Canada's Parliament Wants Netflix To Compensate Them For Use Of Rail Disaster Footage

The backlash surrounding the inclusion of real footage from the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in Netflix's Bird Box continues as the Canadian Parliament passed a motion requesting the streaming giant to compensate the town of Lac-Mégantic.

Bird Box used real footage of the accident, which killed 47 people, during an apocalypse sequence near the beginning of the film, sparking controversy in the process. Canadian legislator Pierre Nantel is at the forefront of the efforts to receive compensation for the town in Quebec.

"We know people are going to go and watch this film, and again these real images will be used," said Nantel in a statement. "For the people of Lac-Mégantic, they saw images of their own downtown burning, and could imagine their own families in it."

The motion, which passed unanimously, is not legally binding and rather serves as strong condemnation of Netflix's actions and an effort to prevent it from happening again.

Previously Nathalie Roy, Canada's culture minister, wrote to Netflix asking them to remove the images, which had been obtained from a stock image company and had also been used in their series Travelers.

Netflix's director of global policy Corie Wright then wrote an open letter that said the company was unaware of the footage's source and issued an apology, but said they would not be removing it from the film.