Court upholds Sinopec charges

Court upholds Sinopec charges by Island Tides, July 26, 2012
On July 13, the Canadian Press reported that the Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that says a Chinese state-owned corporation should face charges in the deaths of two oilsands workers in Alberta. The company, Sinopec Shanghai Engineering, was seeking to challenge an Alberta Court of Appeal judgment that ordered it to stand trial on 53 health and safety charges. Two temporary workers from China died in 2007 near Fort McMurray when a storage tank collapsed at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd’s Horizon project. Sinopec, which brought the workers to Alberta, argued it has no official presence in Canada and therefore could not be charged. The Court gave no reasons for its decision, as is customary. Sinopec and two other companies, Canadian Natural Resources and SSEC Canada, a Sinopec subsidiary with just one employee, are to stand trial on October 1.