A Calgary mover who was hired to pick up a shipment later discovered to contain a hazardous material said he is relieved charges have been laid.
On Tuesday, Calgary police charged 59-year-old Christine Jacqueline Teschl with criminal negligence in the incident, which forced a multi-day evacuation in Manchester Industrial last week.
Police said they believe Teschl was aware of the contents of the package but did not tell the moving company that was hired to dispose of it.
“I feel some justice may be served on this,” said Adam O’Keefe, who runs Alberta Pro Movers.
O’Keefe said his company picked up a shipment at a storage facility north of the city in early August, and said he was told it was health products that needed to be disposed of.
However, O’Keefe said there were more products in the shipment than originally believed and some were not labelled.
“I had to call around to see if we could carry this product and in fact we were,” he told Global News. “Two pallets of this unknown material that we were led to believe were just smaller bottles of the chemical we were cleared to carry were on these pallets, and it turned out to be picric acid.”
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O’Keefe said the paperwork was signed ensuring him there was nothing “flammable, combustible or explosive” on board.
He said the shipment travelled from the storage facility, down Deerfoot Trail to the East Hills Landfill, then to a disposal site nearby.
According to O’Keefe, the disposal site wouldn’t take the unmarked boxes, so he brought them to his loading bay in Manchester Industrial where they sat for days.
“I then decided to inspect it further. I cut open the shrink-wrap and opened the boxes and then found the picric acid,” O’Keefe said.
According to Transport Canada, picric acid is used in labs to make dyes and explosives, but can be highly sensitive to shock, heat and friction, especially when dried.
“We are thankful that nobody was hurt and that we were contacted at the first change,” Staff Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Calgary Police Service told reporters Tuesday.
“We are very fortunate that this did not explode on transit.”
Nearby businesses were evacuated for two days last week while bomb disposal experts used controlled detonations to dispose of the substance, before moving it to an undisclosed site.
In a statement to Global News, Jillian Williamson, who has been retained as Teschl’s lawyer, said it would be inappropriate to provide detailed comment as the disclosure process is still ongoing.
“I want to emphasize that my client, like all individuals charged, is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Williamson said. “We will reserve further comment until the disclosure process is complete and the case proceeds through the proper legal channels.”
As for O’Keefe, he said he is currently working with Transport Canada and health and safety officials in their investigations and said he still hasn’t been paid in full for the shipment.
He also expressed gratitude to the emergency response teams who handled it.
“I’d like to thank the first responders and the emergency response team, they did one hell of a job,” O’Keefe said. “They had everybody out of there within 20 minutes, a half hour… They had it cleared out so fast.”
Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call them at 403-266-1234.
Tips can also be submitted anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), online at www.calgarycrimestoppers.org or by downloading the Crime Stoppers app (P3 Tip) from the app store.
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