Operator of Asbestos Company Gets 60 Days’ Jail for Defying Order

A man who ran an asbestos abatement and demolition business didn’t send samples to labs for testing for asbestos and instead forged testing reports on stolen lab letterhead. He also employed workers as young as 14, didn’t provide them with PPE or training and instructed them to run away if a safety inspector showed up at the site. The man then defied an injunction, or court order, barring him from continuing this kind of work. He was held in contempt. In sentencing him, the court noted that his “indifference to the lives and safety of his workers and his open defiance of the injunction required a severe response.” So it sentenced him to 60 days’ jail [BC (Workers’ Compensation Board) v. Moore, [2012] BCSC 109 (CanLII), Jan. 24, 2012].