The Grey Bruce Labour Council is hosting some events this weekend to mark National Day of Mourning.
Council Vice President Dave Trumble says they are planning three events to remember workers who have been killed, injured or suffered illness as a result of workplace related hazards.
Two of the events are open to residents to attend.
The first is this Friday morning in Hanover at the Heritage Square at 11 a.m. The second will be on Sunday at the Chesley Community Centre at 10:30 a.m. He says the new Sunday event will be more upscale and will feature politicians and labour leaders. The third will be at Bruce Power on Monday where the council will emcee the event.
“We have got some speakers and food and we are going to commemorate those workers who have been killed,” says Trumble. “It’s our first time we have taken this route and we hope to make this an annual event to get bigger and bigger.”
He says the people who attend the events can expect speakers to talk about the importance of the day, a piper, recognition, a minute of silence, and after the events on Friday and Sunday, they aim to have time for fellowship.
Trumble says based on data from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, a government agency which provides wage-loss benefits, medical coverage and support to those after work-related injuries or illness in Ontario, there are between 60 and 100 deaths annually on average from occupational injuries.
“This would be falls, electrocutions, crushed by, etcetera. What it doesn’t really tell you, is we also have many workers who have been exposed to hazardous substances in the workplace over their working career. When you factor those in, in Ontario we lose about one worker a day from their direct contact or from a legacy issue or latency issue from previous exposure. Across the country, it works out to about 1,000 workers a year,”says Trumble.
He adds due to how the data is presented, he does not have figures for Grey-Bruce, but if the region is similar to the province, the numbers have not changed for a long time.
“We use the Day of Mourning as a launch pad for the message. The message has always been that we have basic rights and we want workers to exercise them and employers to actually recognize and embrace them,” says Trumble. “The overarching sentiment for Day of Mourning has been, mourn for the dead and fight for the living.”
He says the council has been marking National Day of Mourning almost since it became a federally recognized calendar event.
“In 1991, the Government of Canada recognized it and from about that day on, we have had a commemoration in some way of another,” says Trumble.