Prince George Marks National Day of Mourning
Sunday, April 28, 2013 @ 1:30 PM
(Al Johnson of Worksafe BC addresses workplace fatalities at Prince George ceremony. Photo – 250 News)
Prince George, B.C. – Workers killed or injured on the job, and those who developed workplace-related illnesses, were honoured today, the National Day of Mourning in Canada.
Workers, relatives, union representatives, local and provincial politicians and citizens gathered at the Workers’ Memorial in Prince George, at the foot of Connaught Hill at Queensway and Patricia. They were given a message that they “should be furious that 149 workers died in B.C. in 2012 as a result of workplace accidents or illness.” They also heard how these accidents and illnesses are preventable and should not happen, and that laws have to be enforced to send a message to employers whose negligence is responsible.
The Vice-President of Prevention Services with Worksafe BC, Al Johnson, noted there are 29 such ceremonies taking place in the province this weekend. He thanked the BC labour movement for starting the Day of Mourning in 1984 and spreading it across Canada. Johnson told the assembled crowd “Let me begin on a somber note by stating the painfully obvious. Just over a year ago tragedy struck the Lakeland Mills site in Prince George. Two workers died in the explosion on that site and more than 20 workers were severely injured. Three months earlier tragedy struck another mill not too far from here in Burns Lake, the Babine Mill. Two workers also died in that particular explosion and many others were injured as well. Such events as those two were unprecedented in BC and certainly resulted in an especially tragic year for those who were involved and are still living with the memories of what happened.”
Johnson says Worksafe BC has responded to the events “in a direct and timely manner. We’ve been working with employers, unions and joint health and safety committees across the forest industry to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
He also noted the 145 other people who didn’t return home from work in 2012, “an average of three people dying on the job each and every week. Four of those workers were under the age of 25, just kids really. Fourty-one of them died of traumatic injuries caused by a workplace incident, primarily in construction, in the bush or one of the other 500-thousand workplaces that workers work at each and every day. 22 of them died in motor vehicle accidents and 86, that’s 60%, were the result of occupational disease, primarily asbestos.” And he said sadly, the percentage of those dying from occupational diseases is rising and will continue to rise in the years to come.
Johnson says people shouldn’t lose their life simply by getting up in the morning, wanting to go to work and put bread and butter on the table.
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