Government

Wise words from one of our favourite safety bloggers: Kevin Jones, of the SafetyatWork blog out of Australia, just wrote about "Safety, Whistleblowers and Media Disinterest." He blogged that he's discouraged by the lack of mainstream media coverage on government support of workplace safety, but understands the reason:

Once again, it's great to be Canadian! Just like I was bragging last week that World Day for Safety and Health at Work was started by Canada and then caught on with many other nations - so, too, is this week's NAOSH event a Canuck-born idea!

NAOSH stands for North American Occupational Safety and Health Week (May 4 - 10). This is the 11th year that the United States and Mexico have recognized the occasion; my country started Canadian Occupational Health and Safety Week way back in 1986.

All around the world today, governments, unions, safety professionals, and - we hope - ordinary civilians like you and me are stopping to remember those men and women who died on the job. In Canada it's called National Day of Mourning; the U.S. calls it Workers Memorial Day, and other nations label it World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

Steve Mahoney, chairman of the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario, challenged the audience: "What is an acceptable number of fatalities [on the job]? Is your number 50 or 25 or 10 deaths per year?" I don't think most of us in that audience had given it much thought, and sometimes it takes courageous leaders to make us stop and wonder what, exactly, is acceptable?

Big news item in my country this week: When to lower the flag to half-mast on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Should it be only on Remembrance Day (as it is now) or every time a Canadian soldier is killed overseas?

I respect the men and women who help keep the peace in strife-torn regions around the world; they are amazing people, and they risk their lives doing their job. But if the government cannot decide on this, I've got an alternative idea...

Let's lower the flag to half-mast every time any Canadian dies on the job.