FERRY WORKERS TOKE ON THE JOB

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will likely release early
next year its final report on the sinking of the passenger ferry Queen
of the North off B.C.'s north coast in March 2006, according to board
spokes-person John Cottreau.

Cottreau spoke to the Straight on October 17, minutes before the
agency officially posted on its Web site ( www.tsb.gc.ca/ ) the TSB
board's notice of concern regarding the use of marijuana by the crew
both off and onboard the ill-fated vessel.

"It's been sent to BC Ferries," Cottreau said in a phone interview
from the TSB main office in Gatineau, Quebec. "We can't validate to
what extent this applies to the system, but we note that it is a
safety issue. We're making it available to BC Ferries so they can take
action."

In the four-page notice, signed by TSB chair Wendy A. Tadros, the
board announced that it will monitor "progress on this important
safety issue and will be reporting on it in its final report into the
sinking of the Queen of the North ".

The document reported that there was "strong evidence of regular use
of cannabis" by crews onboard the vessel: "There is some evidence to
suggest that not all senior crew members aboard the Queen of the North
consistently took sufficient action to ensure the company's
no-tolerance policy" regarding drugs and alcohol.

The vessel sank after it struck Gil Island on March 22, 2006. Onboard
were 59 passengers and 42 crew members. Two missing passengers have
since been declared dead. The notice stated that there is no evidence
that either of the two officers on the bridge were high when the
incident occurred.

The document explained that several studies have shown that marijuana
use can impair human performance.