Ontario, Canada: Workers' Memorial Day Activities 2006

Over a hundred 28 April events planned in Canada’s province of Ontario

OFL: Labour Councils in Ontario, together with the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), Occupational Health Clinics, and other institutions in the largest of Canada’s ten provinces have mapped out an impressive range of events to mark 28 April in the country where the Day originated.

Activities will include over 100 ceremonies, to be held on street corners and squares, in public buildings and community centres, and at monuments, with mayors, national union presidents, health & safety specialists, injured workers, and local activists making presentations.

In addition, there will be dozens of other special observances and functions in individual unions, presentations at universities that host occupational health & safety programmes, training seminars and group discussions, volunteer activist dinners, ceremonies to rededicate Workers’ Monuments erected many years ago, religious services, and speeches on subjects ranging from chemical hazards to women’s rights, to name a few.

To provide a few examples: organizers in the petrochemical centre of Sarnia are dedicating activities to the Victims of Chemical Valley, which will include a Ceremonial Dove release, an unveiling of the “Links to Life” family tree & “The Long Journey”, with ceremonial Aamjiwnaang dancers. Everyone attending the ceremony in Thunder Bay is asked to bring Red Roses to commemorate all workers who suffered an injury or fatality at work, or who contracted a work-related disease.

The Quinte Labour Council has teamed with Canadian Blood Services to sponsor a number of Blood Donation clinics. And at the Day of Mourning Ceremony in St. Catherines, one of four special ceremonies will take place beneath St. Catharines’ Skyway, in memory of workers killed during a construction project on that roadway.

Contact: Vern Edwards, Occupational Health & Safety Representative at info@ofl.ca