The Canoe River train crash occurred on November 21, 1950, near
Valemount
Valemount is a village municipality of 1,018 people in east central British Columbia, Canada, from Kamloops, British Columbia. It is between the Rocky, Monashee, and Cariboo Mountains. It is the nearest community to the west of Jasper Nation ...
in eastern
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, Canada, when a westbound troop train and the eastbound
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...
(CNR) ''Continental Limited'' collided head-on. The collision killed 21 people: 17 Canadian soldiers en route to the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
and the two-man locomotive crew of each train.
The post-crash investigation found that the order given to the troop train differed from the intended message. Crucial words were missing, causing the troop train to proceed on its way rather than halt on a siding, resulting in the collision. A telegraph operator, Alfred John "Jack" Atherton, was charged with
manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
; the
Crown
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...
alleged that he was negligent in passing an incomplete message. His family hired his
Member of Parliament,
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 an ...
, as defence counsel. Diefenbaker joined the
British Columbia bar to take the case, and obtained Atherton's acquittal.
After the accident, the CNR installed
block signal
Railway signalling (), or railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormous weight ...
s on the stretch of track on which the crash occurred. The railway later realigned the main line in that area, eliminating a sharp curve that prevented crews from seeing oncoming trains. Diefenbaker's successful defence of Atherton became an asset in his political rise. A number of monuments honour the dead.
Crash

On November 21, 1950, a westbound troop train, Passenger Extra 3538 West—consisting of the
S-2-a class
2-8-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wh ...
steam locomotive 3538 and 17 cars, about half of which had wood bodies with steel
underframes—was travelling from
Camp Shilo, Manitoba to
Fort Lewis, Washington
Fort Lewis is a United States Army base located south-southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Fort Lewis was merged with McChord Air Force Base on February 1, 2010, to form Joint Base Lewis–McChord.
Fort Lewis, named after Meriwether Lewis of the ...
. It was carrying 23 officers and 315 men of 2nd Regiment,
Royal Canadian Horse Artillery
The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery is the name given to the regular field artillery units of the Canadian Army.
Organization
The Regular Force has three RCHA regiments:
; 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery: this is the descendant of ...
(RCHA) for deployment to the Korean War, a movement dubbed Operation ''Sawhorse''.
The train was moving through the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...
on the CNR transcontinental mainline. CNR Train No. 2, the eastbound ''Continental Limited'', consisted of the
U-1-a class
4-8-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known as ...
steam locomotive 6004 and eleven all-steel cars and was en route from Vancouver to Montreal.
By 1950, the CNR used the part-wooden cars only for the transportation of soldiers; other passengers were no longer carried in them. After the 1947
Dugald rail accident
The Dugald rail accident was a head-on collision between two Canadian National passenger trains on September 1, 1947, in Dugald, Manitoba, Canada, resulting in the deaths of 31 people.
Background
A westbound Canadian National Railways (CN) train, ...
, the
Board of Transport Commissioners
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
* Fiberboard
** Hardboard, a ty ...
had ordered that wooden passenger coaches not be placed between all-steel cars. However, under the terms of that decision, General Order Number 707, the wooden cars with steel underframes did not count as "wooden cars".
CNR dispatcher A. E. Tisdale meant to send both trains identical orders to "meet" (get past each other) on a mostly single-track section. His intended order read "Psgr Extra 3538 West meet No. 2 Eng 6004 at Cedarside and No. 4 Eng 6057 Gosnell." (Cedarside and Gosnell were
sidings where trains could wait to allow opposing traffic to clear.)
Tisdale dictated the order from his office in
Kamloops, British Columbia
Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers, which join to become the Thompson River in Kamloops, and east of Kamloops Lake. The city is the administrative centre ...
, to Alfred John "Jack" Atherton, the operator at Red Pass Junction, for delivery to Passenger Extra 3538 West, the troop train, and to F.E. Parsons, the operator at
Blue River, westbound from Red Pass Junction, for delivery to No. 2, the ''Continental''. The words "at Cedarside" did not appear in the order as copied down by Atherton to be handed to the troop train crew. Parsons's version of the order accorded with Tisdale's, and was passed to the ''Continental'' and to Train No. 4. According to Hugh A. Halliday in his history of Canadian railroad wrecks, "it would have been one man's word against the other, but the Blue River operator had been on the line at the same time. Parsons backed up Tisdale's version of events; Atherton would be cast firmly as the culprit in this affair."
