Disasters Across Canada: Bravery in the Face of Danger and Destruction

Description

126 pages
Contains Bibliography
$9.95
ISBN 1-55439-004-4
DDC 971

Year

2006

Contributor

Reviewed by Geoff Hamilton

Geoff Hamilton is a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of
British Columbia.

Review

Montague covers here all manner of national disasters, from ship and
train wrecks, to ice storms and forest fires, to coal mine explosions
and bridge failures. Arranged according to type of disaster, the nine
chapters reach as far back as the cholera epidemic of 1832 and the
Desjardins Canal Train Wreck of 1857, and as far into contemporary
history as the Toronto Subway Wreck of 1995 and the Ice Storm of 1998. A
list of further reading is included, along with an appendix cataloguing
the worst Canadian disasters of the 20th century.

This is an entertaining collection of disaster tales, full of harrowing
content and written in an engaging style. Among the most outrageous
anecdotes is the story of the Ocean Ranger oil rig disaster of 1982, in
which extreme managerial neglect led to the deaths of 84 men. Montague
relates that the ballast control officer on the rig “testified that
when he was hired, he received no formal training. He didn’t even know
what the job entailed. On his first day on the rig, when he walked into
the ballast control room, the solitary operator simply got up and left,
leaving [the new operator] to figure out the meters, computers, and
other devices for himself.”

Though the book’s subtitle identifies “bravery” as the focus of
the text, what emerges most memorably here is the enduring power of
nature to overwhelm human settlements and technological apparatuses, as
well as the contributions made to human misery by appalling
demonstrations of hubris, incompetence, and greed. Reading of disaster
after disaster, the importance of respect for the still unfathomable
forces that intervene in our lives from time to time becomes starkly
apparent.

Citation

Montague, Art., “Disasters Across Canada: Bravery in the Face of Danger and Destruction,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed March 28, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/16715.