10 years before the catastrophic train derailment and chemical disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, one of the deadliest rail disasters in North American history took place in the Canadian town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.

On July 6, 2013, an unattended freight train that had been parked on the tracks overnight began to roll downhill and gather alarming speed as it careened towards the city center of Lac-Mégantic. The train, which was operated by Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic Railway and carrying over 2 million gallons of crude oil, derailed around 1:15 AM. The resulting explosions and fire killed 47 people and destroyed over 40 buildings, obliterating a large portion of the downtown area and prompting mass evacuations.

In this special episode of Working People, we speak with a panel of survivors of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in Canada and the East Palestine rail disaster in the USA.

Panelists include: Robert Bellefleur, a resident of Lac-Mégantic and spokesperson for the Lac-Mégantic Citizens' Coalition for Railroad Safety; Gilbert Carette, a resident of Lac-Mégantic and a member of the Lac-Mégantic Citizens' Coalition for Railroad Safety; Gilles Fluet, a resident of Lac-Mégantic who narrowly escaped the 2013 train crash and witnessed the derailment firsthand; Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny, award-winning writer, videographer, social and environmental justice activist, and author of Mégantic: A Deadly Mix of Oil, Rail, and Avarice; Jami Wallace, a displaced resident of East Palestine, Ohio, and founder of the Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition; Christina Siceloff, a Creek Ranger and resident of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, affected by the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical disaster.

If you or members of your community are interested in attending or participating in TRNN’s 2026 No More Sacrifice Zones conference, please contact us by emailing contact[at]therealnews[dot]com.

Additional links/info:

Lac-Mégantic Citizens' Coalition for Railroad Safety website and Facebook page
Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition (CICC) Facebook page
Railroad Workers United website, Facebook page, and X page
Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny, Talonbooks, Mégantic: A Deadly Mix of Oil, Rail, and Avarice
Dimitri Lascaris, TRNN, “‘Bomb Train': Oil Execs Try to Blame Workers for Tragic Accident”
Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “America’s toxic future looks like East Palestine, Ohio, today”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Toxic Avengers: America’s poisoned and abandoned communities must stand together or die”

Credits:

Pre-Production: Maximillian Alvarez, Dr. Nicole Fabricant, Fritz Edler
Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez
French-English Interpretation: Anne Lagacé Dowson
Voice Acting: Ethan Cox, Daniel Lemieux
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor, Alina Nehlich
Music: Jules Taylor

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