Snowplow victim Hussein Hassoun’s family deserves apology, Hamilton councillor says

The city should apologize to the grieving loved ones of a 67-year-old Hamilton man who died after a collision with a snowplow on the Red Hill Valley Parkway this past winter, a councillor says.

It was a horrible collision and it may not have been anyone's fault, but we should be apologizing to the family for this tragedy," Coun. Brad Clark said Thursday.

But too often legal nuances" stifle such expressions of humanity, the upper Stoney Creek councillor said.

We forget that there is a family that is in pain, that is suffering."

On Wednesday, police announced an investigation into the collision involving a snowplow that fatally struck Hussein Hassoun, a father of five, had concluded without charges.

But questions over the city's lack of disclosure in relation to the Jan. 17 tragedy remain, raising questions about transparency.

In fact, some councillors say they were provided little information about the collision.

We had no knowledge of any details surrounding liability related to the tragedy," Coun. Sam Merulla said Thursday.

Hassoun was checking for damage on his snowbound van on the Red Hill near the Queenston Road bridge the snowy morning when he was struck. He died in hospital less than two weeks later.

Evidence suggests the driver was unaware the vehicle or driver had been struck" and the legal threshold required to lay a charge was not met," police announced in a news release Wednesday.

Hassoun's grieving family expressed gratitude for police's efforts but also dismay that there were no charges.

It's disappointing in the sense that my father's death does not meet a legal threshold, as if a life should be measured by some abstract metric," daughter Nour said.

From the time of the collision, three weeks passed before police even told the public that it had happened.

Following The Spectator's inquiries, police confirmed the vehicle in question was a snowplow but didn't specify whether it was a city vehicle or contracted. Likewise, the city declined to say, citing a police request not to release information about the collision amid the investigation.

It wasn't until Wednesday that the city and police acknowledged they believe the plow at the centre of the probe was municipally contracted, but stopped short of saying so definitively.

It's not clear why, given the investigation, included GPS data and paint samples sent to Toronto for forensic testing. Further, police do not believe" another vehicle was involved and the probe has closed.

In February, Coun. Russ Powers, whose Ward 5 includes the Red Hill, said he clearly would have preferred ongoing updates" about the investigation. Powers couldn't be reached for comment this week.

Merulla - whose Ward 4 also includes the parkway - said he forwarded an email from a constituent asking about the collision but received a response from staff that only offered generic" legal reasons for withholding information.

I have to call an in camera meeting just to find out if it was our plow on the road," he said. I think that's a little extreme."

Like Clark, Merulla says staff legal concerns are behind the tight communications. It's all liability."

Moreover, the veteran east-end councillor said a bureaucratic fiefdom" is strangling council" when it comes to information, pointing to a judicial inquiry into a buried parkway friction report that this week featured former engineering boss Gary Moore.

In February, The Spectator filed a freedom-of-information (FOI) request asking for any reports or documents and correspondence between city officials and police on the snowplow collision.

Last Friday, the city's FOI manager noted a total of 272 pages of records - 240 from the public works department and 32 from councillors' offices - had been identified.

But due to the ongoing police investigation, and sections dealing with law enforcement, personal information and solicitor-client privilege under provincial privacy legislation, the access to records was denied, the manager said.

On Thursday, Clark, who has pushed for more routine disclosure of public documents, suggested as least some of the files should be released given the conclusion of the police probe, especially for the family's sake.

We need to respond humanely and with empathy. Explain to them what transpired and apologize for it."

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com