When the westbound troop train stopped at Red Pass Junction, Atherton gave the incorrect written order to train conductor John A. Mainprize. As the full order had been passed to the eastbound ''Continental'', its crew expected to meet the troop train at Cedarside, eastbound from Blue River; the crew aboard the troop train expected to meet the ''Continental'' and another train at Gosnell westbound from Cedarside. With neither train crew aware of anything wrong, the troop train passed Cedarside and the ''Continental'' passed Gosnell. Both trains were travelling at moderate speeds, and attempted to negotiate a sharp curve from opposite ends.
Thomas W. Tindall, a forestry employee, saw the two trains approaching each other from an embankment; he tried to signal the ''Continental'' crew, who responded to his frantic signals with a friendly wave. The two crews did not realise that a collision was imminent until the last moment, and the trains struck head-on at 10:35 a.m.
The accident occurred south of
Valemount
Valemount is a village municipality of 1,018 people in east central British Columbia, Canada, from Kamloops, British Columbia. It is between the Rocky, Monashee, and Cariboo Mountains. It is the nearest community to the west of Jasper Nation ...
, east of a small station named
Canoe River, westbound from Cedarside.
The crash took place on the only stretch (18-mile (29 km) long) of CNR mainline in the mountains not protected by
automatic block signal
Automatic block signaling (ABS), spelled automatic block signalling or called track circuit block (TCB ) in the UK, is a railroad communications system that consists of a series of signals that divide a railway line into a series of sections, ...
s. The leading cars of each train were
derailed, while those which had been part of the troop train were demolished.
According to testimony at the inquiry, most of the deaths were caused by steam from the troop train's ruptured boiler penetrating the damaged cars.
At the moment of the crash, two soldiers, Gunners William Barton and Roger Bowe, both of
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...
, were buying cigarettes at the newsstand aboard the train. The structure of the newsstand shielded them in the crash, and they survived. Their fellow Newfoundlanders, Gunners Joseph Thistle and James A. White, standing just a few feet away, were not shielded by the newsstand and perished.
Rescue
People from the nearby settlement of Valemount hurried to the scene and found the troop cars damaged beyond recognition. Some had collapsed in the disaster; rescuers used axes and hammers to break into them. There were no medical supplies aboard the troop train,
and the only medical officer on board had disembarked in
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
.
First-aid kit
First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with a medical emergency, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery until medical services arrive. First aid is gener ...
s on that train proved empty; a box labelled "Medical Stores" was found to contain only contraceptives.
Dr. P. S. Kimmett of
Edson, Alberta
Edson is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Yellowhead County, west of Edmonton along the Yellowhead Highway and east of the intersection with Highway 47.
History
The town was founded as Heatherwood, but the name ...
, a passenger on the ''Continental'', took charge of efforts to aid the injured with his wife, a nurse.
Kimmett supervised efforts to aid 50 people despite having almost no supplies or trained personnel.
One soldier, still alive, appeared to have not an inch of skin on his body unscalded; another had a chunk of glass piercing his chest from front to back.
With the exception of the engine and tender of the ''Continental'', which were demolished, there was little damage to the eastbound train. Several of the passengers on the ''Continental'' suffered minor injuries.
One dining car on the troop train was used as a hospital, another as a morgue. James Henderson, a young officer on the troop train, recalled:
I talked with one soldier who lay shivering in a bunk in the hospital coach. He had no visible sign of injury but his face was a ghastly green shade. He wanted more blankets and a cigarette, and I gave him both. An hour later, I helped move his body to the other coach.
At the time of the crash, the temperature was about ,
and there were about of snow on the ground. The telephone lines next to the track were cut by the accident, but a crewman managed to make an emergency call to
Jasper
Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...
in
Alberta
Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
. Because the crash site was away, medical relief took three hours to arrive.
A work engine, in the interim, took the movable coaches of the troop train back along the track as far as Cedarside.
