CAYUGA—Courtroom 1 in the Cayuga Courthouse was crowded the morning of March 3, 2025 as friends, family members, and co-workers of Gabriel Cabral and Sean MacPherson heard the joint submission from the Crown, John Kenyon Ltd., and Stelco.
The companies had been facing multiple charges following a Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation in relation to an April 25, 2023 workplace incident at Stelco’s Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke, where the two men had been severely burned by steam; both later died as a result of their injuries.
Crown Attorney Dan Phelan read through the agreed statement of facts, including the coke cooling process at Stelco’s Lake Erie Works.
Coke (processed coal used in the steelmaking process) is made in the coke oven battery. A rail and trolly system transports the hot coke to the quench tower, where water is poured on it to cool it. The steam is released through the quench tower.
The mogul car – which moves the coke – was set to an automatic delivery mode, making the trip about every 23 minutes. It takes around 60-90 seconds each for the hot coke to be loaded into the mogul car, to reach the tower, and for the active quenching process. In automatic mode, it isn’t possible to stop the car after it has left the coke oven.
John Kenyon Ltd., a siding design and installation company, was contracted to do maintenance and repair work on a quench tower in Nanticoke. This required workers to be up in a boom lift working on the exterior of the tower, with additional crew on the ground. Controls were in the lift, with backup emergency controls on the ground.
While Kenyon staff were on site, there was a warning signal at the start of the mogul loading process; they were supposed to move the boom lift basket out of the way from the quench tower. There was a second warning signal to indicate that the mogul car was leaving the coke oven for the tower.
The morning of the incident, Kenyon workers had installed three replacement sheets of aluminum siding on the tower and were working on a fourth. The first warning signal of an impending quench came at 10:39 a.m., which Cabral and MacPherson acknowledged to their ground crew. Phelan said, “For unknown reasons, (they) did not move the boom away from the side of the quench tower at this time.”
The second signal came at 10:41 a.m., “which was again acknowledged … to the ground crew. Again, for unknown reasons, the boom was not moved away. The ground workers did not engage the emergency controls to move the basket away from the danger,” Phelan said.
When the mogul car got to the bottom of the tower, the ground crew shouted at the pair to move the boom basket away, but they didn’t. Phelan said, “It appeared to the ground crew that the men in the basket had been trying to finish their work and were about to move the basket away when the quench process initiated.”
The ground crew engaged the emergency controls to move the boom basket, but the pair were still exposed to the steam for almost nine seconds, sustaining severe burns and injuries.
The two men were initially taken to West Haldimand General Hospital in Hagersville, but then transferred to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. Cabral, 32, passed away on May 16, 2023, and MacPherson, 56, passed away on November 14, 2023.
Phelan said the Ministry’s investigation included interviewing workers, reviewing the documentation from both companies, and inspecting the equipment in question.
“The boom was inspected, and it was determined that there were no defects,” he said. “Based on the findings of the investigation, the Ministry determined that the Kenyon workers did not follow the Stelco procedure correctly. The two deaths would have been avoided had the Kenyon workers moved the basket away from the quench tower at the first signal.”
The joint submission presented to Justice Joseph De Filippis was that John Kenyon Ltd. would plead guilty to the charge of failing to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker and would pay a fine of $225,000, plus the mandatory statutory victim impact surcharge of an additional 25% ($56,250), for a total of $281,250. Additionally, it was requested that all of the other charges against both companies be withdrawn.
Phelan noted that when determining a fine, the court needs to consider relevant factors, such as the size of the company, the extent of harm, and the need for deterrence.
He said Kenyon is a relatively small company, with a staff of about 30.
“The extent of the harm is the most tragic today. Two workers lost their lives in this incident,” he noted.
Phelan said there were mitigating factors that led to the fine amount: “Chiefly, this is a first offence by this employer.… This is also an early plea, and an early plea demonstrates remorse by the company.”
Prior to his judgement, Justice De Filippis heard several victim impact statements from Cabral and MacPherson’s family members; he noted that these serve two important functions: “One is to convey to the court the pain suffered by the people involved. And the second is to inform the sentence.”
Pam Fraser, Cabral’s mom, said her world was “forever changed” on April 25, 2023. She described how traumatizing it was to see her son with third- and fourth-degree burns.
“What I saw was something no mother, no person, should ever have to witness. It is something that haunts my memories to this day.… The first time we were allowed to see Gabriel, he was covered in bandages, with only his toes visible.”
The morning her son died, “I wanted to hold his hand, but couldn’t, due to all the bandaging.”
While speaking with The Press after the proceedings, Fraser expressed her vehement disagreement with one aspect of the presented statement of facts: “Our boys didn’t stay up there to do the job. They were stuck. Something happened up there; we just don’t know what.”
She also confirmed that none of the money from the fine will go to the families.
Phelan read some of the victim impact statements on behalf of the submitters, at their request. One was from Ryan MacPherson, Sean MacPherson’s nephew, and a good friend of Cabral’s. He said that as one of the workers there that day, he witnessed the incident in full and tried to assist after.
“Coping with this experience has led to not participating in any work in or around the quench tower, in fear it may trigger something and put others I’m working with at risk,” his statement read. “The feelings and emotions I get when I think about all this and what I’ve been through and seen will live with me forever.”
The last victim statement Phelan read was from Lisa MacPherson, Sean MacPherson’s wife. She described their close-knit family, shared hobbies, and interests.
“I met Sean in the first week of Grade 9. From that moment on, we were inseparable. For 42 years, we built a life together.… For most of my life, I was part of Sean and Lisa. Now, I am just Lisa, and I don’t know what that means.”
After Sean was injured, “what followed was a nightmare that didn’t end,” she said, adding that he endured “seven long months of pain, trying to fight his way back to us.”
She noted that their grandchildren weren’t able to see him in the hospital, “for fear it would traumatize them. Instead, they saw him leave for work one morning and never come home.”
Justice De Filippis ruled to accept the joint submission that had been presented to the court; Kenyon was given four months to pay the fine.
At both the beginning and end of the proceedings, he emphasized that nothing could ever make up for the loss of Cabral and MacPherson.
“That fine does not measure the value of the lives of the people who died; that’s measured by the fact that they loved and were loved by many people – people in this room. The fine’s independent of those debts.”
