“There is nothing fair about it.” Dozens gather for National Day of Mourning

Today, April 28, is the National Day of Mourning, where people across the country recognize and remember people who lost their lives or who became severely injured or ill in the workplace.

About 60 people gathered in Prince George this morning to recognize and mourn the occasion at the foot of Connaught Hill, with multiple speeches given followed by a moment of silence and the lowering of flags to half mast.

“There is nothing fair about it,” said Mike Tasker, an Occupational Safety Officer with WorkSafe BC.

In his time with WorkSafe, Tasker says he has seen “the full spectrum, everything from a 17-year-old girl who was just getting her life going who lost her life in a sawmill accident to a truck driver that was killed on his last shift before retirement… there is no way to make sense of it, it just happens until we collectively decide it can’t happen anymore.”

One small positive in an otherwise sorrowful event was BC is setting record lows for workplace deaths and injury – 161 deaths in 2021 and 181 in 2022 – but Tasker said that is still unacceptable.

“It is essential that collectively, we know our rights and our responsibilities, and when we see something that is unsafe we speak up about it,” he said. “We need to have a voice that things need to get better.”

WorkSafe provided the following statistics in a news release:

• Occupational disease was the number one killer of workers in 2022, claiming the lives of 107 workers, with 61 of those deaths resulting from asbestos exposure.
• A total of 48 workers died from a traumatic injury last year, such as falls from elevation, struck by objects, caught in equipment and/or machinery.
• Motor vehicle incidents claimed the lives of 26 workers in 2022.
• Five young workers died in 2022, highlighting the importance of protecting the most vulnerable members of the workforce.

• Workplace injuries and illnesses also resulted in about 4-million lost days of work in 2022.

For more information, click here.