Day of Mourning

Published March 28, 2012 | By OFAAABC

April 28th Day of Mourning 2012

The April 28th Day of Mourning ceremony will be held on the proper date in B.C. We recently learned that the B.C. Federation of Labour is planning to hold its Vancouver ceremony on Saturday April 28th.

The date of April 28th has been recognized informally for many years and formally in British Columbia since 1987 and across Canada since 1991. Over the years labour and community organizations have held events that recognized workers who died as a result of a work incident.

WorkSafeBC announced the official ceremony it hosts in downtown Vancouver will be one day early this year. The Vancouver event will be webcast so that people who can not attend an event in their area can view the ceremony from anywhere in the world.

WorkSafeBC encourages its staff to attend ceremonies and WorkSafeBC has a formal gathering of its Vancouver area enforcement officers in the afternoon to be addressed by Vice-President Betty Pirs.

In our view the WorkSafeBC participation will not be held on April 28th this year as it is on a weekend. In our view a ceremony on Saturday would be more accessible to those affected than a ceremony a day early on a Friday.

We support the BC Federation of Labour decision to hold the Day of Mourning ceremony in Vancouver and throughout the province on Saturday April 28th where possible.

— Board of Directors

— Occupational First Aid Attendants Association of B.C.

— 21 March 2012