Tears, exemptions as jury selection gets underway in Lac-Mgantic rail disaster trial

Dozens of prospective jurors were exempton Monday asjury selection got underwayin the trial ofthe three men charged in the Lac-Mgantic train derailment.

One woman broke down crying almost immediately after taking the stand, saying she personally knew many of the victims of the July 6, 2013 crash. She was immediately excused.

Another woman said her spouse lived in Lac-Mgantic's "red zone," the term used to describe the epicentre of the explosion.She was also allowed to go.

Many cited school, work, health reasons or loss of income as reasons they couldn't take part.

Quebec Superior Court Judge Gatan Dumas accepted the majority of the requests for exemption.

On trialare engineer and train driverThomas Harding,train operations manager Jean Dematre and railway traffic controller Richard Labrie from the now-defunctMontreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway.

Each faces47 charges of criminal negligence causing deathin connection with the crash, one count for each of the 47 people killed.All three men have pleaded not guilty.

Finding a jury

Thetrial, which is being held in Sherbrooke, Que., and expected to last until the end of December,will be entirely bilingual.

Harding is anglophone, whileDematreand Labrie are francophone, so it is crucial that the selectedjurors are comfortable and well-versed in both languages.

Under Canadian law, the accused has a right to a trial in either English or French.

The judge saidhis goal Monday was to determine thebilingualismof potential jurors and Dumas began that process on Monday afternoon.

Charles Shearson, one of Harding's lawyers, told reporters selecting a jury will be a challenge.Three weeks have been set aside for that task.

"Lac-Mgantic is close to (Sherbrooke) so you may have people who are related to victims,'' he said.

"It's also important the candidates have a good (understanding) of English and French because the trial will take up terms that are complicated and technical to the railway industry.''

How selection will work

Potential jurors will face a series of questions to test their knowledge of both English and French.

Under the Criminal Code, a jury must havea minimum of 10 people to render a verdict, but it is common to have 12 or even 14 jurors in case someone has to drop out.

In thiscase, the judge is seeking 14 jurors.

After the exemption portion is complete, potential jurors will thenbe asked questions to verify their impartiality.

"It should be known that the criteria is not to know if a person has heard of a case or not, but to know if the person is able to put aside everything they will hear outside of the courtroom and only judge based on the evidence that is presented within the courtroom," said Jean-Pascal Boucher,a spokesperson for Quebec's director of penal and criminal prosecutions.

Timeline of procedures:

• May 13, 2014: The day after they were arrested, Harding, Labrie and Dematrewere brought to Lac-Mgantic, where they were formally charged before being released.
• April 20, 2015: Thethree men pleadednot guilty to the charges.
• April 12, 2017: The location of the trial wasofficially changed to Sherbrooke instead of Lac-Mgantic.
• Sept. 11, 2017: Jury selection begins.