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Sentencing for company in deadly propane blast postponed

Dec. 9, 2013, Toronto – The sentencing hearing for an Ontario company convicted in a deadly explosion of a Toronto propane plant has been postponed until March 12.

Sunrise Propane and its directors Shay Ben-Moshe and Valery Belahov were found guilty in June of nine provincial offences related to the 2008 blast that forced thousands of people from their homes.

Twenty-five-year-old employee Parminder Saini died in the blast and a 55-year-old firefighter who responded to the emergency on his day off died of a heart attack.

The court ruled that Sunrise failed to provide safety training and a safe working environment, discharged a contaminant and contravened a number of provincial orders related to the cleanup after the blast.

The court also found that Ben-Moshe and Belahov failed to take all reasonable care to prevent the company from flouting those orders.

Following the blast, the government shut down all three of Sunrise Propane's facilities.