Councillor Linda Nixon addresses a gatherig of about 30 people at the worker’s memorial in Centennial Park on the Workers Day of Mourning on Monday, Apr. 26.
The annual event commemmorates workers who died, were injured or fell ill while at work. This year’s event was hosted by the Revelstoke Forest Workers Society.
Mike Copperthwaite, the general manager of the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation, spoke about improvements in forest worker safety. Deaths in the logging industry reached a high of 43 in 2005 and declined to 11 last year. That is still too many, he said.
Nixon spoke about growing up in Trail, B.C., and seeing people get injured at the smelter there.
Murray Christman, who works for Parks Canada, told the story of a former colleague of his that died after getting kicked by his horse in the Banff National Park backcountry. He didn’t have a radio with him and his death prompted safety changes within Parks Canada.
The speakers were followed by a moment of silence.