Friday, April 28 is the National Day of Mourning.
Ceremonies will be held across the country to mourn workers lost to workplace illness and injury.
A statement from Margaret Bourgoin, president of the Quinte Labour Council calls on people to honour the dead by defending the living.
Bourgoin’s statement reads that there are approximately 1,000 workplace deaths in Canada each year.
In 2021, there were over 27,000 accepted claims for time off due to workplace illness or injury.
She also says workplace incident investigations are still not treated with necessary urgency or importance and that the country’s unions will keep pushing for workplace incidents causing serious injury or death to be investigated for possible criminal negligence, to ensure those responsible are held accountable.
Read the full statement below:
National Day of Mourning: honour the dead by defending the living
By: Margaret Bourgoin, President, Quinte Labour Council
Each year, on April 28, workers and their families come together at National Day of Mourning ceremonies across Canada, to mourn workers lost to workplace illness and injury.
And each year, Canada records roughly 1,000 workplace deaths. There were over 27,000 accepted claims for time off due to workplace illness or injury in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.
Let me be clear: these numbers are unacceptable. Yet every year, the number of workers injured, made sick or killed at work increases. For all the advancements we’ve made around occupational health and safety in Canada, somewhere, something is falling short.
All workers deserve to go home at the end of their workday. Their families and loved ones should have been able to hug them as they walked through the door, instead of getting the call no one ever wants to get, and hearing that their loved one wouldn’t be coming home.
We know that workplace incident investigations are still not treated with necessary urgency or importance. Canada’s unions have long called for all cases of workplace death to be investigated as criminal, until it can be determined without a doubt that there was no wrongdoing. We will keep pushing for workplace incidents causing serious injury or death to be investigated for possible negligence, to ensure those responsible are held accountable.
However, Canada’s unions also want to ensure that workers are supported and feel empowered to stand up for their health and safety rights at work. We want to ensure that workers are equipped with the proper knowledge and tools to safely do their jobs and to call out infractions when they see them. The most powerful tool to make work safer is a health and safety committee with educated and empowered workers protecting their fellow workers and holding employers to account. Employers must resource and respect these committees.
Workers should never be in a position where they feel the need to perform unsafe work or risk losing their jobs. Occupational health and safety is a collective responsibility and Canada’s unions are committed to standing behind workers in knowing their rights, using the tools and defending our hard fought health and safety wins.
We will continue to educate and empower workers to stand up to employers who would risk workplace safety in order to cut corners and save a few dollars. We will honour those who died or were injured at work by defending our rights and fighting for the living.
