A Hydro-Quebec employee who nearly killed a trespasser by opening the floodgates of a dam is expected to return to work soon.

Roland Nadeau, 34, was convicted of criminal negligence and fined $700 on October 2, reported The Montreal Gazette. He was working at a dam on Rivieres-des-Prairies between Laval and Montreal Island in July 1993 when he saw a fisherman sinking his rod at a restricted spot on the bank.

“Mr. Nadeau’s reflex was to say, ‘I’ll show him that he should get out of there,’ so he opened one of the floodgates,” recalled one Hydro manager.

What Nadeau did doubled the flow of water running through the dam in a matter of three seconds, from 150 cubic metres per second to 300.

The ensuing burst of water swept away the fisherman, his wife and a woman sunbathing nearby, unnoticed by Hydro workers. She might have drowned were it not for a passing cyclist who rescued her after discovering her lying unconscious underwater.

Hydro management first suspended Nadeau, then fired him. But a Quebec Labour Department arbitrator ruled last month that punishment was unduly severe. She said a six-month suspension without pay would be enough to dissuade Nadeau from pulling such a stunt again.