A large crowd gathered outside Province House in Halifax Friday morning, taking part in a moment of silence to mark the National Day of Mourning for those who lost their lives or suffered injury or illness due to their work.
“These are our fellow Nova Scotians, they’re our people,” said Shelley Rowan, CEO of the Nova Scotia Workers’ Compensation Board, during the ceremony. “One workplace fatality is simply too many.”
In 2022, 24 Nova Scotians died from workplace-related injuries, but Siobhán Vipond, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said those numbers only reflect the fatalities that have been legally accepted.
“Those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg,” Vipond said.
She added there were 5,524 lost-time claims in Nova Scotia accepted by the WCB last year. Lost-time claims are when a workplace injury or illness results in someone not being able to work.
“Prevention measures like proactive inspections, robust enforcement measures, strong health and safety committees and a systemic approach to prevention are absolutely vital in ensuring workers stay safe in their workplace,” Vipond said.
Candace (Candy) Palumbo, who spoke at the ceremony Friday, lost her husband Tony from a workplace-related illness in 2014. Tony Palumbo died from mesothelioma, an incurable lung cancer, after a long career in construction exposed him to asbestos, Candy told the crowd.
“He asked me to stop moving around and doing things,” Candy said of his final day. “To sit with him. He said, ‘You know I love you.’”
Tony died early the next day at the age of 59, after 30 years of marriage.
It was an especially devastating blow, as the Palumbos also lost their 28-year-old son Dylan the previous year, after he was murdered during a break and enter at his apartment in Toronto.
She reflected on what it would be like to have Tony here today.
“I would prefer to hear his meaty political debates with friends in real-time, edit each others’ writing, go on road trips, see what music my audiophile would want to hear now,” she said.
“To have him beside me. To watch our daughter graduate her master’s (degree). To have him listen to my plunking away at piano keys during a lesson. Just to talk to him.”
Vipond said stories like Tony’s are important to our path forward in achieving workplace safety.
“Remember so we can recommit to fight like hell for the living,” she said.
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Vipond also said she wants to see more done when it comes to accountability, saying there should be harsher penalties for employers responsible for workplace deaths.
“Kill a worker, go to jail,” Vipond said, sparking several chants from the crowd.
She added that it’s important to remember how far we’ve come, but also the human cost of those gains.
Colton LeBlanc, minister of Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services, who was attending the ceremony on behalf of Minister of Labour Jill Balser, said the day of mourning is a call to action to ensure a safer workplace for all workers.
“Everyone should come home safe from work,” he said.
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