The hospital train brought eight nurses and two doctors from Jasper, who spent the trip making what preparations they could. On arrival, they found patients with severe injuries. "There was hardly a case with only one type of
trauma
Trauma most often refers to:
*Psychological trauma, in psychology and psychiatric medicine, refers to severe mental and emotional injury caused by distressing events
*Traumatic injury, sudden physical injury caused by an external force, which doe ...
."
That rescue train transported the injured to
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
from the crash scene.
The Jasper doctors left the train when the rescue train reached there, again placing Dr. Kimmett in charge. He remained so until the civilians were relieved by Army personnel from Edmonton, who joined the train in Edson.
Major Francis P. Leask, commanding the soldiers, praised Dr. Kimmett's work, "We couldn't have gotten along without him" and also praised his men, both veterans and recruits, for their calm, efficient work in the disaster.
Wintry weather made subsequent attempts to recover the dead difficult; four bodies were never found.
Transcontinental traffic was rerouted temporarily onto
Canadian Pacific
The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
tracks through
Calgary
Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
as the CNR attempted to clear the tracks. The work was hampered by an explosion and fire that broke out on the morning of November 22, consuming many of the wrecked cars and likely the missing bodies, and the wreckage was cleared by that evening, allowing traffic to resume the following day.
On November 29, 1950, the remaining soldiers left
Camp Wainwright, Alberta, where they had been taken after being evacuated to Edmonton, resuming their journey to Korea. The death toll had been 20, including 16 soldiers. Twelve soldiers and the two two-man locomotive crews died in or shortly after the crash; four soldiers died on the rescue train en route to hospital in Edmonton. A 17th soldier,
Gunner David Owens, died in an Edmonton hospital on December 9, bringing the death toll to 21.
Owens had suffered severe burns, and was believed on the way to recovery when he suffered a relapse.
Gunner Art Evoy, a survivor of the crash, recalled the eeriness of the first
roll call
''Roll Call'' is a newspaper and website published in Washington, D.C., United States, when the United States Congress is in session, reporting news of legislative and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill, as well as political coverage of c ...
at Wainwright, "It was a very small group that answered the roll call that day."
Inquiry
Within days of the crash, the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...
(RCMP), as the provincial police for British Columbia, began an investigation.
The site of the crash was under the jurisdiction of the RCMP detachment in
Prince George, British Columbia
Prince George is a city in British Columbia, Canada, situated at the confluence of the Fraser River, Fraser and Nechako River, Nechako rivers. The city itself has a population of 76,708; the metro census agglomeration has a population of 89,490 ...
, and any charges would be laid there.
The CNR suspended all trainmen involved in passing the order to the troop train and held an internal inquiry at Kamloops. The
Board of Transport Commissioners
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
* Fiberboard
** Hardboard, a ty ...
announced that a public inquiry would be held at Edmonton in December 1950.

Atherton, aged 22, was dismissed by the CNR before the Edmonton hearings. He testified that there was a lengthy gap in transmission, and that he did not hear the words "at Cedarside". Although railway regulations called for him to listen to a repeat of the order by the telegrapher at Blue River, he did not do so and instead continued with his other duties, passing the message to the troop train without the vital two words. He denied repeating back the order to dispatcher Tisdale with the two words included.
Tisdale testified to passing the order by telephone to Blue River and to Red Pass Junction, and that it was correctly read back to him by both operators. He also testified to a brief gap in communications several days before the crash, saying that in the rough country through which the railway line passed it was not uncommon for objects falling against the communication line to cause brief outages.
Parsons also testified that Atherton had correctly repeated back the order.
Testimony to the inquiry established the damage to the troop train and those on it. The wooden cars with steel underframes gave little resistance to the impact, unlike the ''Continentals steel cars. A CNR official testified that it would cost $127 million (equivalent to $ billion in ) to replace all such cars with modern steel ones.
