediate steps to comply. The CTA, as federal regulator, has satisfied itself that MMA is fit to operate and has adequate insurance to do so. We will review our legal options." The CTA also found that "the balance of inconvenience clearly favours MMA as the refusal to grant the interim order would result in the virtual cessation of MMA's operations." The CTA also held that issues regarding public safety were none of its concern.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: In separate developments also occurring on August 22, 2013, the New Brunswick and Maine Railway company, a division of the J. D. Irving conglomerate, indicated its interest to acquire the troubled MMA railway, and the Canadian Transportation Agency indicated it would review insurance coverage of federally chartered railways at some point "in the fall". The same day, the Quebec government hired Paul Hastings, a Quebec bankruptcy specialist firm with standing in New York State, to represent it in American proceedings.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: United States Federal Railroad Administration administrator Joseph C. Szabo wrote to the MMA the following day, stating that "I was shocked to see that you changed your operating procedures to use two-person crews on trains in Canada, but not in the United States. Because the risk associated with this accident also exists in the United States, it is my expectation that the same safety procedures will apply to your operations."


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: As of December 18, 2013, the MMA was again allowed to operate between Sherbrooke and Lac-Mégantic, including going through Lac-Mégantic itself, as before the derailment. However, operations within Lac-Mégantic were subject to numerous restrictions, such as a prohibition on transport of dangerous cargo; a train's manifest being released no less than four hours ahead; no parking on tracks within of the town centre; a conductor and engineer must be on board; and a train's speed must not exceed . On that date, a test train carrying particle board from the local Tafisa factory to Sherbrooke rolled through the town centre. There are plans to reroute the tracks outside the town by changing the track's route between Nantes and Frontenac, but no time table has been set. The railway's assets were sold in a January 21, 2014 Portland bankruptcy auction to Railroad Acquisition Holdings, a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group as Central Maine and Quebec Railway (reporting mark CMQR). In July 2016, it was announced that all DOT-111 tank cars would be withdrawn from transporting crude oil on railways in Canada by November 1, 2016, although their use for transporting other flammable liquids will be allowed until 2025. A new design of tank car, the TC-117 is the new standard.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: On July 6, 2013, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois surveyed the scene, expressing profound sadness in response to the devastation in Lac-Mégantic. The following day, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered his prayers and condolences to those affected. On July 8, 2013, Canada's monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, issued a message expressing her and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh's "profound sadness [over the] tragic events that have befallen the town of Lac-Mégantic" and hope "that in time it will be possible to rebuild both the property and the lives of those who have been affected." The Queen's federal representative, Governor General David Johnston, released a similar message on the same day, as did her provincial representative, Lieutenant Governor Pierre Duchesne, on July 6, and the Queen's son, Prince Charles, and his wife on July 9.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: In a letter to Harper, U.S. President Barack Obama expressed condolences for the "devastating loss of life" and offered American help, if needed. French President François Hollande issued a statement expressing France's solidarity with victims and authorities. Pope Francis sent a special apostolic blessing from the Vatican to those touched by the tragedy, along with his sympathy to victims, their families, and emergency workers. The Maine Legislature passed a resolution on July 10 in support of the people of Lac-Mégantic; speaking in French, House majority leader Seth Berry said ""Aujourd'hui, nous sommes tous des citoyens de Lac-Mégantic"" ("Today, we are all citizens of Lac-Mégantic").


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Keith Stewart, Climate and Energy Campaign Coordinator with Greenpeace Canada, criticized Canada's energy policy within hours of the tragedy, saying that "whether it's pipelines or rail, we have a safety problem in this country. This is more evidence that the federal government continues to put oil profits ahead of public safety."


