Hundreds of people filled Jack Poole Plaza outside the Vancouver Convention Centre yesterday for the 26th annual Day of Mourning, honouring workers killed on the job.
“It is fitting that we’re gathered here today … Jack Poole died recently just as he was about to finish the great work … for the Olympic Games,” said Dave Anderson, president and CEO of WorkSafeBC.
Last year in B.C., more than 94,000 workers were injured and 121 died as a result of workplace injury, disease or illness.
Anderson said that since 1990, job sites have been made 70 per cent safer.
“But statistics mean nothing to families of a deceased worker,” he added.
Lisa Arlint, whose father died on the job in 2005, said she thinks about him all the time, especially at milestones such as her wedding, buying her first home and the birth of her first child.
Her father died five days before Christmas when he was crushed on the job, under a tree.
“I remember shopping on Boxing Day for clothes to bury my dad in. That was the saddest Christmas ever,” said Arlint.