Dr. Kimmett testified, stating that though he had six bottles of
penicillin
Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...
when he began his work, no
syringe
A syringe is a simple reciprocating pump consisting of a plunger (though in modern syringes, it is actually a piston) that fits tightly within a cylindrical tube called a barrel. The plunger can be linearly pulled and pushed along the inside ...
could be found to administer it. When a syringe was later found, five of the bottles could no longer be located. No heating was available on the troop train until the arrival of the emergency locomotive from Red Pass Junction, and no
blood plasma
Blood plasma is a light Amber (color), amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but which contains Blood protein, proteins and other constituents of whole blood in Suspension (chemistry), suspension. It makes up ...
had been brought on the hospital train—none was available until the injured reached Jasper. Dr. Kimmett testified that it was "very difficult" to administer plasma on the train, and that two men died between Jasper and Edson.
The Board of Transport Commissioners issued its report on January 18, 1951. It avoided assigning individual responsibility for the deaths and urged the CNR to install block signals on the section of line where the accident took place. The Board noted that the CNR already had a policy of installing such signals, though they were expensive and difficult to obtain from the United States, and that the CNR had deemed other sections of the line more dangerous. It also urged additional training, to ensure that messages were transmitted accurately, and safety checks to catch instances where messages were transmitted incorrectly.
Prosecution
Hiring of counsel, arrest
In anticipation of charges being laid against his son, Atherton's father approached Member of Parliament and
King's Counsel
A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 an ...
in December 1950 and sought to retain him as defence counsel. The Athertons were Diefenbaker's constituents; their hometown,
Zealandia, Saskatchewan
Zealandia is a town in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is one of the smallest communities in the province to be designated as a town.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Zealandia had a pop ...
, was in his riding,
Lake Centre
Lake Centre was a federal electoral district in Saskatchewan, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1935 to 1953. This riding was created in 1933 from parts of the ridings of Last Mountain, Long Lake and Regina. F ...
. Diefenbaker declined the case, stating that Parliament had first call on his time, that
his wife Edna was seriously ill with
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
, and that he was not admitted as a lawyer in British Columbia. As Edna Diefenbaker was well known as an influence over her husband, in desperation Alfred Atherton Sr. talked his way into her
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
hospital room.
In his memoirs, Diefenbaker did not mention the elder Atherton's initial approach but wrote that he was in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
at a parliamentary conference at the time of the Canoe River crash. An Australian lawyer pointed out the case to Diefenbaker; he thought it interesting but noted that he was not a member of the
Law Society of British Columbia
The Law Society of British Columbia is the regulatory body for lawyers in British Columbia, Canada.
Purpose
The society's primary mandate under the ''Legal Profession Act'' is to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of ...
. Diefenbaker wrote that he planned to meet Edna in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
on his way back from Australia. Instead she wired him, requesting that he meet her in Vancouver.
Diefenbaker related that he found his wife in a Saskatoon hospital, in the final stages of the illness that would kill her (she died on February 7, 1951). She told him that Jack Atherton had been to see her and that the soldiers' deaths were from being transported in wooden train cars. "Everyone in the CNR is running away from responsibility for what appears to have been a grievous disregard for human lives." John Diefenbaker objected that the
bar examination
A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.
Australia
Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ...
in British Columbia was notoriously difficult and that the application fee was $1,500 (). Edna Diefenbaker informed her husband, "I told him you'd take it", and eventually her husband gave in.
Atherton was arrested for manslaughter on January 9, 1951, in Saskatoon and was taken to Prince George by the RCMP. After his dismissal by the CNR, Atherton was staying with his parents at Zealandia, where his father was CNR station agent.
The manslaughter charge concerned the death of Henry Proskunik,
fireman
A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...
aboard the troop train.
Bail was set at $5,000 (), and Magistrate P. J. Moran required any sureties to appear before him, making it difficult for Atherton's connections in Saskatchewan to obtain his release.
Atherton was released from custody on January 24, as Prince George furniture store owner Alex Moffat and local CNR employee William Reynolds each posted sureties valued at $2,500 ().
After his wife's death in February 1951, Diefenbaker travelled to Vancouver in early March to take the British Columbia bar examination, which the Prince George ''Citizen'' called "a formality which will cost him $1500".
