This Thursday, the three people jailed for Vaughan’s massive 2004 garbage fire will seek bail pending appeal. To put their case in context, here are some of the other jail sentences imposed for environmental offences in Canada, over the last fifteen years:
- Kevin Briggs, six months for illegal transporting and dumping of drums of hazardous and liquid waste;
- James Greensides, 45 days for 3 counts of breaching court orders to cleanup an illegal dump;
- Daher Wanna, three months for breaching orders relating to a contaminated wrecking yard used to break down stolen cars;
- Craig Dallmeyer, six months (in absentia) for “flagrant”, “deliberate” and “egregious” disregard of the law and the environment for financial benefit in operating a waste disposal site on the Toronto waterfront, discharging oil, giving false information to the MOE, and abandoning large amounts of hard-to-treat waste;
- Robert Johnston, eight days for burning waste oil on a garbage fire, injuring his friend, vegetation and the ground;
- Tim Underwood, three months for falsifying manifests and sending hazardous waste to a municipal landfill;
- Tony Lopes, three months for operating illegal waste disposal sites and causing pollution, after numerous prior convictions;
- Severin Argenton, eight months for prolonged and persistent violations at a hazardous waste site, causing massive contamination; and
- Emidio Perilli, eighteen months (in absentia) for causing, and concealing, a huge spill of cyanide that caused a major bird and fish kill and would leave long-term harm.