‘We are truly sorry’: Ontario apologizes for role in McIntyre Powder experiment – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – November 30, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Province acknowledges its role in debunked practice during Nov. 30 delivery in Legislative Assembly

With miners and family members looking on, the Province of Ontario officially apologized Wednesday for its role in exposing underground hard rock miners to aluminum dust during their work in Northern Ontario over a span of nearly four decades.

The Nov. 30 address delivered on a promise House Leader Paul Calandra made last spring that the province would acknowledge its failure to protect miners who were forced to inhale McIntyre Powder as a condition of employment — a practice that was endorsed by the government of the day and later proven to be not only useless, but harmful.

Labour Minister Monte McNaughton led the apology on behalf of the Legislature, calling it “long overdue.” “While we know that an apology will not bring your loved ones back, it will not ease the pain and sadness so many of you have faced, this tragedy should not have happened to you,” McNaughton said, directly facing the roughly 30 people gathered in the gallery who had travelled from Northern Ontario to be there.

“It should not have happened to your loved ones, and to each and every one of you, on behalf of the people of Ontario, we are truly sorry.” McIntyre Powder was created in 1943 by mining executives and doctors employed by McIntyre Mine in Timmins as a way to prevent silicosis, a debilitating lung disease common among underground miners at the time.

For the rest of this article: https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/industry-news/mining/we-are-truly-sorry-ontario-apologizes-for-role-in-mcintyre-powder-experiment-6177500