About a week later, the Nova Scotia government ordered a public inquiry to look into what caused one of Canada's deadliest mining disasters, and published its findings in late 1997.

One hundred and seventeen miners became unemployed almost immediately after the explosion; they were paid 12 weeks' severance six years after the mine's closure, but only when the provincial government was pressured to intervene.

[1] The timing was perfect, politically, since the region had elected a fledgling leader of the federal opposition, Brian Mulroney, in a 1983 by-election in Central Nova.

[4] On September 11, 1991, the mine was opened to great local fanfare, but immediately problems began to surface, when multiple roof collapses occurred within the first few months.

[7] In November 1991, coal miner Carl Guptill made safety complaints to labour ministry inspectors, but they were not investigated, and he was fired in January 1992 for making his claims.

[3] In the wake of the explosion, Canadian and international media coverage descended upon the tiny hamlet of Plymouth and the nearby towns of New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville and Trenton.

[10] Over the next several days, media reported non-stop from a community centre located across the road from the mine, while rescue teams encountered extremely hazardous conditions underground.

[11] After underground conditions worsened, the decision was made to abandon recovery efforts, entombing the bodies of 11 miners in the depths of the mine.

[14] On September 17, RCMP investigators re-entered the mine with a draeger team to gather evidence for criminal prosecution, and managed to enter the "southwest main" shaft where the remaining miners' bodies were located and the explosion's suspected epicentre.

[17] Two of the mine's managers, Gerald Phillips and Roger Parry,[18] were charged with 26 counts of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.

[22] On June 9, 1995, the charges were stayed by Justice Anderson on the grounds that prosecutors had deliberately failed to disclose key evidence to the defence.

[19] Two years after the Supreme Court ordered a new trial, prosecutors decided not to further pursue the charges on June 29, 1999, because they determined there was not enough evidence to secure convictions.

[30] Nova Scotia Chief Justice Constance Glube ruled, on November 13, that the inquiry was unconstitutional, because she viewed it as a criminal investigation that would force deponents to incriminate themselves.

[32] When the inquiry resumed in 1995, Clifford Frame, the founder, principal shareholder, developer and chairman and CEO of Curragh Inc., the company whose subsidiary operated the mine, refused to take the stand and testify.

Using the tactic of having a private member's bill introduced, typically by an MP from the New Democratic Party or the Bloc Québécois, this agenda was advanced.

Each time that the House of Commons was prorogued, the private members bill would die on the order paper, and the process would start again in the next session of Parliament.

[41][42] Conversely, the United Steelworkers, the union that represented the miners and that spearheaded the lobbying effort, touted the law as an important new tool with which to hold accountable corporate leadership in on-the-job disasters.

[40] The memorial's central monument, engraved with the names and ages of the twenty-six men who lost their lives in the disaster states, "Their light shall always shine."

[47] The film included dramatic reenactments by three Westray widows – Harriet Munroe, Vicki Drolet and Bernadette Feltmate – as well as miners Wayne Cheverie, Fraser Agnew and Carl Guptill.