To Honourable Justice Richard LeBlanc - History must not be repeated regarding the narrow, deliberately designed terms of reference of the Commission of Inquiry into Nalcor Muskrat Falls Boondoggle which does not explicitly include critical health, safety and environmental concerns of the people.

A pertinent lesson from the past:

A baby infant and her young father died in Port Hope Simpson, 2 February 1940 in acrimonious circumstances surrounding the Labrador Development Company Ltd.

C. letter from”Insp. P.A. (Pat Cahill) RCMP OIC Major Crimes Unit St. John’s, NL Canada A1A3T5 November 16, 2015 Security Classification/Designation/Non-sensitive

Dear Mr. Pritchard:

Investigation into Two Deaths in Port Hope Simpson - February 2, 1940

This is to advise you that we did receive your letter of inquiry from August 2015. After researching the archives for this file and speaking with the retired investigators, we can inform you that this file was investigated thoroughly and you were subsequently advised of the outcome at that time. No foul play was found in the investigation, as such the file was concluded at that time.

Signed”

But…in memory and honour of the deceased how can no foul play be found when

1. No cause of deaths has been established beyond reasonable doubt;
2. No death certificates have been found;
3. No medical certification of deaths have been found despite a doctor being in Port Hope Simpson at the time;
4. No RCMP instigated DNA forensic examination of bodily remains has taken place; 
5. No reports from the Newfoundland Rangers pertaining to the two deaths have been found despite Ranger Claude Dwyer, Port Hope Simpson detachment and other Ranger manned detachment in the Port Hope Simpson area been operational at the time of the deaths.
6. The findings of the Inquiry at the time into the Affairs of the Labrador Development Company Ltd. made no reference whatsoever to the tragedy and scandal of the two deaths. 
7. Given the above facts, how can RCMP state that “No foul play was found in the investigation, as such the file was concluded at that time” when the “effectiveness and efficiency of the justice system..[is]..to protect people’s fundamental rights, liberties and freedoms.”? Surely that should mean their file remains open until as a bare minimum basis for their investigation, Eric and Erica’s cause[s] of death are proven beyond reasonable doubt? 
8. There existed a lack of transparency and accountability by the owner J.O. Williams, Keith Yonge and his Company officials about what was really going-on behind the logging operations in Port Hope Simpson.
9. This particular form of cunning colonial oppression only came to an end when the smuggling operations out of the infamous Dunraven Bay, Bridgend, South Wales [where the Williams family lived] came to an end circa 1948.

Context

“Thomas Lodge, Commissioner of Public Utilities from 1934-1937 concluded that it it had been the Secretary of State who had failed to give guidance to the Commission who were a collection of individuals running their own departments. He described the Commission as an experiment in dictatorship and claimed he left his post because he could no longer carry on working with people who completely failed to agree on a positive policy and because he could not convince the Secretary of State to adopt his own point of view. The Dominions Office removed Lodge from his position of Commissioner early in 1937 and the publication of his book "Dictatorship in Newfoundland” in 1939 put him out of favour in London. Nevertheless, he became a Government Director of the Labrador Development Company in 1940.“  

Ref. Dictatorship in Newfoundland Publisher Cassell & Co. Ltd. London, England ; Toronto, Ont.1939 Description: “Thomas Lodge was appointed by the British Government as Public Utilities Commissioner to Newfoundland’s Commission of Government in 1934. In this book, Lodge explains the causes of Newfoundland’s economic and social troubles that necessitated creating Commission of Government, and how the Commission worked. He also recommended remedies for the conditions in Newfoundland and ways in which the Commission itself could achieve better success as a government.”

