The collision killed 21 people: 17 Canadian soldiers en route to the Korean War and the two-man locomotive crew of each train.

A telegraph operator, Alfred John "Jack" Atherton, was charged with manslaughter; the Crown alleged that he was negligent in passing an incomplete message.

On November 21, 1950, a westbound troop train, Passenger Extra 3538 West—consisting of the S-2-a class 2-8-2 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.

It was carrying 23 officers and 315 men of 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (RCHA) for deployment to the Korean War, a movement dubbed Operation Sawhorse.

2, the eastbound Continental Limited, consisted of the U-1-a class 4-8-2 steam locomotive 6004 and eleven all-steel cars and was en route from Vancouver to Montreal.

After the 1947 Dugald rail accident, the Board of Transport Commissioners had ordered that wooden passenger coaches not be placed between all-steel cars.

)[6] Tisdale dictated the order from his office in Kamloops, British Columbia, 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.

[7] 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.

[13] 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.

[9] At the moment of the crash, two soldiers, Gunners William Barton and Roger Bowe, both of Newfoundland, were buying cigarettes at the newsstand aboard the train.

[18] 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.

[16] 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.

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.

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.

No heating was available on the troop train until the arrival of the emergency locomotive from Red Pass Junction, and no blood plasma had been brought on the hospital train—none was available until the injured reached Jasper.

[36] 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.

[39] Diefenbaker declined the case, stating that Parliament had first call on his time, that his wife Edna was seriously ill with leukemia, and that he was not admitted as a lawyer in British Columbia.

[38] In his memoirs, Diefenbaker did not mention the elder Atherton's initial approach but wrote that he was in Australia 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.

[41][42] Bail was set at $5,000 (equivalent to $57,000 in 2023[33]), 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.

[43] 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 (equivalent to $28,000 in 2023[33]).

[44][45] After his wife's death in February 1951, Diefenbaker travelled to Vancouver in early March to take the British Columbia bar examination,[46] which the Prince George Citizen called "a formality which will cost him $1500".

[43] (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.)

[1][47] 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.

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,[49] 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.

"[1] 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?

[41] 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.

[53] 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.

[64][65] In 2003, as part of Remembrance Week observances for the Canadian Senate, five family members of the soldiers who died in the crash were presented with Memorial Crosses.