The Crown attorney’s office is appealing the acquittal of Steven Deans, who was charged with criminal negligence causing death after an employee died on the job more than two years ago.
The notice of appeal was filed on Friday, Dec. 12, by Ontario’s Crown Law office and seeks an order setting aside the acquittal and ordering a new trial for Deans on the same criminal negligence charge.
Mark Ertel, Deans’ defence lawyer, confirmed he received the notice of appeal.
Deans, a supervisor at Best Green Hedges, was acquitted of criminal negligence causing death after Ontario Court of Justice John MacFarlane ruled the Crown had not met the burden of proof required to find him guilty.
Nicholas Chenier was working on a property in Manotick under Deans’ management when the battery-powered trimmer he was using touched a 16,000-volt power line and electrocuted him. Chenier was pronounced dead an hour later.
Deans pleaded not guilty, and defence counsel ultimately presented no evidence, which ended the 10-day judge-only trial in September.
Throughout the trial, Crown prosecutor Anne Fitzpatrick argued that Deans showed “reckless disregard” for his landscaping employee’s life by failing to advise him of potential dangers at the site.
In an oral decision presented in November, MacFarlane said Deans was not necessarily aware of the hazards present at the site and said he had heard no evidence indicating it was up to Deans as a supervisor to probe whether his workers would come within the “limit of approach” of a power line, which is 10 feet or three metres.
The judge also noted that the Crown presented no evidence of such a standard within the industry and said that a “marked and substantial” departure from a norm, a hallmark of negligence, couldn’t be established.
According to the notice of appeal, the Crown is seeking a new trial on the grounds that MacFarlane made errors in law during the trial.
The Crown argued the trial judge erred in his interpretation of the part of the Criminal Code which establishes a legal duty for supervisors and employers to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to workers.
MacFarlane did not properly address Deans’ legal duty surrounding the circumstances in Chenier’s death, and he limited himself to the presence or absence of an industry standard by determining whether the supervisor had taken “reasonable steps” to prevent bodily harm, the notice of appeal read.
The Crown also argued that MacFarlane wrongly concluded that Deans had no legal duty to inquire and inform himself about the existence and extent of any potential danger at the job site before assigning it to Chenier.
The notice of appeal said MacFarlane made an error by concluding that Deans’ lack of awareness absolved him of any legal duty to make reasonable inquiries to ensure Chenier’s safety.
Ontario’s Court of Appeal has not yet ruled on whether it will hear the case, and no date has been set for a hearing.
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With files from Nicholas Kohler.