“Sir John  Hope Simpson valued Claude Fraser very highly as his loyal secretary of natural resources, a position described as being equivalent to that of a deputy minister. What really revealed Simpson’s culpability was when Fraser, who was still secretary of natural resources at the time, was ordered to take up the additional post of Government Director on the St. John’s board of the Labrador Development Company Ltd. on 2 February 1940 - exactly the same day on which Eric and Erica died. But by then it was too late to cover the fact that the Commission of Government had been neglectful in its duty of making sure they had their own representative on the company’s board of directors to regulate what was going on in Port Hope Simpson. The fact that there was no Government Director from July 1939 to 2 February 1940 highlights the culpability of the officials concerned in the particular combination of circumstances surrounding the deaths of Eric and Erica.

In February 1940 when Claude Fraser…was ordered to the appointment of Government Director of the Labrador Development Company [soon to be followed by Thomas Lodge] could it be truly said of the commission that it was in a position to be fulfilling its elected duty in regulating the Company’s activities. Unfortunately, the Dominions Office had got themselves into such an unholy mess by that time on Simpson’s say-so about supporting J.O. Williams, that government loans continued to be allocated to J.O. Williams.”  

“Williams’ confidential letter to Yonge”…[his local manager in Port Hope Simpson]…”in 1941 in which he admitted that he had the money but wanted to get as big a concession from the government as possible before disclosing his financial strength indicates his level of deception. It was only after Williams and the Labrador Development Company had left Port Hope Simpson in 1948 that the people could set about bettering themselves, but by that time many had moved away in search of work.

How does Simpson fit in with the events of the early hours of 3 February, 1940 when Eric and Erica died? Even once back home in England Simpson still continued the struggle that he eventually won: to keep the Newfoundland Rangers Force away from the authority of the department of justice. This was not a matter of departmental jealousies as suggested by Horwood but the actions of a man with a tarnished reputation who was set on a damage-limitation mission for the rest of his life, for himself personally; for the office of commissioner and for all those who followed him; for the Dominions Office and the whole of the British Government.”

“The British Government had decided to keep the affairs of the Labrador Development Company at Port Hope Simpson 1934-1949 secret until 1996-1998 because it would not have been in public and national interest to do otherwise. In the lead-up to the Second World War, a climate of trust was vital in our political leaders. The last thing the United Kingdom and its steadfast ally Newfoundland wanted was to be distracted from the war by a relatively trifling dispute about what was going on at Port Hope Simpson.

Newfoundland had already suffered from a lack of available work and the low wages of the Great Depression. It needed work for its population like never before and the Labrador Development Company appeared to be offering just that. However, the effect of the political shenanigans of Sir John Hope Simpson, John Osborn Williams, the owner of the Company, the Commission of Government and the Dominions office, their political masters in London, upon the brave crowd of early settlers in Port Hope Simpson was to make it impossible for them to find out what was going on behind the scenes.”      

Tombstone (Port Hope Simpson Mysteries Book 5) Kindle Edition £2.78 What was really going on behind the scenes? For the first time, declassified official British Government papers shine new light on amongst other things, Government mismanagement as knowledge hidden by an incongruous granite tombstone in Port Hope Simpson, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada marked the starting point for this unique history of development of a logging settlement in southern Labrador. Tombstone [The British Government’s Cover-Up] Port Hope Simpson, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada [Part 1/3] Series Title: Port Hope Simpson Mysteries [Vol 5a] File Size: 3131 KB Print Length: 88 pages Publication Date: November 9, 2013 Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC Language: English

The terms of reference of the Public Inquiry set-up by the Dominions Office, London, UK were deliberately designed to establish John Osborne Williams owner of the Labrador Development Company Ltd. as a bad character, who could not be trusted and was to blame for what had been going-on behind the scenes in Port Hope Simpson 1934-1945.  

So…back to the present…Why doesn’t the terms of reference of the  Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Muskrat Falls Project by The Honourable Justice Richard LeBlanc explicitly include critical health, safety and environmental concerns of the people?

[ https://goo.gl/m6mgF4 Message Sent To Honourable Justice Richard LeBlanc - History must not be repeated regarding narrow, deliberately designed terms of reference of the Commission of Inquiry into Nalcor Muskrat Falls Boondoggle which does not explicitly include critical health, safety and environmental concerns of the people. 18.2.18 ]