Workplace Health and Safety Crimes, 5th Edition

Workplace Health and Safety Crimes, 5th Edition is an essential resource for understanding the Westray Bill amendments and related Criminal Code provisions that govern workplace health and safety crimes in Canada. Written by leading OHS lawyer Norman A. Keith, this edition helps readers understand the criminal liability of individuals who direct work and organizations whose systems, policies, or decisions may be scrutinized after workplace incidents, injuries, or fatalities.

Workplace Health and Safety Crimes, 5th Edition provides a legal overview of criminal negligence, workplace manslaughter, Bill C-45, Canadian OHS law, criminal procedure, sentencing and probation for organizations, and international trends in criminalizing workplace safety failures. This book also provides employers, OHS professionals, and their legal advisors, with practical insight on how to comply with the Westray Bill and prevent workplace incidents, injuries and fatalities.

Features of This Book

• Provides a background to the Westray Bill, including a review of the facts of the Westray mine disaster, public inquiry, and the legal political and legislative responses and recommendations from that public inquiry
• Covers "lessons learned" from the Metron Construction disaster and prosecutions under the Criminal Code and Occupational Health & Safety Act
• Provides a section-by-section review of Bill C-45, which creates a legal duty to take "reasonable steps" to prevent workplace injury and death
• Gives a comprehensive overview on OHS law in Canada, and how it is enforced
• Describes how OHS offences are prosecuted under Bill C-45
• Outlines ways in which employers can avoid workplace accidents
• Dedicated chapter to international trends in workplace health and safety crimes

What’s New in This Edition

• Extensive case law updates since the 2019 edition
  • Updates readers on the significant case law and enforcement developments under the Westray Bill since the fourth edition, with each chapter thoroughly revised and enhanced with the latest developments, insights and judicial rulings
• Increased use of Westray Bill charges against individuals and organizations
  • Highlights the trend of more Westray Bill charges being laid, including the continuing pattern of charges being brought more often against individuals, especially supervisors, than against corporate employers
• New discussion of recent individual prosecutions and convictions
  • Substantive discussion of R. v. King and R. v. Urgiles, including their importance as recent examples of Westray Bill enforcement against supervisors rather than corporate employers
• Updated discussion of sentencing trends
  • Highlights a notable sentencing trend of increasing jail terms for individuals convicted under the Westray Bill, including the recent Ontario conviction of Milton Urgiles, who was sentenced to five years in a federal penitentiary
• Updated treatment of the criminal negligence standard
  • Covers recent developments in the law of criminal negligence, including the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2019 discussion of the “activity-sensitive approach” to the modified objective standard in R. v. Javanmardi, which is relevant to how the standard for criminal negligence under the Westray Bill is assessed
• Updated discussion of manslaughter in the workplace
  • Manslaughter in the workplace is updated to emphasize that, although manslaughter charges remain available in workplace fatality cases, the preferred and typical criminal charge in workplace incident, injury or fatality cases remains a Westray Bill charge
• Updated content on criminal procedure
  • Criminal procedure in Westray Bill prosecutions has been updated to reflect the importance of understanding both criminal procedure and the substantive provisions of the Westray Bill when navigating workplace criminal prosecutions
• Updated international trends
  • International trends in criminalizing occupational health and safety standards have been updated, continuing the book’s comparative review of workplace health and safety crimes outside Canada
• Additional appendices
  • New appendices include recent Westray Bill cases for ease of reference, including R. v. King (2025) and R. v. Urgiles (2025)

Who Should Read This Book

• Employment and OHS lawyers – Helps lawyers advise their clients on the latest developments in OHS law
• In-house counsel – Provides guidance to their employers on strategies to comply with their OHS duties, and to avoid liability under the Criminal Code
• Criminal and regulatory prosecutors and defence lawyers – To understand the Westray Bill amendments and related Criminal Code provisions that govern workplace health and safety crimes
• Unions and union representatives – To understand their members rights under OH&S legislation
• Human resources managers & OHS managers and officers – Enables HR managers and OHS managers and officers formulate a legally-compliant and robust OHS program in the workplace
• Environment, health & safety professionals, including chief safety officers, chief risk/compliance officers, EHS directors and JHSC committees – To ensure companies comply with OH&S legal duties