Face of Nation : CEO of the company providing freight and passenger services to coastal Labrador says serious safety concerns — including drunkenness, public sex acts and fist fights — prompted an alcohol ban aboard the Kamutik W and controversial dockside searches. Peter Woodward also dismissed suggestions that the stepped-up security was racially motivated.
“We had no choice but to start searching bags and restricting people from having access to alcohol while they were on board the ship,” Peter Woodward, CEO of the Woodward Group of Companies, told CBC News Friday afternoon.
Woodward said he was blindsided Friday by a decree from Premier Dwight Ball that any further searches would be discontinued.
“All I can say is I must assume that the province is going to accept the responsibility for the actions of some of the passengers on board the ship,” said Woodward, reached in Halifax by telephone. Labrador Marine began offering a new ferry service to coastal Labrador this year, using the like-new Kamutik W.
The service is based in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and serves communities north to Nain. The vessel typically departs on Monday, and returns on Friday.
