xxxx Lisa Scott
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 21/05) - The biggest trial ever held in the Northwest Territories threatens to go on indefinitely, as most of the parties found responsible for the 1992 Giant Mine bombing filed appeals this month.

The defendants, including the Government of the Northwest Territories, Pinkerton Security and the Canadian Auto Workers Union, are appealing the $10.7 million awarded to the families of the nine miners killed during a bitter labour dispute at the mine.

Defendants Allan Shearing, Harry Seeton and Tim Bettger, union members who were found to have added fuel to the anti-replacement worker rhetoric on the picket lines at the mine, are also appealing their blame.

Appeals have been filed against Justice Arthur Lutz's July decision to award $3.7 million in legal costs to the families as well.

Roger Warren, who is serving a 20-year sentence for planting the homemade bomb in the bowels of the mine, hasn't filed an appeal.

The former miner shouldered the biggest amount of the blame, 26 per cent, as decided by Lutz.

The move prompted the families of the dead miners to file their own appeals, says Edmonton lawyer Jeffrey B. Champion.

Their beef isn't with the amount awarded, but with Lutz's failure to include tax breaks on the reward and allow them to pay for financial services to invest the money.

"The purpose of the award is to put the person in the position they would have been in if the event hadn't happened," says Champion.

"It's really an amount to compensate the families for the tax they'll have to pay on the interest earned on the reward," he says of the just under $700,000 extra they are seeking.

"Justice Lutz did not allow that amount."

The families also want Royal Oak Mines owner Margaret Kent, formerly Peggy Witte and its director, William Sheridan, to share the responsibility. Both were found not to be personally liable for the deaths in Lutz's 419-page decision released last December.

As for who's going to pay the families, Champion says that process is just starting.

Because all parties were found responsible, they are each liable for the full costs of the settlement.

"We're in the process of determining which of the parties, or all of them, have to pay it," he said.

When contacted this week about their appeal in the case, the Government of the Northwest Territories had no comment on the issue.