This investigative piece by Global Television's 16X9 program on the safety record of West Virginia coal baron Chris Cline -- the man who plans to re-open the Donkin Mine -- should be required viewing for all Cape Bretoners.

The similarities between Cape Breton and Appalachia, where Cline was one of the operators blowing the tops off mountains to reach the coal below, are almost eerie.

“They love this place and they need to make a living, so they will work in these mines," a West Virginia woman, much of whose property was destroyed by a Cline operation, told 16X9 reporters.

“Typically, it's a one-horse economy, and that one-horse economy leads to people sort of getting an attitude that they can in fact operate in the fashion that they like to. And since they're driving the jobs in these communities, they can get away with that," a former top U.S. mine inspector says of the typical community in which Cline operates.

The same inspector, who spent years monitoring Cline's operations, was asked if, given Cline's safety violations, Cape Bretoners should worry about the chance of an accident. He said:

"The fact that there's been 92 violations for one mine in two years, for that same kind of basic maintenance problem, coal dust, suggests one ought to be concerned."

The piece is the work of Gil Shochat, Francesca Fionda and Sandra Bartlett. I highly recommend you watch it.