(Failure to pass the bar would effectively disqualify Diefenbaker from the Atherton case because he would have to wait for reexamination, and the preliminary hearing was set for mid-March.) He paid his fee and was then given an oral examination by the bar secretary, which in full was:
Diefenbaker was then congratulated for being the first applicant to pass the British Columbia bar exam with a perfect score.
Hearings and trial
The preliminary hearing began on March 13, 1951, and lasted three days, during which
the Crown
The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...
called 20 witnesses. Diefenbaker alleged that the rules of the CNR did not require that the telegraph operator listen to the repeat of his message, but merely recommended that he should. Nevertheless, Diefenbaker's motion to dismiss was unsuccessful and Atherton was committed for trial before the
Supreme Court of British Columbia
The Supreme Court of British Columbia is the superior trial court for the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Court hears civil and criminal law cases as well as appeals from the Provincial Court of British Columbia. There are 90 judici ...
(a trial-level court).
Manslaughter was a charge for which the accused did not have the option of a speedy trial before a county court judge, and Atherton's case was set for the Spring Assizes in Prince George.
The trial began on May 9, 1951. Colonel Eric Pepler, a World War I veteran and British Columbia's deputy attorney general, led for the Crown while Diefenbaker led for the defence. To a CNR official on the stand, Diefenbaker said, "I suppose the reason you put these soldiers in wooden cars with steel cars on either end was so that no matter what they might subsequently find in Korea, they'd always be able to say, 'Well we had worse than that in Canada'."
Colonel Pepler objected, stating that Diefenbaker had not asked a question. Diefenbaker responded, "My Lord, it was made clear by the elevation of my voice at the end of the sentence that there was a great big question mark on it." The judge, Justice A.D. McFarlane, began to rule, but Pepler interjected, "I want to make it clear that in this case we are not concerned about the death of a few privates going to Korea."
Pepler intended to remind the judge that Atherton was charged in relation to the death of only the troop train fireman, but Diefenbaker pounced: "Oh, you're not concerned about the killing of a few privates? Oh, Colonel!"
Diefenbaker recounted that a veteran, sitting on the jury, expressed shock at Pepler's comment, and Diefenbaker lost no opportunity during the rest of the trial to address Pepler as "Colonel".
The two lead counsel clashed again during their final addresses to the jury, with Pepler objecting to Diefenbaker's use of testimony from the preliminary hearing. Justice McFarlane stated to Pepler, "I do not think you should object like this", and when Pepler persisted, the judge "roared" at him, "Please, just stop this."
Diefenbaker stated, "I sat and suffered while my learned friend misconstrued the evidence" and when he noticed Pepler muttering under his breath, said to him, "You are growling", to which Pepler replied, "Yes I am growling. I am objecting too."
Diefenbaker suggested to the jury that the silence on the line which had, he contended, swallowed the words "at Cedarside" might have been caused by a fish dropped on a snow-covered line by a bird and claimed to have evidence of a previous occurrence. He noted in his memoirs that the incident "was not well documented, but it was all we had". He blamed the disaster on Tisdale, stating that lack of the word "at" before "Gosnell" in the order indicated that the Kamloops dispatcher had not been paying attention, and that he should have noticed that, according to Diefenbaker, the words "at Cedarside" were missing from Atherton's repeat of the order.
The trial had taken four days; the lawyers argued for five hours; Diefenbaker's summation took three of them. Justice McFarlane took an hour to charge the jury.
McFarlane told the jurors that if they believed that Atherton had passed the order to conductor Mainprize in the same form he had received it, they would be justified in acquitting him. The jury returned after 40 minutes of deliberations. Jury foreman Fred Mounkley announced the acquittal of Atherton, as Atherton's mother wept.
Aftermath

The CNR adopted the inquiry recommendations, installing block signalling in the area of the accident.
In 1953, it modernised its passenger fleet, ordering 302 new cars.
In later years, the line was rerouted to eliminate the sharp curve on which the disaster took place.
Atherton went to work for the
Saskatchewan Transportation Company and settled in Saskatoon.
Pepler retired in 1954, having served 20 years as British Columbia's deputy attorney general. He subsequently served as one of British Columbia's commissioners on uniform provincial laws
and embarked on a revision of the rules of the British Columbia Supreme Court before dying on November 16, 1957, at age 66 in a suburban Vancouver hospital.
