‘One death one too many’ – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Star – April 29, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The NDP will throw its support behind a push from community organizations for Ontario to have an inquiry on mining deaths in the province, said provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath during the Workers Day of Mourning in Subury.

“There hasn’t been a review or change to legislation in over 30 years,” said Horwath to a large crowd gathered at the Tom Davies Square council chambers to pay homage to people who have died on the job.

“That’s why we continue to see people’s lives be put at risk in mines, and that’s not acceptable.”

An organization called Mining Inquiry Needs Everyone’s Support (MINES) has lobbied the government to call an inquiry into Ontario mine safety after two miners were killed in Sudbury’s Stobie Mine on June 8, 2011. Since 2007, 11 workers have died on the job in Ontario mines.

“It’s frustrating and damning on all of us that we still have a situation in the province of Ontario where people are not sure they can go to work in the morning and are going to come home in the evening,” Horwath told media after her speech Sunday morning.

Sunday’s ceremony was the 29th International Workers Day of Mourning.

Richard Paquin, the president of Mine Mill Local 598, said in a speech that more than 900 Canadians died due to work-related causes in 2012.

“Work kills more people than wars,” he said.

“One death is one too many.” The day had a special significance for many of the speakers and attendees because Homer Seguin, a long-time health and safety activist and occupational disease specialist with United Steelworkers, died on Friday.

“It’s kind of ironic that that scoundrel planned everything,” said Leo Gerard, the international president of United Steelworkers, in reverence to his friend Seguin. “He even decided to die on the weekend of the Workers Day of Mourning.”

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