AUNDECK OMNI KANING—The National Day of Morning for Persons Killed or Injured in the Workplace takes place tomorrow (April 28) and the Manitoulin North Shore Injured Workers Group will be holding a service at 11 am in the Aundeck Omni Kaning community centre on Highway 540 (beside the Manitoulin Legal Clinic), luncheon to follow.
Speaking at the National Day of Mourning service will be Joanne Wade, who lost her son to a workplace accident on November 9, 1999. “It just doesn’t ever go away,” Ms. Wade said of the sense of loss that hit her family on that fateful day.
A letter to the editor sent to The Expositor by Ms. Wade last week spoke in depth of that tragedy and how it impacted her family. “I really liked the headline that Alicia (Expositor editor Alicia McCutcheon) put on the letter,” she said. “I have had so many people call to tell me how they were impacted by the letter, including my daughter.”
The National Day of Mourning is not only a day to remember and honour those lives lost or injured due to a workplace tragedy, she explained, but also a day to renew the commitment to improve health and safety in the workplace and prevent further injuries, illnesses and deaths.
Since the passage of the Mourning Day Act in 1991, the Canadian flag flies at half-mast on Parliament Hill and on all federal government buildings on April 28.
In observance of the National Day of Mourning, employers and workers find a variety of ways to recognize the day, some light candles, lay wreaths, wear commemorative pins, ribbons or black armbands and pause for a moment of silence at 11 am. Today the Day of Mourning has spread to about 100 countries around the world and is recognized as Workers’ Memorial Day, and as International Workers’ Memorial Day by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Ms. Wade is also active in the Steps for Life, a fundraising event that takes place in various cities each year. This year she will be attending and speaking at the walk in North Bay on May 1.
