"Nearly two years after the Lac-Mégantic oil train explosion killed 47 people and levelled the small Quebec town, the federal government has laid new criminal charges.

Six former employees of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, including the train engineer and the top executive, face charges under the Railway Safety Act and Fisheries Act for their alleged roles in the worst Canadian rail disaster in modern times. The bankrupt company itself has also been charged.

The charges come as a battle over a $430-million victims’ fund is being waged in Quebec court, and almost a year after a Transportation Safety Board report on the disaster found that just seven handbrakes were set on the train."

Eric Atkins and Verity Stevenson report for the Toronto Globe and Mail June 22, 2015. [2]