Remembering the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster

The deaths of 47 people who died in the 2013 tragedy were collateral damage from the culmination of policy decisions stretching back more than the previous three decades

Twelve years after the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, the lessons have not been learned in terms of preventing future disasters, writes Bruce Campbell.Photograph courtesy of the Transportation Safety of Board Canada/Flickr

Opinion

BY BRUCE CAMPBELL

July 6, 2025

On July 6, 2013, a train carrying 72 tank cars of toxic shale oil derailed and exploded killing 47 people, spilling six million litres of oil, obliterating the centre of the historic town of Lac-Mégantic in southern Quebec. It was the worst fatal calamity o...

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