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by Stephen Hunt

This week’s April 28 Day of Mourning ceremonies across our district and across Canada will see Steelworker members joining thousands of others in commemorating the lives of our fellow workers who have been killed and injured on the job.

It’s a regular annual event where family members, fellow workers, employers, government officials, regulators, community members and others gather to pay respects to those killed and injured in the workplace.

In the labour movement we use the motto: “Mourn for the Dead – Fight for the Living.” That’s a motto that has held up over time and is very appropriate: we remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and vow to carry on the fight to protect millions of workers who continue to face workplace hazards everyday.

Over the years our union has asked for the enforcement of the Westray Amendments (Bill C-45) to the Criminal Code of Canada, to punish employers that are found to be criminally negligent in workplace deaths.

Our fight for such amendments lasted over 10 years and was the product of lobbying during the 1990s and early 2000’s. The Westray Amendments were enacted into law twelve years after the Westray Mine disaster of 1992, which killed 26 coal miners in Nova Scotia.

Since Bill C-45 was enacted in 2004 there have been about 6,000 workers who have died in Canada. There have been only a few charges laid and only one – a plea-bargained conviction – was made with no jail time for the offending employer.

Late last month our district launched a private prosecution against Weyerhaeuser Company Ltd under the Westray Amendments to the Criminal Code, alleging that the company is criminally responsible for the 2004 death of millworker Lyle Hewer.

Brother Hewer, a member of then USW Local 1-3567, was killed after being directed to clean out a hog at the company’s New West Sawmill division. While doing this task, Hewer was engulfed with wood waste and died a traumatic and horrific death.

The New Westminster Police Service held an investigation and recommended that criminal charges be laid. WorkSafeBC (the Workers Compensation Board of BC) levied it largest fine ever at $297,00 and said that mill management ignored safety concerns and condoned a culture where “complacency in the face of danger became the norm.”

In spite of recommendations from New Westminster police and WorkSafe BC, the Crown chose not to proceed with criminal charges under the Westray amendments.

We are pleased to note that our historic action to privately prosecute this case has been given the approval to go to a “process hearing” in a New Westminster court house where a provincial judge will determine if a trial can proceed.

We believe that the Criminal Code of Canada is important in workplace health and safety and can help us make the societal shift so that workplace deaths and injuries are no longer acceptable or tolerable.

Crown prosecutors are not using the Westray Amendments and we believe the Lyle Hewer case is a clear-cut case that there was negligence on the part of Weyerhaeuser that we believe will meet criminal standards.


Of the some 6,000 workplace deaths since the Westray Amendments were enacted, it is hard to believe that there have not been more criminal charges laid against some employers.

Although workplace safety is a shared responsibility, managers and company officials are ultimately responsible for the health and safety of workers. The prospect of criminal charges can compel employers to live up to their legal responsibilities.

We continue to mourn the terrible loss of Lyle Hewer and the hundred of workers killed each and every year. In the Lyle Hewer case, our union continues to Mourn for the Dead and Fight for the Living.