Melanie Goulet hopes Sudbury mining inquest will give her answers to her own tragedy

A woman whose husband died in a mine north of Thunder Bay has been taking in the coroner's inquest into the deaths of two miners in Sudbury.

Melanie Goulet, who lives in Limoges, Ont., said she is looking for answers to her own tragedy but hopes she doesn't have to wait years like the Fram and Chenier families. 

A jury is looking into the deaths of Jordan Fram and Jason Chenier, two miners who were buried in a run of sand, water and rock while investigating a clogged ore pass at Vale's Stobie mine in 2011.

I ask my husband to help me through every day.- Melanie Goulet

The man who found Chenier's and Fram's bodies is expected to take the stand on Wednesday.

Goulet travelled to Sudbury because she said wants to prepare herself for the inquest that will be called into her husband's death.

Pascal Goulet was a scoop tram operator at the Lac des Iles mine owned by North American Palladium, where he was struck and killed last July by a piece of ore.

Goulet said she is coping with his death by "just taking it day by day."

"I have no choice. I have two daughters to raise, to take care of, to support. I ask my husband to help me through every day," she said.

Crown quizzes Stobie Mine senior employees

At the Sudbury courthouse on Tuesday, she and her father watched as the crown quizzed senior employees on their activities in Stobie Mine in the hours before the 2011 accident.

"To have to re-live everything after three and a half years. I think that is cruel to have to put family members and everybody else through that," she said.

The courtroom heard many questions about safety standards. Much of the cross-examination focused on inconsistent communication about hazards and the movement of a safety barricade, as well as who witnessed excess water and where.

The crown also read evidence on Tuesday of Chenier warning his supervisors about safety issues, saying there was "a substantial amount of water coming in a vent above" an ore pass.