This year’s Day of Mourning, which remembers those killed by workplace injuries or disease, will look drastically different than the annual community gatherings to lay flowers and wreaths in B.C.
Since 1997, the BC Federation of Labour, the Business Council of British Columbia and WorkSafeBC have co-hosted a public commemorative ceremony for the Day of Mourning in Vancouver on April 28. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s public event was cancelled.
“There’s no question, it’s going to be a very different kind of commemoration. There’s a lot of comfort to be had by coming together in person and we’re going to miss that,” said Laird Cronk, president of the BC Federation of Labour. “This is a sacred day on our calendar, when we mourn people who have died because of their work. It’s ironic that we’re being kept apart by COVID-19, which is itself a serious threat to workplace safety. But it can’t keep us from joining each other – even if it’s over the Internet — and it can’t keep us from mourning together. And it certainly can’t keep us from sharing our determination to make this a province where every worker comes home from their job safe and healthy at the end of every workday.”
Instead of the usual ceremonies, a video and moment of silence will be shared on April 28 at 10:30 am at dayofmourning.bc.ca to recognize the 140 B.C. workers who died in 2019 as a result of workplace injury or disease. The site also is hosting a digital memorial where people can share memories and photos of their loved ones. And those wishing to print out posters and decals supporting the Day of Mourning can do so at www.dayofmourning.bc.ca/decals/.
Cronk noted the pandemic is teaching Canadians that workplace safety is an absolute necessity, for everyone’s health and well-being.
“Government and employers owe workers the assurance they’ll have the equipment, training and working conditions they need to stay safe, and the financial and job protections they need to be able to stay home when they’re sick,” he said. “We’re telling people their work is essential and asking them to stay on the job in the middle of a deadly pandemic. We’re expressing our thanks every night by banging pots and pans. Now let’s make those thanks meaningful by ensuring those workers come home safe at the end of their shifts.”
Al Phillips, president of the BC Building Trades Council, also reflected on the Day of Mourning taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic, writing that it would be a day to remember those on the frontlines of labour as well.
“We will mark the day placing faith and gratitude in our public health care workers on the frontlines of this pandemic along with the thousands of other workers who, in many different ways, are protecting life as we know it,” said Phillips, in a written statement. “These include grocers and restaurant workers, emergency service personnel, manufacturers of essential goods, construction workers building and maintaining vital infrastructure, transit operators, truck drivers and news media, to name just a few.”
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