According to CBC, the tarsands company Syncrude has pleaded not guilty to two charges laid in the deaths of what was originally reported as 500 ducks but later turned out to be over 1,600 ducks in their northern Alberta tailings pond in April 2008.
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According to Syncrude's lawyer Robert White, the company is pleading not guilty because it has improved duck deterrence measures used at the site :
"The law has recognized for a long time that when people do their best to avoid something, then that isn't a matter for charges. That's a matter for fix-up."
Ah. So according to Syncrude's "fix-ups" logic if you should fail to avoid blowing someone's head off with a shotgun, then it isn't a matter for charges - it's a matter for taking a firearms class afterwards.
Good to know.
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Back in June Syncrude, the world's largest producer of synthetic crude from the tarsands, was threatening to challenge the federal government’s constitutional right to charge the company at all. Whether today's 'not guilty' plea is the first step in this constitutional challenge I do not know.
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"Fix-ups". For those times when you're just too big busy to pay a possible maximum fine per charge of $500,000.
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