Blast investigation snuffed out

A local family has given up what little hope they had in Mexican authorities now that charges have been dropped in the blast that killed their son.

What they do have left is a new resolve to live a positive life, especially for the grandson conceived at the resort where Malcolm Johnson died.

In November, Johnson and his fiancee Heather Pynten got married and days later celebrated the first birthday of their daughter, all at the Grand Riviera Princess resort in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun.

On Nov. 14, as Johnson was going to grab a coffee, a gas leak somewhere in the hotel's bowels ignited an explosion that killed the 33-year-old, along with four other Canadians and two Mexicans. more than a dozen more were injured.

The fault was found to be an improperly installed gas pipe that was also improperly inspected. Judge Nicolas Pinzon ruled last week that the charges should have been filed against the workers themselves, not hotel management, and dismissed the case.

"What does that say?" said Johnson's mother Lynda Huolt, who openly questioned not only Pinzon's integrity but the entire Mexican judicial system. "Everyone knows it was a homicide. Everyone knows there should be charges laid. We have no recourse now."

In his ruling, Pinzon said the case belonged in the civil courts where victims could sue the hotel stakeholders involved. Huolt said this was a nonstarter.

"We would have to go to Mexico, be on their turf, and that is not a safe or wise thing to do," she said. "It is not safe in Mexico, it is corrupt, and it is especially unsafe if you are there to sue someone. You might as well run in circles. It would be different if it were Vancouver or Edmonton, but this is Mexico."

She said no help has been forthcoming from the federal government, despite Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman Alain Cacchione publicly stating Canada's disappointment in the legal decision.

Johnson didn't know he would be the father to a baby boy nine months later, and that baby boy will never know his father so, said Huolt, it was up to family and friends to instill Johnson's character in him and his young sister.

The job will be easier with the extended family that has rallied around them, Huolt said. The city of Prince George where Johnson grew up and graduated from PGSS, and the city of Nanaimo where he has lived for the past 10 years as a real estate agent have both been overwhelming in their support, she said.