In the summer of 2013, just as a small town in Quebec was decimated due to a train derailment, heavy rainfall prompted thirty Alberta communities to declare a state of emergency. Whereas a SWAT team surrounded train conductor Thomas Harding and brought him to court where he was charged with the deaths of forty-seven in Quebec, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi emerged from the Alberta crisis as a folk hero. As these two incidents demonstrate, different types of disasters generate different narratives about accountability. Kevin Quigley evaluates the risk regulation regimes that monitor, interpret, and respond to failures in Canada’s critical infrastructure, and questions biases that determine who is held to account when systems fail.

Kevin Quigley, PhD, is the Scholarly Director of the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance and a professor in the School of Public Administration, Dalhousie University. He specializes in public sector risk and crisis management, strategic management and critical infrastructure protection. Dr. Quigley founded the Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative, an interdisciplinary research team seeking to enhance collaboration for the management of Canada’s critical infrastructure. Dr. Quigley has published an acclaimed book on critical infrastructure, numerous articles in academic journals and his next book, 'Too Critical to Fail: How Canada Manages Threats to Critical Infrastructure' is now available.