The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The following is a Private Member's Statement spoken by Flin Flon MLA Gerard Jennissen in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, April 28. "Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job. Earlier in the day I joined many Manitobans at the Annual Day of Mourning Leaders' Walk from the Union Centre to the Manitoba Legislature. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the proclamation of the National Day of Recognition and Mourning, a day to remember people who have been killed or made ill or injured in the workplace. In 1984, the Canadian Labour Congress Executive Council declared an annual day of remembrance to publicly renew our commitment to fight for the living and mourn the dead. April 28 was chosen because on this day, third reading took place for the first comprehensive Workers Compensation Act in Ontario in 1914. The NDP MP for Churchill, Rod Murphy, submitted a Private Member's Bill called the Worker's Mourning Day Act. On February 1, 1991, this bill received Royal Assent. On average, every nine seconds a Canadian worker is injured. That is a million people a year. See 'Workers' P.# Con't from P.# Every day, four workers die. Workers between the ages of 15 and 24 are particularly vulnerable. Many of these workers still attend school and work at part-time jobs. Workers' Compensation boards across Canada pay out billions in benefits every year. With the addition of indirect costs such as retraining replacement workers, loss of productivity, damage to equipment, tools and machinery and lowered morale, the annual total cost of occupational injuries to the Canadian economy is over $10 billion, but those are only the dollar costs. The real costs in human pain and suffering are incalculable. That is why the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba, with partners from business and labour, has embarked on an aggressive advertising campaign to make the workplace safer. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ellen Olfert, director of the Safe Workers of Tomorrow, for spearheading today's annual Day of Mourning Leaders' Walk. I also recognize the many students, workers, labour leaders and colleagues of this House who participate in this important walk and the ensuing commemoration ceremony on the steps of the grand staircase of the Legislature."4/30/2004
