Quebec tainted water trial underway

QUEBEC – A multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit over contaminated water began Monday in a Quebec courtroom – pitting thousands of residents of Shannon against Department of National Defence and two ammunition companies.

Some 3,500 past and present residents of the 4,000-person town north of Quebec City are part of the lawsuit that alleges their drinking water was contaminated for decades by trichloroethylene, or TCE, a known carcinogen, used as a solvent to clean cannons and other ordnance at nearby CFB Valcartier.

The lawsuit contends the Department of National Defence, General Dynamics and Société immobilière Valcartier, were negligent in handling and disposing of TCE and that they failed to inform the public of the dangers once they were known.

The lawyer for the residents, Charles Veilleux, said in his opening arguments Monday he is going to prove the abnormally high rates of cancer and other diseases found in Shannon were caused by exposure to TCE.

TCE was found in Shannon wells in 2000, but the residents claim they have evidence the contamination started in the 1940s.

"They are victims of their own government, who failed to protect them," Veilleux told the trial taking place in Quebec City.

The suit seeks damages that could be worth "hundreds of millions."

Family physician Claude Juneau, who worked in Shannon for 37 years, said the impact of TCE-tainted water has been devastating for many residents. He said he has documented more than 500 cases of cancer linked to TCE and that more than 200 of those people have already died.

"In the United States, they have one brain cancer by 20,000 people. In Shannon, we are 4,000 and we have at least 18 cases of brain cancer," Juneau said outside the courtroom. "We think we have a very strong case. I don’t think we can lose; it’s too obvious."

The legal counsel for the Attorney General of Canada dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims and said they are simply unjustified.

In his opening statement, David Lucas told Quebec Superior Court Justice Bernard Godbout there is not a shred of scientific evidence linking TCE levels in groundwater to cancer in the community.

He said there are only three types of cancer that have been found to have a causal relationship with exposure to TCE – kidney, liver and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – and that these are not the types of cancer mostly found in Shannon.

Lucas also said he intends to demonstrate TCE didn’t appear in the water supply in Shannon and on the military base until 1990 – decades later than the residents allege in their lawsuit.

He said only 40 wells in Shannon were contaminated and the TCE concentration was not strong enough to pose any health risk.

"For an exposure of less than 10 years, our toxicologists say there is not a significant increase in risk," Lucas told reporters.

The government’s lawyer also dismissed the negligence claim and stressed the residents of Shannon were informed of the risks as soon as they became known.

The lawyers representing the companies asserted they did nothing to deliberately contaminate Shannon’s water supply.

One of them, Jean Saint-Onge, lashed out at the residents of Shannon for seeking "exaggerated" damages and fuelling a "climate of fear" by making "cut-and-dried statements to the media."

The remarks didn’t fly well with Marie-Paule Speiser, a nurse in Shannon who is the lead plaintiff in the case.

"We are the ones being poisoned, whose water was contaminated, and now we are the culprits here?" Spieser said. "This is nonsense."

The landmark legal case is expected to last six months and the court will hear from 23 expert and nearly 100 other witnesses, such as cancer victims and their families.

The federal government has provided Shannon with $26.5 million to ensure an alternate, safe source of drinking water.