Diefenbaker had represented Atherton at his own expense, though donations from railroad employees reimbursed him for about half his costs. The case had been followed throughout Canada's railway community, and on his return to Ottawa, Diefenbaker was widely congratulated for his victory.
By 1957, he had become
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...
and
Progressive Conservative Party leader, and when he campaigned in Saskatchewan during
that year's election, Atherton travelled to
Regina to greet him, skipping his own wedding rehearsal.
As Diefenbaker campaigned in British Columbia, the Vancouver ''Sun'' reported on the large, enthusiastic crowds he gathered, and noted that he remained well remembered in Prince George for his defence of Atherton.
Diefenbaker's biographer, Denis Smith, wrote of the Atherton case:
Diefenbaker had won a popular victory, redeemed his promise to Edna, and endeared himself for life to Jack Atherton and his fellow railway workers. The case was celebrated in the press and became one of his major political assets.
Diefenbaker won the election and, on June 21, 1957, became
Prime Minister of Canada
The prime minister of Canada () is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons ...
.
Memorials and tributes
The RCHA suffered more casualties in the crash than it did in its first year of fighting in Korea. A monument to the soldiers who died stands at
CFB Shilo
Canadian Forces Base Shilo (CFB Shilo; ) is an operations and training base of the Canadian Armed Forces, located east of Brandon, Manitoba, Brandon, Manitoba and adjacent to Sprucewoods. During the 1990s, Canadian Forces base, Canadian Forces ...
(as Camp Shilo has been redesignated), where a memorial parade is conducted each year on the anniversary of the crash.
It was dedicated on November 21, 1952.
A memorial
cairn
A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ).
Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...
was erected near the crash site by the regiment in 1987. A special remembrance was held in Valemount for the 60th anniversary of the disaster in 2010.
The CNR has also raised a monument near the site of the disaster.
The names of the military dead are inscribed in the Korea
Book of Remembrance
A book of remembrance is a book commemorating those who have died, usually listing their names in date or alphabetical order. They are often compiled to commemorate war dead and others who have died on military operations. Another use is to com ...
and are also on the
Wall of Remembrance in Brampton, Ontario; they may also be found on the Korea Cairn at Winnipeg Brookside Cemetery. Manitoba has named a lake for Gunner William D. Wright, who died in the crash.
The dead were not given posthumous
Canadian Volunteer Service Medals as they never reached the Korean theatre; Tom Boutillier, a survivor of the crash, considered that an injustice and campaigned for medals to be awarded. In November 2003, Boutillier and other survivors looked on as five relatives of those killed in the crash received the
Memorial Cross
A memorial cross (sometimes called an intending cross) is a cross-shaped memorial to commemorate a special event or an incident, typically where one or more people died. It may also be a simple form of headstone to commemorate the dead.
File
I ...
, with other relatives to receive the medal later.
See also
*
List of rail accidents in Canada
Worst railway accidents
Other major railway accidents
See also
*List of deadliest Canadian traffic accidents
*List of disasters in Canada
Footnotes
References
*
External links
*
{{Railway accidents and incidents in Canada
Lists o ...
*
List of rail accidents (1950–1959)
This is a list of rail accidents from 1950 to 1959.
1950
* January 29 – ''India'' – At Sirhind, a goods train and a mail train collide, killing 63 people, about half of them soldiers.
* February 17 – ''United States'' – Rockville Cen ...
References
Explanatory notes
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Canoe River Train Wreck Valemount & Area Museum exhibit, including contemporary photographs of the wreck (Canada's Virtual Museum)
Diefenbaker for the defence excerpt from 1979 CBC radio program about the Atherton case (CBC Digital Archives)
Canoe River Memorial 2010 community television news report on one of the memorials (Valemount Community TV on YouTube)
{{Featured article
1950 in Canada
Accidents and incidents involving Canadian National Railway
Disasters in British Columbia
John Diefenbaker
Canada in the Korean War
Railway accidents in 1950
Train collisions in Canada
Trials in Canada
Robson Valley
1950 in British Columbia
November 1950 in Canada
1950 disasters in Canada