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) launched an investigation into the accident. In its August 2014 report, the TSB identified 18 distinct causes and contributing factors, which included leaving the train unattended on a main line, failure to set enough hand brakes, the lack of a backup safety mechanism, poor maintenance on the locomotive and several failures of training and oversight.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The provincial police organisation, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), has led the recovery of the deceased in Lac-Mégantic, alongside the Bureau du Coroner du Québec.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The SQ investigated the MMA railway offices in Farnham, Quebec, on July 25, with a warrant and planned to seize evidence about the fatal event. It is unknown whether the SQ has plans to broaden the scope of their investigation to include, for example, the broker at World Fuel Services who chose to employ deficient DOT-111 tank cars.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: On May 12, 2014, the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway was charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence; engineer Thomas Harding, manager of train operations Jean DeMaître and rail traffic controller Richard Labrie were arrested and appeared in Lac-Mégantic's court. Of the 79 railcars only 7 brakes had been applied, where MMA guidelines indicate 9 as a minimum and experts advise 15 brakes should have been used for the slope the train was on. No hand brakes had been applied on 72 of the cars.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The United Steelworkers union in Quebec, which represents the engineer and controller, has denounced the failure to lay charges against CEO Ed Burkhardt, and is raising funds for the legal defence of unionised workers whom it identifies as scapegoats.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The defective locomotive MMA 5017, a key piece of evidence in the criminal enquiry, inexplicably turned up at the former MMA Derby Yard in Milo, Maine, as part of a collection of equipment destined to an August 2014 auction on behalf of the Bangor Savings Bank, a creditor. The engine was removed from the auction in response to Surêté du Québec objections.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: MMA's train engineer Thomas Harding, manager of train operations Jean Demaître and railway traffic controller Richard Labrie were charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: On June 22, 2015, new charges under the Canadian Railway Safety Act and the Fisheries Act "of failing to ensure the train was properly braked before it was left unmanned for the night" were laid against Maine & Atlantic Railway Corp (MMA)'s Demaître, Harding, then-chief executive officer and president Robert C. Grindrod, Lynne Labonté, general manager of transportation, Kenneth Strout, director of operating practices and Mike Horan, assistant director. If convicted the charges carry "a maximum fine of $50,000, a maximum jail term of six months."


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Following a jury selection process that lasted three weeks, the trial of three people in connection with the disaster began on October 2, 2017. The locomotive engineer, rail traffic controller, and operations manager were each charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death and faced a sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. The trial took place in Sherbrooke, Quebec. The prosecution called a total of 36 witnesses and the trial was scheduled to finish in December 2017. On December 12, the defence announced that they would not be calling any witnesses as they believed the Crown had not met the necessary burden of proof. The trial was adjourned until January 3, 2018. Jurors acquitted the three former Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MMA) railway employees on January 19, 2018, after nine days of deliberations.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The city prohibited all access to the downtown (including Frontenac, Thibodeau, Durand Streets and the boulevard des Vétérans) until June 2014 to permit a massive decontamination effort. Soil decontamination was expected to take until December 2014 to complete, although the water table appeared to be uncontaminated. Some buildings that were still standing, such as the local post office in Lac-Mégantic, were a total loss due to oil contamination. It may take up to five years to decontaminate some sites where homes formerly stood, forcing householders to rebuild elsewhere.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: MMA's Labrie, Demaître, Harding, Grindrod, Labonté, Strout and Horan faced a Canadian federal Fisheries Act charge, with a potential maximum penalty of $1-million fine, for "the crude oil that flowed into Lac-Mégantic and the Chaudière River after the accident."


