PoV: Words no longer suffice for [Sudbury mining] tragedy – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – May 7, 2014)

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

We are blessed as a community to live in a mining town, with good jobs and a good lifestyle. But it is a hard truth that we must also live with tragedy. We are horrified when it happens in our mines, but it is equally tragic that we are not shocked.

We have lived with the dangers present in underground’s unforgiving environment for as long as our community has existed.

And so now we mourn two more. Marc Methe, 34, and Norm Bissaillon, 49, died at First Nickel’s Lockerby Mine Tuesday morning after a fall of ground. Methe is said to have become an uncle recently, and devoted to his trade. Bissaillon, an underground miner with two decades of experience, was dedicated to his family.

They are the fifth and sixth employees of mining companies in Sudbury to die on the job in the last three years. And so again, we hear words of sympathy and condolence from industry officials and politicians. They are words we must find a way to stop the need for saying.

We said them for millwright Paul Rochette, 36, who died April 6 when a piece of equipment malfunctioned at the casting and crushing plant in Vale’s smelter. Another miner was badly injured in the incident.

We said those sad words when Stephen Perry, 47, was struck by a large piece of rock while working on a piece of loading equipment underground at Coleman Mine on Jan 29, 2012.

And we said them on June 8, 2011 when Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, died after a run of uncontrolled muck underground at Vale’s Stobie Mine.

A mining community is one with great resolve. It must be. We understand that, both for safety and economic realities. But why is this kind of tragic resolve still necessary more than a century after we started mining here?

It is understood that at a time like this, grieving and reflection takes precedence over all else.

And so it should.

But we surely must turn to why these tragedies keep occurring in our community and find ways -not words -to deal with them.

For the original version of this article, click here: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/05/07/pov-words-no-longer-suffice-for-tragedy