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Ontario Newsroom

Employer Fined $26,000 Total After Multiple Convictions

  • Fri 01st July 2011
  • Newmarket, ON CA

Lushington Grant, sole proprietor of Mississauga-based Century Estates, was fined $26,000 on June 24, 2011, after being convicted of multiple violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

On January 15, 2008, ministry inspectors visited a house construction project on Israel Zilber Drive in Vaughan. The inspectors entered the project and found a series of violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, including:

  • workers climbing down from their work location using a bent piece of lumber instead of stairs, a runway, a ramp or a ladder
  • a basement opening that did not have a guardrail or protective covering
  • stairs that did not have a securely fastened and supported handrail
  • a worker that was not wearing head protection or foot protection.

The inspectors also observed workers working at heights without fall or head protection. The inspectors were told by the workers that the fall protection equipment was in the van of their employer, Lushington Grant, and that he was not on site. Upon his arrival, Mr. Grant obstructed the inspection by refusing to answer questions asked by an inspector and then leaving the site.

On January 25, 2008, an inspector returned to the site to serve one of Mr. Grant's workers with an offence notice. Mr. Grant provided false information to the inspector regarding the worker.

After a trial, Justice of the Peace Hazel Hodson-Walker found Mr. Grant guilty of eight counts and fined him a total of $26,000. The $26,000 fine included a $10,000 fine for obstruction and a $10,000 fine for providing false information. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.