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The disaster site was so heavily contaminated with benzene that firefighters and investigators in the first month worked in 15-minute shifts due to heat and toxic conditions. The waterfront at Veteran's Park and the town marina were contaminated by hydrocarbons, which were contained by a series of booms. This rendered vessels and docks inaccessible until they could be removed from the water and decontaminated, a process which was to take until late August 2013 to complete.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: A hundred residents were not expected to return home until mid-2014 as the ground beneath their still-standing houses was contaminated with oil; some homes in the most-contaminated areas might never be habitable.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Because the cleanup of the derailment area could take 5 years, about 115 businesses were planning to relocate. Forty buildings have already been destroyed but another 160 may need to be expropriated for demolition because they sit on several metres of contaminated soil which must be removed and replaced with clean fill. Subsequent reconstruction on the site may initially be impractical as new buildings would require deeper foundations until the new fill settles. The town was considering making a memorial park in the damaged area and relocating displaced businesses to a proposed Papineau Street extension to cross the Chaudière River to Lévis Street. The new road was to be constructed in October 2013 using federal and provincial infrastructure funding, although insurance coverage for local companies to abandon contaminated sites remained uncertain. For 125 businesses, the move was expected to be permanent.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Workers at the downtown site expressed concern that cleanup efforts were being delayed by management, leaving workers often idle on-site and allowing work to proceed only at a snail's pace. The downtown was most affected; over thirty buildings destroyed by the disaster itself, with thirty-six of the thirty-nine remaining buildings slated for demolition due to contamination of the underlying soil. In December 2014, local residents were given one last chance to tour what remained of the downtown before demolition.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: The Chaudière River was contaminated by an estimated of oil. The spill travelled down the river and reached the town of Saint-Georges to the northeast, forcing local authorities to draw water from a nearby lake and install floating barriers to prevent contamination. Residents were asked to limit their water consumption as the lake was not able to supply the daily needs of the town. Swimming and fishing were prohibited in the Chaudière River, as was the use of scarce municipal water to fill swimming pools or water flower beds. Restrictions on drawing potable water from the river remained in effect two months later. A temporary system of aboveground pipes feeding water to Lévis from the Beaurivage River was expected to cost $2 million, not including any measures to protect the line against freezing in winter.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Environmentalists have reported heavy contamination from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and believe arsenic levels to be well above legal limits.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: MMA contractors responsible for removing oil and damaged rail cars from downtown Lac-Mégantic stopped work on July 17, 2013, as the railway had not paid them. Work soon resumed under municipal (and later provincial) funding. As of July 30, 2013, the municipality was demanding MMA reimburse $7.6 million in cleanup costs. Rail World CEO Ed Burkhardt indicated "we’re unable to fund that out of our own cash, so we’re waiting for the insurance company to come forward".


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Provincial environment minister Yves-François Blanchet issued a July 29, 2013, order under the Quality of the Environment Act requiring MMA, Western Petroleum Company and its parent World Fuel Services pay the full cost of clean-up and damage assessment. Canadian Pacific Railway was added on August 14 after World Fuel Services, as shipper of the crude oil, claimed its only contractual relationship is to the CPR with MMA (as CP's subcontractor) exercising sole control of the site. The claim that MMA was contracted by CP (and not WFS) was later drawn into question. Blanchet stated “I will leave it up to lawyers, but let’s be clear: under the law on environmental quality, the minister does not ask for, or suggest, compensation ... he orders it." CP intends to appeal the order.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Following the accident, the MMA temporarily ceased operations on its lines between Lac-Mégantic and Jackman, Maine, effectively severing rail transport on its lines between Maine and Quebec, though rail traffic continued outside the affected area. In Quebec, MMA continued operation from Farnham with a skeleton staff after the derailment, having laid off 19 of its 75 workers without notice on July 19 and an additional five on July 30; these workers have not received severance and vacation pay owed. In Maine, 64 MMA employees were laid off as a result of the derailment.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Local governments in various communities across Canada have expressed concern not only that railways are exempted from all local regulations (as they are under federal jurisdiction) but that information on the content of dangerous goods shipments is being deliberately, systematically withheld from municipal leaders whose duties include disaster planning and 9-1-1 emergency response.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: On August 23, 2013, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities rail safety working group urged the Federal government to act swiftly on rail safety. The FCM working group had three recommendations:


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: In Montmagny, a community on the CN line through Lévis, mayor Jean-Guy Desrosiers has expressed concern about the dangerous materials trains which have appeared increasingly frequently now that the former CP line through Lac-Mégantic is inoperable; neither the city nor police and fire responders are informed of the content of these shipments, leaving questions as to the readiness of the municipality to respond to further derailments.


title: Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

text: Magog mayor Vicky May Hamm made an "Access to Information Act" enquiry for track inspection data, train scheduling information and products transported. The federal response acknowledged that inspections found three problematic track sections, but provided no further information. Sherbrooke has made similar demands. While US authorities have made Maine track inspection data available quickly, the Canadian government is expected to take eight months to a year to comply with the "Access to Information Act" enquiries.